To coincide with the launch of their highly anticipated third album, Synthia, The Jezabels are hitting the road with a world tour. Drummer Nik Kaloper talks about the inspiration behind the release, the ups and downs of touring and the music biz in general.

You’re going to tour soon in support of your upcoming album. Can you tell me about it?

We’re doing capital cities [in Australia] mainly and just really Europe and North America. Some of our favourite places we like to play, we get to go to again finally, which is really exciting.

What was the inspiration behind the new album, Synthia?

We all felt we had more ideas, more things to say. It’s kind of a strange answer but first and foremost is the need to create new music, and then you go, “Well, what’s that going to look like?” and you start writing songs and seeing how they fit together and you see what is the common theme with the lyrics and sound.

Hayley [Mary, lead singer] started to understand the album for what it was and that’s when she called it Synthia conceptually; it became whole. We start off and we never really know where we’re going to end up.

Do you write the songs together?

Yep. We just hack away at each song one by one in a rehearsal room until we’re satisfied with it.

Do you still get nervous leading up to the release, given that this is your third album?

Um, probably less than before – I wouldn’t say nervous. It’s always nice when you’ve got music. There’s impatience just sitting on it and the more you listen to it, the more you decide to change a little bit. You might already look at it differently creatively. It’s not so much nervousness anymore, it’s impatience, you know. I’m excited about the album and I want people to hear it.

Is there a particular theme to the songs?

Yeah, I mean there’s all kinds of feminism in there, definitely. I’ve always been proud to be a drummer with Hayley, it’s really awesome. Some of the songs don’t sound rock and roll but they sort of talk about rock and roll as an idea and as a mindset, I guess. We’ve always been pretty keen for people to make up their own ideas regarding what the songs are about. Sometimes we don’t even know, to be frank.

What is it you enjoy most about touring?

I think it’s great. After we play, we’ll try to go out and sell a bit of merch and say hi to people. We love meeting all the different people from all the different cities. You never know who you’re going to strike up a conversation with, maybe have a beer with after the show. It’s great; it’s [an] awesomely social environment. You get to travel the world and have a great reason to start talking to people you would have never met otherwise.

That’s always been my favourite part of touring – just seeing things and meeting people I thought I’d never get to see.

I saw The Jezabels as part of The Big Pineapple Festival last year. You guys seem to have quite a lot of energy on stage, particularly Hayley. For those who haven’t seen you in concert, what can they expect when attending one of The Jezabels’ live shows?

I think the energy is something that we always try and have on stage. I find our songs – particularly the songs on the new record – need to be really energetic. Hopefully people are watching us just going, “Wow, that’s really energetic!” (Laughs).

Basically what we try and do is just make sounds and music that are larger than life. Hopefully people come and aren’t bored at any point because ideally we want to be smacking them in the face with loud, massive sounds and tons of energy.

How does an international audience compare to an Australian audience?

It’s pretty similar, really. I think it’s the same. Some people might think it’s different but really you just find smiling faces – hopefully, unless we’ve had a horrible show.

You mentioned that on this tour you’re going back to some of your favourite places. Where do you most like to visit whilst on tour?

There’s something about Germany that’s always interested me. Every time we’ve gone there we’ve met some of the friendliest people, the food’s amazing and the quality of the venues are fantastic. Every time we go to Berlin we stay at a place called The Michelberger Hotel … it’s great. They have one of my favourite movies, The Big Lebowski, playing on all the televisions in all the rooms.

Who inspires you?

Gosh, it changes all the time as far as inspiration is concerned. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Kraftwerk, actually. I’ve only just really started to understand how enormous their influence was on the creation of electronic music, and so many others that have sprung forth from that … they started inventing their own instruments because they couldn’t find the sound they wanted.

That inspires me in the sense that they create the very basis. You know, you don’t have to work with just what you know, you can start to invent things that are new and then work with those. And I’ve always thought Kraftwerk were pretty genius.

You have won numerous awards over the years, including an Aria award, The Australian Music Prize as well as a couple from Rolling Stone. How does it feel to receive such recognition for your work?

Oh, it feels great, obviously. Awards can be funny because it’s not like it’s a competition or anything. On one hand they’re great because you’re receiving recognition from your peer group. On the other hand it feels strange to get some shiny token that says you’ve written a good song. I prefer to think that the good songs speak for themselves, really.

The Jezabels have been around since 2007. How has the music industry changed over that time, if at all?

I can’t even begin to count the ways. I mean, obviously, the consumption of music is quite different and how people choose to listen to it, but that’s pretty boring conversation because everyone talks about that! How has it really changed? I mean, it’s just people writing songs, I guess.

This might be a good or bad thing, but I don’t think too much about that. If you’re a songwriter or a band, there’s definitely people out there who still want to listen to it, whether they buy the album physically or stream the album on Spotify or come to your show. I don’t think it matters too much how it changes as long as there’s an audience for it, which there is now more than ever.

What are some of the highlights and lowlights of your career so far?

The last show we did for [last album] The Brink was at “Splendour in the Grass” and we were so lucky to get a spot on the main stage. We always dreamt of getting to play a festival spot on a big stage and we finally got to – that was such an incredible moment; that was so mind blowing I think it took me a couple of days to come to terms with how intense that was, and how nervous I felt at that show. To have that many people turn up, you’re always blown away.

I can remember some lowlights too. There was once we had to drive from Seattle to Chicago in two days. We had two 17 hour drives in two days with each of us having 17 hours driving. I think we nearly lost our minds (laughs). It was just like, “What are we doing? This is ridiculous!” But it’s all part of the hard work, I guess. With a bit of perspective, everything is alright.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?

Just do it. (Laughs) I realise I just quoted Nike and I didn’t mean to but that’s one of the hardest things [for] a musician … There always seems to be a lot of obstacles that try and present themselves to you while you’re using all your spare time trying to start a band or songs or something like that.

But if it’s not happening, you just have to keep going because it’s certainly not going to happen if you stop. As long as you’re doing it because you want to do it – that’s my thought. My advice would be never give up.

Aside from the upcoming tour and the album, what does 2016 hold for you?

One goal I have is to maybe set up a small studio space for myself because I really enjoy recording bands and working on the technical side of music. I guess that’s a personal goal of mine for 2016.

Synthia is released on February 12^th 2016.

**Edited: shortly after this interview took place, the tour was postponed until September 2016, due to Heather Shannon’s health issues**