Even As We Speak is an indie band from Sydney, Australia. Formed in the mid 1980s, founding members Matthew Love (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Mary Wyer (vocals, guitar) were later joined by Rob Irwin (bass) Anita Rayner (drums, banjo, mandolin), Julian Knowles (guitar, keyboards, production), and Paul Clarke (guitar, vocals). After a series of vinyl releases on Australian independent labels including Phantom Records, and success on the Australian indie scene, they came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel who started to play the band’s ‘Goes So Slow’ Phantom Records release on his show. This brought them to the attention of UK audiences and began a relationship with UK indie label Sarah Records. The band released several singles and an album on Sarah Records, three of which reached the Top 5 of the Melody Maker and New Musical Express UK independent music charts in 1992 and 1993.
Between 1992 and 1993, the group recorded three sessions for John Peel and one session for Mark Goodier for BBC Radio 1. They were among the few Australian bands to record Peel Sessions – others were The Birthday Party, The Triffids, The Go-Betweens and Laughing Clowns. These sessions were released as the album ‘Yellow Food: The Peel Sessions‘. A session was also recorded for Radio France. The band’s music is an unusual hybrid of accessible pop and more experimental elements. Some commentators consider them to be key figures in the post-C86 subculture in the UK, although their music breaks out of conventional pop moulds to experiment with forms.
Interest in the band was re-ignited following the 2014 release of the documentary film on the band’s UK record label Sarah Records entitled ‘My Secret World: the story of Sarah Records’, shortly followed by the book ‘Popkiss: The life and afterlife of Sarah Records’ on Bloomsbury. Both cemented the position of Sarah Records as a widely lauded UK independent label that foreshadowed the rise of UK pop in the 1990s. The band featured prominently in both these projects which led to invitations to play live and release material. In 2014 they released their collected BBC sessions as ‘Yellow Food: The Peel Sessions’. In 2016, the band played a sold out show at NYC Popfest, alongside The Chills, Secret Shine and The Railway Children. Following this show they went into the studio to produce a new EP ‘The Black Forest‘ for Emotional Response Records, USA, released in September 2017 on 10″ vinyl, CD and digital. This led to a flurry of releases, including a re-issue of the band’s debut Sarah Records LP ‘Feral Pop Frenzy’, and in 2020, a new album ‘Adelphi’ on Shelflife Records in the USA which received wide critical acclaim. In the same year, Optic Nerve Records in the UK re-ssued the band’s 1987 single Blue Suburban Skies/Bizarre Love Triangle and it reached a Number 6 chart position on the UK Official Vinyl Single Charts, selling out in the first week of its release. In 2018, the band conducted a sold out tour of the UK with Sarah Records label mates Secret Shine, Action Painting! and Boyracer which concluded with a headline show at the Indietracks Festival. The pandemic caused the cancelletion of the 2020 tour and in 2023, the band hit the road with the Glas-goes Pop Festival and a run of UK shows.
Read the full history here.