Canberra indie-electronic band Readable Graffiti are playing at Yours and Owls on Friday.
READABLE GRAFFITI
Yours and Owls
Friday
Tickets: yoursandowls.com.au
Chris Readable admits he is amused by the sight of a rock band loading a drum kit into a truck to go on tour.
Lack of heavy instruments is a big advantage for indie-electronic band Readable Graffiti, he says.
"It's a good set-up because we don't have drums so it's easy to transport laptops around," Readable says.
"Every time I see a drum kit being loaded into a truck for a tour I have a chuckle to myself."
The lads from Canberra will be playing their first Wollongong gig later this month as part of the Sonny & Cher Tour to support their new Male Mood Swings EP.
Readable's other half of the band is Christian Graffiti and the two are joined by vocalist Buttons Machiavelley. Readable and Graffiti's roles are described as knob twiddler and dial tweaker respectively.
"The EP reflects the reality of our vocalist's life at the time," Readable jokes about the EP's title.
Friends since school, the trio's inspiration has ridden waves from techno through to Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins, with the latest influences from bands such as Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem.
"We try to take dance music and put it into a rock-pop context."
The band has received airplay on triple j and has performed at Groovin the Moo, You Are Here Festival and Summer Rhythm Festival.
The trio took time out last year to stay at Mollymook for a few days to put together some material for the EP, which they described as "forged in the fires of immaturity".
Readable says all three collaborate in the songwriting process, with Machiavelley taking care of the lyrics.
Although Readable says the three like hanging out at the beach, surfing doesn't necessarily come into the holiday picture.
"I just like hanging out the back lying on my board. Standing up seems to be showing off and I think it's really unnecessary."
In addition to the dance music fused with rock and pop, Readable Graffiti's gigs also have a theatrical element.
"The theatrics is largely me wearing stupid clothes and Buttons dancing a Peter Garrett-as-a-kid dance," Readable says.
"He takes over the stage and we give him the space."