~ I think it’s tough to describe anything with genres ~

After releasing two stellar albums, Oh Inhuman Spectacle (2015) and Everything is Forgotten (2017) Methyl Ethel has certainly found a way into the ears and minds of modern music fans. Songs such as Ubu, Drink Wine and Twilight Driving have thrust Methyl Ethel into popularity in the Australian and Worldwide music scene. Coming up on the release of Methyl’s third album titled Triage I spoke with Jake Webb, the man behind the Methyl Ethel vehicle and discussed the new album and a little bit in between.

It’s a crisp Tuesday afternoon and I dial Jakes phone number, we, unfortunately, don’t have the luxury to conduct the interview in-person, so a phone interview will suffice. After a few rings he answers the phone in a polite manner “Hello” he says “Hey Jake, how’s it going” I ask, “good” he replies. We waste no time with small talk and get right into the interview.

Originally started as a recording project, Jake is surprised at the height Methyl Ethel has gotten to. I ask him if he thought it would get to were it is at now, “No, definitely not, not at all” he answers firmly. “It’s funny because when I get back into recording, it still feels like a continuation of what I was doing at the beginning, but I sort of just got better at doing it”.

Hailing from and currently residing in the Perth area, Webb is surrounded by a hotbed of musical activity which he claims influence his drive and inspiration to make music, “I think everyone who I have sort of learnt from and have seen making music have a certain drive. Even to this day, people who have kind of gone on to bigger and better things in a way seem to be working just as hard as they ever were. You know you hear something here and there and it sort of forces/compels you to keep working”.

He keeps his music to himself and usually behind closed doors when working on a new project though, “I stay indoors with my music, with being paranoid that everyone else is doing the same thing” he tells me. “If I spend too much time away from making music, I feel like I’m kind of falling behind”.

When describing Methyl’s sound Webb is realistic, “I think it’s tough to describe anything with genres, it comes loaded. I would just call it pop music because I think it’s the way it’s structured, the music I’ve made for this project I think is pop music”. He tries not to pigeonhole himself but it’s obvious he understands his music sits somewhere within a genre guideline.

Triage is Methyl Ethel’s third full-length release and features a mixture of recording styles, fresh lyrics and the experimental pop sound Methyl Ethel have become known for. The theme of the new album is “right there in the title” Webb says, making sure I understand there is no hidden meaning or concept with the album. “In my mind, I’m just refining what I have already been doing” describing Triage as a continuation of what Methyl Ethel has already done. “I think for me the thing that drives me is that I really enjoy making music. It’s addictive, every time I finish a song, or a record and I look back at it, the only thing I think how I could improve it is just by doing it better next time”.

He describes the recording process for Triage as a mixture of methods, “Part of it was writing on the road while away, so that’s how I recorded things in bedrooms or hotel rooms. But there is a studio in London that my record label has so I recorded in there. I also have a studio at my house so a lot of it was done there as well. I also mixed it in London in another studio so it’s kind of all pieced together over a long period of time”.

We discuss lyrical differences between the new album and his previous work. Webb informs me that the lyrics on this album are a bit leaner and that he “tried to say more with less”. I question him if the lyrics are ambiguous, “If there ambiguous there not ambiguous to me. I spent quite a lot of time writing for this record” he answers. “Before the lyrics didn’t take on as much of responsibility because I was more so just producing the music. But now that I’m out there sort of preaching these lyrics I wanted them to have a depth to them”.

I tell Webb that the first single released for the album Scream Whole I think sounds like an ode to 80’s synth pop with a slice of Bryan Ferry thrown in there. He’s quick to shut my comparisons down but does so in a kind-hearted manner, “I don’t think it sounds like 80’s synth pop” and he deflects the Bryan Ferry comment “there is a bit in there when I sing with my best sort of David Bowie impersonation, that maybe leans towards that, but for me I wasn’t trying to make it sound like anything other than how I like things to sound”.

Webb is not shy to tell me about the direction of the new video, “We just took a couple of themes in the song and extrapolated them out and in a way it’s kind of self-referential to a lot of the imagery we have had over the last few years. It’s the third album so you can kind of start looking back and referencing things kind of like little Easter eggs for people who have been paying attention”. Granting a little gift for the more dedicated fans.

Webb regards the evolution of Methyl Ethel’s music from the first album until now as not so much a musical evolution but more of a personal revelation, “I think I’ve learned now that you can be experimental but still maintain within the margins of what a pop song can be. You don’t have to have a lot of weird space or noise or ambience to be experimental” and that the writing process for Methyl differs from time to time “It’s sort of always different because after I come up with something, I don’t think Eureka I’ve got it I know how to make something really good, so it’s always just different”.

I ask him if he’s working on any new music and if it could be potentially music for the fourth album, he replies with “Well I don’t know if it is the fourth album, but I do have new music. It’s a bit grey because there is this period of time after you’ve just finished something were you are making music just for the sheer joy of it. You’ve already got something in the can so everything else is a bonus. There’s something that’s really great and kind of freeing about continuing to work. Especially because there’s that time frame where your kind of just twiddling your thumbs and if you can continue to exercise the muscle some really good stuff can come out”.

We wrap up our chat about the album and his music and I hit Webb with a slightly off-kilter question. I question him about his stance on social media knowing that Methyl Ethel is not exactly prevalent on social media and have large gaps in their activity, “the short answer is, I don’t like it” and “I’ve never really had Facebook personally” he says. He goes onto tell me “Unfortunately, there is a necessity to it, but I think if you do it in your own way you can take the control back. I don’t like having photos of myself out in the world. The world of Instagram is for fun loving people who are full of personality and I’m not that kind of a person and it’s a bit fake. Though we do have fun out on tour on the road and we will post pictures and you know that’s a good time, but I think it’s noise. The music is already out there for people to access. I want people to focus on the music and its kind of to idealistic in this world at the moment but I’m trying my best”. It’s clear he lets the music do the talking.

Our interview draws to a close and I have had a good time chatting to Jake, he’s polite and intelligent and grants me an insight into the world of Methyl Ethel and to how he operates. What’s next for Methyl Ethel I ask him, “We will start touring around the release of the album, we are heading to the US and UK in March and then yeah hopefully people enjoy the album and want us to come and play it for them”. We say our goodbyes and the phone goes beep.