Northern Beaches rockers Edgecliff have released their brand new single ‘I’ll Be Gone’, combining rock and plenty of swagger. ‘I’ll Be Gone’ embraces the group’s evolving hard edge and was recorded at The Grove Studios, and saw Edgecliff teamed up with the legendary Callum Howell, renowned producer, engineer and mixer for Ocean Alley while the mastering for the new single came courtesy of Mike Tucci in New York. The band are busily preparing for their official launch event at the Avalon RSL on the 11th of June and their appearance at Running on Empty Festival in Cobar but they still took time out to talk to MFA about the new single, the early beginnings of the band in high school and what it’s like to be a tradie by day and a musician by night.

For those that haven’t heard Edgecliff’s music before, how do you describe your sound?

We consider ourselves as a heavy Rock 'n Roll band. However, we describe our sound as hard hitting and hard edge with some Psychedelic and Grunge influences trickled in! We love writing upbeat and groovy tracks as well as some slow heartfelt ballads, if you like Rock 'n Roll in general, you will love us.

Tell us about the new song ‘I’ll Be Gone’? What does the song mean to you?

'I'll be gone' is a song we wrote a long time ago and didn't really go anywhere . We all loved the guitar riff but couldn't quite piece the rest together. About a year later we came back to it randomly with fresh ideas and a new motivation and spent some time completing it. Since then, the 'I'll be gone' has become one of our all time favorites. and it's a fierce upbeat song that we use to spice up our set.

Can we expect a full-length Edgecliff album out soon?

We have a 6 track EP coming out later this year! It will feature 2 of our released singles ‘Calling for More’ and ‘I’ll be Gone’. We were fortunate enough to get up to The Grove Studios with our producer Callum Howell in the midst of COVID’s fury last year. Recording the EP was some of the most fun we’ve ever had as a band and we absolutely can’t wait for everyone to hear it!

Your next gig is at the Avalon RSL on the 11th of June, are you excited to play the new song live and see how it’s received by punters?

Yes, we are all super keen on seeing how people react to the track now that it's out in the world. We've played the song many times live but it's definitely a different feeling when people know the song and can sing along. It's our “I'll be Gone” release show and people should expect it to be huge as we are going to put everything into it!

The five of you are all friends from high school, is this when the band was formed? In the music room or on the oval?

We are all best mates throughout our high school career and we got closer and closer through our shared love for music. We are those sort of kids that listened to our parents favorite artists and bands, and we definitely bonded on that. Jacob, Will and Kai were already playing music together for a couple of years prior to asking Nick and Jesse to join. That was when Edgecliff was created.

What’s been the challenges in retaining that friendship and dealing with creative differences within the band?

We really want to make sure we are all 100% on every decision and agreement we have to make , musically and outside of the band. We have our banter and love to get on each other's nerves, but that's just because we know in the end how close we are as mates and we almost make it work!.

Music doesn’t work out for everyone as a career path, intelligently you all have a trade that you are currently completing, what is everyone going to be once qualified?

It was an obvious decision to make sure we were all working full time jobs and doing an apprenticeship. Jacob will be a carpenter, Jesse, Will and Kai will be landscapers and Nick will be a draftsman! We are definitely living a very busy lifestyle.

“ It’s really quite tiring getting up early and working, then finishing and heading straight to jam, which ends in the night”

— Edgecliff

Is it difficult juggling the workload for the two occupations? Does it keep both jobs, musician and tradie, varied and interesting?

Yeah it definitely is. It's really quite tiring getting up early and working, then finishing and heading straight to jam, which ends in the night. But we love it! We have a drive to get things done and it really helps that we have created such a fun environment in our jams. We also understand that some days, the really long ones, we are so tired and end up achieving nothing at the jam but a lot of laughing and a good jam.

Do you play a part in the production side of your music?

We don't really have much involvement when it comes to that aspect of our music. As we mentioned earlier, we work with our producer Callum Howell and it is safe to say he is a wizard when it comes to production. We trust him and his judgement completely when it comes to producing our music. He knows us and understands what we want to achieve, and most importantly he knows how to get our music to the point where we can confidently let it out into the world.

“ Wolfmother and Powderfinger, which have a heavy influence on our more upbeat tracks”

— Edgecliff

Who do you credit as your musical influences?

We all definitely took an early liking to the music our parents were listening to, as opposed to what was on the radio when we were younger, we could say that they were our first musical influence. Nowadays we have a number of artists that we enjoy listening to and draw inspiration from for our own sound. Two names that come to mind are Wolfmother and Powderfinger, which have a heavy influence on our more upbeat tracks. Whereas other names like local boys Ocean Alley and the great Pink Floyd have influence over our slower stuff.

Who in your crew or team deserves a shout out but never gets one? And what is it they do that keeps your world turning?

We are lucky enough to have an amazing group of people that extends out of just us in the band and we are so grateful for all of them. Jason Howell, our Business Manager has been our biggest fan since day one. He is constantly pushing for us to become the best we can possibly be. Ethan O’Connor, our manager, is constantly working extremely hard on promoting us and getting us playing time. Callum Howell, our producer, has played an insanely huge role in perfecting our songs, his professional advice definitely helps us get our songs to their finished product. Our good mates Sam Chivers and Vaughan Harding have helped us out massively from taking photos and videos for us, to helping us set up for shows. Charlie Milne has been like an unofficial secretary for us, creating posters and helping us in the grammar and technology department, where we all lack hugely. Good friends, Tilly and Emmy who are by far our biggest fans and show us constant love and support. The list could go on forever. Basically we appreciate every single last supporter of ours and you all are a part of our Edgecliff family!

What's next for Edgecliff? What’s planned for the second half of 2022?

Gig gig gig! We wanna play as many shows as we can! We have some really cool ones coming up like the Running on Empty Festival in Cobar and the 'I'll be gone' release show held at the Avalon RSL. Other than that, we are going to release our EP and we do have plans to try and branch out of Sydney and get our name out to new fans!

Edgecliff will perform at Avalon RSL on Saturday the 11th of June. Tickets available now or head to our socials to win a double pass !

Rock on with Edgecliff