West Australia’s The Panics have been spreading their brand of soft, layered rock around Australia and overseas for a number of years, but despite critical popularity and a stunning live show, major popular success has always eluded the band. Their new album Cruel Guards has been two years in the making, and sees them make their debut on Dew Process Records, and, on the eve of the album’s release, FasterLouder spoke to lead singer Jay Laffer about the band’s new sound, playing live, and recording in New York.

The new album sees the band mature their sound into something even more layered and complex than previous works. The orchestral elements are now fuller and louder, with the bold new instrumentation coupling well with Laffer’s trademark vocals. And he says that this was always the plan. “I guess we tried to work each album to a bigger scale. This time, instead of little string touches, we wanted to make them bigger and more ambitious. I think if the big sounds work, then they naturally make everything else around them sound bigger too.”

“But at the same time, I think there’s a fine line between big-sounding and over-producing,” he says. “Too many bands fall into that trap. But this is our third album in, and we don’t want to just make another Panics record, we wanted to try something different.”

Laffer is currently living in Melbourne, in a house with three of his bandmates, and he says this situation lead to them being more confident in the studio when recording. “We had a pretty complete idea of what we wanted, going in. We’d done heaps of demoing, and testing, and we’d set up a small studio at home, so we’d ironed out a lot of the creases. All the stuff that can stress you out in the studio, we’d already sorted out, so all the little things that happened were bonuses, nice additions to the songs.”

“We tried to keep it simple,” he says. “We wanted to keep the distinct melodies that drive the songs, and just add some little touches along the way.”

And is Laffer nervous about the release of the album? “No, not really. I don’t really get nervous about that stuff any more. I’m just excited to be out there, and back on the road. We’re also really looking to get a response to this album from punters, see what songs they like.”

Don’t Fight It, the first single from the album, sees the Panics make probably their best shot at chart success, with a booming orchestral and trumpet section, coupled with beautiful lyrics about embracing the unknown, and charming sing-along chorus. But it also represents the biggest departure from the Panics old sound, and Laffer says they chose that song for the first single for that exact reason. “It wasn’t the reason for writing the track, but we certainly wanted that to be the first single. We wanted to come out, and for poeple to see that we’re trying new things. Even people who’ve heard of us but didn’t know much of our work will hopefully still recognise the change. Overall, it just seemed like an ambitious thing to do.

And will it be another long wait before the next album? “Oh fuck, I hope not. We like to keep working all the time, so if we have anything to say about it, it won’t be. We’re already writing songs for it, so after the tour, we’ll start looking at it. It’s a good time, just after releasing an album, to start thinking about the next one.”

Laffer visited New York as part of the mastering process for the album, and he was so enamoured by the historically musical city that he re-recorded some of the vocals. “Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Myles (Wootton), our drummer and I went to New York, and we had so much time, so we just wandered around a bit. It’s such a great environment in that city, and I had time to look back at what I’d done, and I decided I could probably do some a bit better.”

The Panics are heading out on the road to launch the album, and Laffer says he is looking forward to getting out on the road again. “It’s a good album, with lots of uptempo stuff, so we’re going to have a lot of fun playing it. I think it’s going to be some really interesting shows for us, we’re up to our third album now, so we’ve got loads of stuff to draw on, which I guess is one of the luxuries of being around for a while. We’ll play different songs at each city, and see what the crowds respond to, see what they like.

And how will the band deal with the orchestral elements in their new songs? “Well, we’ve got a bunch of different people helping us out in different places, and then we’ll use some samplers and stuff as well. We won’t be trying to duplicate the songs exactly, so they might sound a little different to recorded, but we don’t want to go overboard with the samplers and the like.”

Travelling from city to city is one of Laffer’s favourite things about playing live. “I just like the fact that you can move about, do a different city each day. Travelling and touring is such a great way to see the country, you get to meet people down at the local pub. Every show is different, and the atmosphere changes from state to state, town to town. Some shows are better than others, but they can sometimes surprise you at the last minute. Sometimes you think people aren’t going to get it, but then they will, and sometimes people are just looking for a release, and hopefully we can provide that too.”

Catch the Panics on their Cruel Guards tour, proudly presented by FasterLouder;

Wednesday October 17: Barwon Club, Geelong
Thursday October 18: Golden Vine, Bendigo
Friday October 19: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Saturday October 20: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Thursday October 25: Prince of Wales Hotel, Bunbury
Friday October 26: The Bakery, Perth
Sunday October 28: Newport Hotel, Fremantle
Thursday November 1: Miami Tavern Shark Bar, Gold Coast
Friday November 2: The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday November 3: Sol Bar, Sunshine Coast
Friday November 9: Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Saturday November 10: Jive Bar, Adelaide
Sunday November 11: Jive Bar, Adelaide
Wednesday November 14: Oxford Tavern, Wollongong
Friday November 16: Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Saturday November 17: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Sunday November 18: Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Friday November 23: James Hotel, Launceston
Saturday November 24: Republic Bar, Hobart

Cruel Guards is out on Saturday October 13 through Dew Process