“These dark urban tales will haunt you… 16 Millimetre have made a masterpiece. Australian beauty.” - Readings magazine
16 Millimetre is a dark indie-rock outfit from Melbourne, Australia. Over the past two years or so, the band has pieced together its debut album Fight or Flight, with the help of producer Robbie Rowlands (The Morning After Girls, Dallas Crane, Car Stereo Wars). The resulting long-player is a challenging but satisfying experience, exploring a range of musical and emotional ideas.
The basis of the self-funded album was recorded at several Melbourne studios and completed at Rowlands’ home studio, The Beehive (set in a native Australian garden complete with beehive!). As well as producing music, Rowlands is a visual artist specialising in sculpture. His approach to music reflects this visual background and he has been instrumental in helping the band define their sound and creating an album which accurately represents it.
On Fight or Flight, the roaring vocals of songwriter Tom Hoskins coupled with the sweet harmonies of keyboardist Cara Lanyon sit atop the band’s lush instrumentation. Guitar and synth riffs dominate the more upbeat tracks such as Saturday Night and Better Than Life, and then take a back seat for some introspective acoustic moments in tracks like Adrift on a River of Red Lights and the closer, Onslaught. Shying away from the typical “boy meets girl, boy gets girl” subject matter, Hoskins explores diverse lyrical ideas, often inspired by local and world events, delving into the depths of the human psyche.
Tom studied music under the auspices of Melbourne's Public Transport System. He writes songs on trams and fills pages with thoughts that change shapes into patterns and from patterns form music. Sometimes when the 96 rattles through Carlton the score is full of joy, other times it is stained with angst but it is always full of life in its flawed perfection.
Tracks from Fight or Flight have been receiving steady airplay on Melbourne’s community radio station 3RRR, as well as spins on indie & community stations nationally, and Last FM online. In support of the release, 16 Millimetre has played headline shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, with further plans to tour in the future.
Praise for Fight or Flight:
"16 Millimetre’s debut album, Fight or Flight, has been worth the wait. It’s breathtakingly beautiful." - Inpress
“Here we have a band that are making really intelligent music… Seriously, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than this.” - duggup.com.au
"This is an incredibly impressive debut album." - thedwarf.com.au
Instrumentation
Tom Hoskins - Guitar and Vocals
Cara Lanyon - Keyboards and Vocals
Ric Di Clemente - Guitar
Will Oldmeadow - Bass
Dave Cox - Drums
Request "Better than Life" or "On the Beach" on Triple J's Super Request.
Leave a comment about 16 Millimetre on Triple J's Home and Hosed Guestbook.
Listen/rate/comment on our tracks on Triple J Unearthed.
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