Moments, sounds, faces, voices ... the fragments of experience that stick in the mind for whatever reason, the things that are retained as memories from life's mess of movement, from passing through a small town without a set of traffic lights, from the person you met in the early hours of a coastal night at least a decade ago, from the mysteries heard about at some indeterminate point in London or maybe just dreamt of in Brisbane.
I remember everything.
The Aerial Maps are a Sydney band built around the core of Adam Gibson (lyrics + lead vocals), Simon Holmes (guitars, vocals + everything else) and Sean Kennedy (keyboards, synths etc). Also on board in various capacities at various times have been (and are) Simon Gibson, Lucy Lehmann, Tim Byron, AJ Johnsen, Andy Meehan and Greg Perano.
Formed in early 2008, the band is influenced by the bright landscapes and long distances of Australia, of the like described by bands such as the Triffids, the Go-Betweens, Midnight Oil and MFTCC plus the sparser work of the likes of Not Drowning Waving and the Necks, and also, importantly, the folk sensibility of the lyrics of Mick Thomas. As the band has developed, a subtle electronic atmosphere has also come into play.
The Aerial Maps' debut album, In the Blinding Sunlight (released by Melbourne's Popboomerang Records in late 2008), is a collection of 12 songs covering a wide range of ideas, topics, places and time zones ... from Brisbane in the night, to Barcelona in the afternoon, from Berlin bus-stops to Bondi pubs.
The album has met with wide acclaim, earning several 'Album of the Week' slots and various tunes from it receiving substantial airplay all over the place. The common linking theme of the album (and the band) is an honest sensibility that seeks to strip away pretense and speak as directly as possible about how things are (or were) or at least seem to have been when accessed through the haze of memory and years (and/or vodka).
The Maps are currently (as at 3/2010) recording their second album which will hopefully incorporate a corresponding stage show and (hopefully) be released in late 2010. Stay tuned for details and please comment on the 'Guest book' page if you so desire.
There's a good interview with Adam here, about all sorts of things ... http://www.amrap.org/fmn.php?pageid=69&nodeid=522
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The new Aerial Maps album is available and can be purchased from
The tunes on it include 'Be Home Before the Streetlights Go On', 'Some Other Dream', a story about London called 'London Still Exists', a little ditty called 'The Shark', plus ''The Building of the Breakwall', 'Those Nights' (with a heavy nod towards Badly Drawn Boy), a song about my father called 'On the Punt' and a broad brush stroke called 'The Great Australian Silence'.
and at www.myspace.com/theaerialmaps
A new film clip to the song 'The Great Australian Silence' off In The Blinding Sunlight