Interview with Peak Park

Peak Park is a three-piece music project from Melbourne built upon alt and art-rock energy, poetic lyricism and honest vocals. The fragility of emotions, reflecting on personal growth and acknowledging mental health struggles are at the core of the project. After the release of their debut EP 'How To Be' I have been lucky enough to have a chat with the band about making the EP, their favourite memories from recording and what's next for them.

Hi, how are you?

We are doing really well, really stoked to be putting new sound into the world again and a big thanks for featuring us on your blog. Been a pretty hectic time for creatives so it’s nice for some sort of normality returning.

How would you describe your sound to the readers?

We’ve got kind of a dreamy, synth pop vibe going at the minute, but at the same time also a bit of art and indie rock. We actually really love messing around with genre and different sounds, so I think to a large extent we are still figuring out / consistently altering our own sound. Which is actually really exciting to us and feels pretty freeing as creative people, even though trying to explain that sounds VERY pretentious (sorry).

Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?

So many! Probably ones that come to mind initially are Radiohead, The Japanese House, Tame Impala, Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, Phoebe Bridgers, Parcels, The Beatles, Beach House. The list is pretty extensive. We honestly just love music and we’re always down for a music chat with literally anyone (including each other, which does often result in a ‘band prac’ session that consists of discussing how cool a single Thom Yorke vocal melody is, and nothing else).

How did your musical journey start as Peak Park?

So we’ve been a band for about 3 years but it’s been a bit of a disjointed time with old mate Covid. But essentially Tom had some original material that he wanted to perform, and asked Cal and I (Mitch) to help him get it to a playable state. From there we just gelled really well as a group, and began working on original material together, and have been going since.

Your debut EP ‘How To Be’ is out now, congratulations! How was the process of making this EP for you?

Thank you, this is our first EP release so we were super stoked to get it out. It was a bit of a weird process with the pandemic in the middle of it. A lot of the ideas were actually formed close to 18 months ago as demos, but it was a really disjointed process trying to actually get them finalised while in isolation. I guess we finally got a window at one point in the middle there to really knuckle down and finish writing and recording. Even though that can be quite a long and at times stressful process, it was actually just great to be making and recording music in the same room together.

You’ve described this EP as one that explores ‘identity, growth and change’, can you explain more about that to us? Why were these themes ones you wanted to explore during this EP?

I’m not sure if initially we went into the EP planning on writing about these themes, but as the songs and the lyrics started to take shape we realised there was a bit of an unconscious narrative between them, and we continued to lean into that. I think naturally your 20’s is a time of a lot of change and self-growth, and you start to understand what is important to you. I think for me [Mitch] personally I was going through a lot of big, ‘young adult’ changes in my life; moving out, changing jobs, meeting whole groups of new people, experiencing a pandemic, dating, etc. And a lot (or to be honest, all) of that stuff is really kinda scary and can make you pretty uncomfortable. But at the same time, I was learning a lot about myself, and realising that just because something feels scary, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. So a lot of those kinds of thoughts were circling at the time of writing, and they seemed important enough to talk about.

What’s the song you are most excited for people to hear from ‘How To Be’?

I think we’d probably see You Are Not Alone as the feature song of the EP, and are really keen for people to hear it. Being a self-produced band, the process is a LOT of trial and error and a lot of experimentation (sometimes with no real direction behind it, just targeted guess work). And so on a production level that’s kind of daunting, especially being so ambitious with our sound. But we really feel happy with how well the song has turned out, how dancy and boppy it is, which is a massive, massive credit to Tom who mixes all of our music. It also represents important ideas like being yourself, and appreciating your self-worth which we really wanted to talk about. At its core it’s a song about looking after each other, which is something we care deeply about. That being said, the three individual songs feel pretty special to us for their own reasons, and as a whole are definitely our most accomplished work so far.

Do you have a favourite memory from recording this EP?

This is kind of random but there was one day in the studio when Cal was recording vocals and his voice did one of the most insane voice cracks I have ever heard, so much so that it sounded like a fully auto-tuned, multi-noted vocal run. Like genuinely impressive. But I remember us all just being in absolute stitches when we went back and listened to the recording of it happening. Like holding our stomachs in pain kind of laughter. Not to get too soppy but it was just nice after not being together for so long to just be laughing together at something so stupid like that, and kind of forgetting about everything else for a little bit.

What’s something you want listeners to take away from listening to ‘How To Be’?

I guess the message behind the whole EP is to be yourself, and to understand that change can be a beautiful thing, even if it feels scary. But I’m always conscious of seeming preachy with our own ideas, because I by no means have anything figured out or have a necessarily better perspective on things than anyone else. But those were the ideas at the forefront while writing and we believe in them strongly.

What’s next for Peak Park?

We’re working really hard on continuing where the EP left off, with heaps of new music on the way, and will hopefully have a new single out very soon (don’t leak that. or do). Other than that, we’re looking to start collaborating with other artists a heap more, and hopefully start playing a bunch of shows (pls come).

And lastly, what have you been listening to recently? Is there anything you want to recommend to us?

I’m religiously listening to The Japanese House right now and genuinely can’t stop. The new MansionAir and Nilufer Yanya album’s are going down an absolute treat at the minute too. Also saw Stella Donnelly play here in Melbourne recently and she played some awesome new tracks so really keen for those to drop. So much cool stuff in music right now.

You can listen to 'How To Be' here.

You can follow Peak Park on Instagram here.

All After Midnight links here.

Music submissions and enquiries to aftermidnightblog1@gmail.com