What We’ve Been Listening To: Close Counters

Close Counters is a duo comprising Allan McConnell and Finn Rees, formed in our neighbouring houses in Taroona, Tasmania, in 2013 – which means they’ll be a decade strong this year! The namesake is a play on Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind from 1977.

To coincide with the release of Close Counter’s new album, ‘SOULACOASTA II‘, the duo took the time to answer a couple of questions for Eat This Music to gain an insight into the types of music they are into, and what tickles their fancy, per se. You’d be surprised to find out that Allan and Finn are fans of Barney McAll, SAULT, Young Franco, Denzel Curry, and others.

What artists or bands are on your must-listen to list lately and why?

Barney McAll – Barney is a decorated veteran across multiple genres and a local legend here in Naarm/Melbourne. He’s released a whopping 25 solo records, and his new album Precious Energy from last year might just be his magnum opus. It’s an amazing fusion of jazz, and soul – featuring members of Hiatus Kaiyote and feature vocalists Laneous, Rita Satch and Jace XL. It also has a companion remix record called Precious Energy ReUp, featuring a re-imagining of the album songs from a bunch of our favourite local producers, including Sampology, Setwun, and our very own Surana, who is the drummer for our live band.

SAULT – SAULT is maybe one of the most enigmatic bands in the world right now, and they are operating under total anonymity. Last year in one week, with no warning, they dropped five albums (56 songs) which featured dazzling explorations into psychedelic funk, gospel and even pockets of classical and operatic music. Lyrically their music is very expansive, but with a heavy focus on justice, politics and spirituality. Finn made a DJ edit of one of their new songs Love Is All I know, which has been a favourite at our dj shows over the summer.

Izy – Izy is an amazing up-and-coming band based here in Naarm/Melbourne. They feature on our album focus track ONLY ONE, as the song is built around a sample of their song Not So Tall. This song comes from their debut LP Irene from 2021, which is a gorgeous exploration of neo-soul and jazz. Watching them live has been an absolute highlight for us when we’ve been lucky enough to share a bill with them at a gig or a festival – the three members are all virtuosic performers at their instruments, and all incredible singers, often performing rich vocal harmonies.

What artists or bands are on your must-listen to list lately and why?

We’re pretty shameless, there’s actually not a whole lot that we’d be embarrassed to admit to listening to. Having done piano teaching for a few years my Spotify would often have music recommended that was played on repeat for lessons, like the soundtrack to Frozen or something. And that’s pretty embarrassing for it to come up when you’re putting on your Spotify at a house party or something, but I genuinely don’t like the songs, so I don’t know if that counts!

Which song of someone else’s (artist or band) would you have liked to feature on and why?

Because we can do remixes, we’re lucky enough to get the opportunity to put our own touch on a bunch of our favourite songs. Some highlights over the years include remixing Young Franco’s “Falling Apart” ft. Denzel Curry + Pell, and “Steady Motion” by our good mate Motez. We also got to remix “How Long” by the Bag Raiders, these guys were a huge influence on us when we were starting making music over a decade ago so it was extra special to get to collaborate with them.

Which song, or songs, of yours, would you recommend to a first-time listener and why?

Our most streamed and supported song over the last five years has been the title track from our first album, SOULACOASTA. We usually play this as the last show in our live set too and it never fails to get people grooving in the crowd. Of our new songs I’d recommend listening to SNAP TO IT! And GET DOWN!, the first two singles off our new album, as they showcase some of our new explorations into different production techniques. Our song in collaboration with Young Franco called “Rollout” was also featured on FIFA23, so any gamers should keep an ear out for that!

What led you to use music as your creative outlet, and keeps you making music?

Coming out of school we both ended up studying music, Allan doing music technology, and Finn doing jazz piano – so there was a clear passion that this was going to be something of a career for us moving forward. We do dabble a bit in other creative outlets though, with Allan getting into working on more music videos and music from TV shows, and Finn using his Piewack moniker to do graphic design and animation for acts such as Hiatus Kaiyote, Surprise Chef and course, Close Counters! Getting the chance to perform to a diverse selection of crowds with both the live and DJ set continues to fuel us and keep us inspired to keep making new music.