MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK

The whole reason guitarist Joji Malani joined Gang of Youths was because singer Dave Le’aupepe came to him with a noble cause; to make an album, The Positions, as a monument to his then fiancé who was losing her life to cancer. “It seemed worth leaving aside other aspirations in order to pursue that,” recalled Malani. Things got complicated, and Dave credits his bandmates with helping him through the breakdown of his marriage and struggles with substance abuse. What most people don’t know is it goes both ways, said Malani, that Dave saved him too. “Being a Pacific Islander, I had other ambitions,” explained the once budding sportsman. “There was no guarantee I was going anywhere, but that was the intention. I also came from a really academic family and music wasn’t really seen as something to pursue. Then I had a life-defining injury to my knee; I pretty much couldn’t walk for two years. Dave was one of the few people that would come and visit me every day. As much as Dave says we saved him, he did the same for us; me especially.”

VISA-VIS WITH DESTINY

Trials seem to be a catalyst for the band’s album-making schedule. This time, their American keyboardist Jung was having visa issues and had to leave the country in a matter of weeks. Initially, they’d planned to head over to producer/engineer Peter Katis’ studio in Connecticut. He’d mixed The Positions and has a long history with bands like Interpol and The National. His bass and drum sounds were two big reasons Malani was interested in working more closely with him (“maybe it’s a black thing”), but it just seemed like too much pressure to move to the US. “We’d always intended to move overseas,” he explained. “But America’s a hard place to live right now, whereas London seemed right.”

With less than a month to pull the session together they turned to Adrian Breakspear, a Brit engineer who followed his Aussie wife south. He’s since become the lead engineer at Sony Music’s in-house studio, and he, as well as the follow up EP, , and now the 2017 ARIA Album of the Year, . It was an easy decision for the band to go with Breakspear. “Obviously an engineer has to be adequate at their job,” said Malani. “However, the most important thing is they’ve got to not just know the people in the band, but have a really good understanding of each person. Adrian definitely has that. He really knows how we all work and how to get the best out of all of us.”