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 liars interview and session
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.True confessions. Bands tend to follow a well-trodden path: bunch of kids start out writing straight up rock'n'roll songs about getting laid and misbehaving, get a bit older, and before you know it they're producing free-form noise albums on the theme on German philosophy or witchcraft. It's the path walked by LA trio Liars, with one crucial exception: they've done it all backwards.Reflecting on their fourth, self-titled album, frontman Angus Andrew decides, "it's like Junior High School. It's got a lot of teenage angst and melodrama in it. It's a fun record." He breaks into a broad grin, six feet and six inches of gawky Australian enthusiasm. "It's our pop statement – we made songs that we hoped would connect with people. We utilised every pop idea we could think of."  "It's about never growing up – I think that's why we're all here," agrees guitarist Aaron Hemphill. Their exuberance is a far cry from the last time they met up with Collective, when they were preoccupied by film projects and 9/11 conspiracy theories. And yet, somehow, the melodic U-turn is a logical step for a band who set out to constantly defy expectations. Drummer Julian Gross inadvertently reveals that theirs is quite a, well, conceptual take on the concept-free pop record. "I think there is some kinda nostalgia," he muses. "I guess a decade later you can look back at when you're 18, and it's a whole different world." The crucial thing about the new Liars record is that it's given the band a chance to cut loose and switch between genres on a single album, even replicating Beck's West Coast shuffle on Houseclouds. Some of the clatter - if not the wailing and white noise – of previous albums is still present, but there's also a new set of 80s pop influences. "We're like everyone else," explains Andrew. "We listen to The Cure, The Smiths and Siouxsie & The Banshees. We just wanted to show people those kind of bands were our influences too, not just, um, sound."  Eighteen months ago Liars were in an exile of sorts, living in Berlin because it was economically viable to tour their brand of cathartic art rock around Europe but not the States. Work on the new album began shortly after Hemphill and Gross returned to their native LA, infusing the songs with homecoming energy, even though Andrew stayed in Germany to write the other half. "It's not as weird as it sounds," he explains. "Aaron and I have always worked alone, then come together to record." The recording process was deliberately quick – just a fortnight over the new year, in an old Communist recording facility in East Berlin, then over to the UK, to Dartmoor, for mastering: "It's a nice area. It was a good time." "The pies were pretty good too," adds Gross. "The meat pies." Despite turning in a blistering session for Collective in London's Madame JoJo's sex club (see the accompanying film), the band's focus is now firmly Stateside, with Andrews relocating to join his bandmates. "What will happen in America? We don't know. We've just made a commercial video," he breaks into a smile, "which is a little different to the kind of videos we've made previously. We shot that in Hollywood and the whole bit, and Paris Hilton was there. Everything seems like coming home."
David Jones
Liars - Liars, released 20 August 07 on Mute.
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