attachment-RBCF-by-Nick-McKinlay
photo: Nick McKinlay

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever discuss the inspirations behind new LP 'Endless Rooms'

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever release their third album, Endless Rooms, this week via Sub Pop. It finds them expanding their musical horizons, incorporating elements of disco, new wave, Morricone-esque filigrees and more into their jangly, driving sound, while also delivering the biggest hooks since their debut album. Just ahead of the album, they’ve  shared “Dive Deep” which is one of the biggest earworms on the record. Watch the video for that below.

The band’s Fran Keaney and Joe Russo told us about some of the inspirations behind Endless Rooms, which include everything from fellow Aussie Luke Steele’s old band The Sleepy Jackson to Vangelis to French filmmaker Eric Rohmer. Check out their list, complete with commentary, below.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever will be on tour this summer, including a Brooklyn show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on August 6. All tour dates are listed below.

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER – 10 INFLUENCES BEHIND ‘ENDLESS ROOMS’

The Sleepy Jackson – “Caffeine in the Morning Sun”
We all love The Sleepy Jackson and talk about them a lot. It’s beautiful, oddball, eclectic country indie pop. When we were recording this album, each day would start by drinking a cup of coffee by the embers of last night’s fire, in the beautiful clear country morning air. It reminded me of this song, which was designed for that precise moment. [Fran Keany]

The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer)
This is a movie directed by Eric Rohmer. His movies are beautiful and slow and clunky. It’s easy to get lost in them. The reference in the movie is to The Green Ray by Jules Verne. The green ray is the very last flash of light from a sunset. When two people near each other see the green ray their thoughts become singular. There is a reference in our song “Vanishing Dots” to The Green Ray. [Fran]

Fern Kinney – “Love Me Tonight”
We used to have this song as a walk on song. It has a progression you never get sick of, you just hope for the next chord and the next chord and then over again. This song influenced one of the progressions on the last song on the album, “Bounce Off The Bottom.” [Fran]

Air France – “Maundy Thursday”
Our album has an intro track called “Pearl Like You.” This is another intro song, to the EP No Way Down, the second EP from Air France. It’s fair to say we don’t sound anything like Air France, but it’s also fair to say they are one of my favourite bands. Their songs are like fragrances, and they seem like they’re built to become imbued with memories of moments in time. When I return to their songs I get stopped in my tracks and vividly transported into one particular autumn/winter from a decade ago. It’s an amazing thing. [Fran]

New Order – “Round & Round”
I love how New Order mine the space between dejection & euphoria, claustrophobia & exaltation. Major and the minor in commotion, opening up into a season saving 4 chord chorus. I was deep in a New Order phase when writing songs for this album. I was running in the dark around a footy oval and being driven by this sense of pushing through to find the light in the dark. [Fran]

Vangelis
I’ve been enamoured with much of the Greek composer’s music over the last few years. The beautiful intro theme to Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’ series introduced me to his music where he just reuses his most famous melody from “Chariots of Fire.” Though no longer very fashionable, evidenced by the huge amount of his records being sold dirt cheap second hand, I think his simplistic honest style is great. It’s a good reminder of the sheer beauty that can arise from the dumbest simplest elements in combination with a HUGE sound. [Joe Russo]

Felt – “Ferdinand Magellan”
This is a stunner solo piano piece from eclectic 80s band Felt who wrote perfect pop songs (see “Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow”) as well as heartbreakingly beautiful instrumental pieces like this one. It’s nice for a band to show that essentially you can do whatever the hell you want and needn’t be chained to any one sound. They’re all over the place stylistically but all from each far flung point seem to say something true with the music. [Ed note: Felt’s “Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow” is referenced in RBCF song “Saw You at the Eastern Beach” on Endless Rooms.]

Nada – “Senza un Peché”
A fantastic song from the early 2000s from Italian singer Nada. Every single part of this song is an ear worm. Incredible melodies delivered beautifully with some great minimal production from the same fella that worked on Aldous Harding’s recent albums. If you listen to this song it is guaranteed to haunt you long after with its melodies. It’s an amazing thing to aim for where all parts of the song are equally memorable, not just a chorus. [Joe]

Zement – “C3s”
A tune from 2018 with the classic Krautrock ‘dum dum dum DAT’ ad infinitum that I’ve always loved since hearing Neu’s ‘Für Immer’. I can’t put my finger on what makes this song sound fresh when it seems like it’s applied the exact same time-honoured formula to the jam. I don’t know why but it’s really great. Maybe it’s just one of the best beats humanity has ever discovered, so perfect it will never cease to pull you forward with it. [Joe]

The paintings of Jeffrey Smart 
I’ve had a poster of this Australian painter’s 1966 ‘The bicycle race’ on my wall for the last few years. Most of his paintings are of city scapes with somber skies. While the colours are rather dull, the perspective and lines in the images are always so dynamic. I always get sucked into this image on my wall and come to realise only slowly that I’ve been staring in, lost, for minutes.

Having done the designs for our album covers over the years, I think a common thread through all the images from photographer friends we’ve used is the use of similar tricks of dynamic lines drawing you into the image. [Joe]

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ROLLING BLACKOUTS C.F. TOUR DATES
Fri. May 20 – Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas
Sun. May 22 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 *
Mon. May 23 – Norwich, UK @ Waterfront *
Tue. May 24 – Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy *
Wed. May 25 – Bristol, UK @ Motion *
Thu. May 26 – Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed *
Sat. May 28 – Northampton, UK @ Roadmender *
Sun. May 29 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute *
Mon. May 30 – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Irish Centre *
Tue. May 31 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz *
Thu. Jun. 2 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire *
Fri. Jun. 3 – Sheffield, UK @ The Foundry *
Sat. Jun. 4 – Glasgow, UK @ Queen Margaret Union *
Sun. Jun. 5 – Edinburgh, UK @ The Liquid Room *
Mon. Jun. 6 – Newcastle upon Tyne, UK @ Boiler Shop *
Wed. Jun. 8 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street *
Fri. Jun. 10 – Parque Da Cidade, BR @ Primavera Porto
Sat. Jun. 11 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
Sun. Jun. 12 – Mannheim, DE @ Maifield Derby
Mon. Jun. 13 – Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia *
Wed. Jun. 15 – Bergen, NO @ Bergenfest
Thu. Jun. 16 – Oslo, NO @ John Dee *
Fri. Jun. 17 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset *
Sun. Jun. 19 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie *
Tue. Jun. 21 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique Orangerie *
Wed. Jun. 22 – Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje *
Thu. Jun. 23 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso *
Fri. Jul. 22 – North Byron Parklands, AU @ Splendour In The Grass
Wed. Jul. 27 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Mon. Aug. 1 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
Tue. Aug. 2 – Montréal, QC @ L’Escogriffe Bar
Wed. Aug. 3 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Sat. Aug. 6 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sun. Aug. 7 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Mon. Aug. 8 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Wed. Aug. 10 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal west
Fri. Aug. 12 – Austin, TX @ Empire
Sat. Aug. 13 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips
Mon. Aug. 15 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Tue. Aug. 16 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Thu. Aug. 18 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Fri. Aug. 19 – Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre
Sat. Aug. 20 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Mon. Aug. 22 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
Tue. Aug. 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom

* w/ Stella Donnelly supporting