Saturday

Barcode, Wollongong

Tickets: $10 at the door

Electro band Pigeon's first few years as a band were the stuff of young musos' dreams.

Playing at festivals including Splendour in the Grass, Fat as Butter and Parklife, supporting bands such as Van She and getting their first EP to debut in the top 10 of the Australian iTunes Electronic charts are all great achievements for a burgeoning band.

But when frontman Danny Harley listens to their first EP now, he doesn't really like what he hears.

"We thought we were geniuses at the time, but to me now it's the sound of a confused band," he says.

"We had all sorts, we had dubstep and rapping and reggae mixed in with electro, and we still do a bit of changing between genres, but it's not nearly as much and it's all based around electro pop and bit more song-y, less novelty and more cohesive."

Their second EP Fortunes was released last month and Harley thinks the five Brisbane boys have done a much better job because their confidence has grown and their skills have improved.

Their first single from the record, Oh Hebe, has reached number three on the Triple J Unearthed charts.

Harley also attributes their musical improvement to the fact electro pop was a new genre to him and the rest of the band back then.

Playing in more traditional bands for most of his high school years, he only got into electro about three years ago.

Although the boys are still fans of sitting down and jamming with guitars to write a song, Pigeon now relies more on their computers to come up with interesting sounds and pieces of music that have more to offer than a guitar chord, he says.

With Harley and drummer Nick Kirk holding down day jobs at a recording studio, they have plenty of opportunities to experiment with different synths and sounds.

"We really enjoy it because it's something a bit different for us, we like playing around with all these different sounds you wouldn't usually get in the studio," he says.

"I love hearing an unfamiliar texture or hearing things where I don't quite know how it happened. I like that intrigue.

"Just recently we've found a whole palette of different sounds, so you're not bound by what you can do on a guitar."

He says the key to this genre is constant energy and to always play your songs live, never allowing the computer to become the focus of a live performance.

Although their forays into recording have been successful, Pigeon is in no hurry to release a long-play album any time soon.

"EPs are more relevant to today's music format," Harley argues.

"You don't have to release an album, people download more song by song and stream a bit more, so releasing fewer songs is OK.

"I'd still love to do it for artistic reasons - to have a big piece of work, a masterpiece, something you could sink your teeth into - but I wouldn't want to do it just yet."