By: Chris Stead

Ostia, an ethereal group out of the late nineties, produced and released a masterful ethereal album, “From the Aether” in 1997. Onced released, the group returned to that self-same “Aether.” Moving to different parts of Australia, Ostia lost the ability to persue anything more together for 10 years. For most groups, this kind of setback early on would be a major blow and would spell certain demise for the group. Magically, this did not happen with Ostia.

Ostia has come back strong with a new EP, a solid 10 years after the faact. Older, wiser and driven by the desire to produce something of substance and value, they came together to give us “Between Two Cities.” This name is most fitting since the group is now split between the cities of Brisbane and Melbourne. Thousands of miles apart, Ostia still managed to pull together a body of work that is sure to compliment and enhance the experience of “From the Aether.”

Gothic Angst Webzine (GAW): How did the group first come together?

Amps: It was in Brisbane in the early nineties. I had been playing around in quite a few other bands that were going nowhere and not really doing the kind of music I wanted to do. A mutual friend introduced me to our earlier guitarist Dave and we just hit it off big time; there was an immediate spark there and we set about writing songs immediately. We used to play for hours, but neither of us were skilled enough to play and sing at the same time…in fact neither of us could sing anyway. Kylie was hovering around a lot listening to us so we asked her to join and sing but she said ‘no’. There is quite a famous story whereby Dave and I offered her a case of beer to join and that’s why she said yes. It is quite true!

Kylie: I remember that they sounded so bad, that the people we were living with at the time ordered them to play under the house so no-one could hear them. I remember I used to wander down from time to time and listen, they were playing ‘Velvet Halls’ and needed someone to do the vocals, so I was persuaded, via the beer thing, to have a go…although all my life people had told me I was a terrible singer, I did it, and we went from there.

GAW: Why, after the release of “From The Aether” did Ostia take such a long break?

Kylie: Post the release of ‘From the Aether’ Justin left the band. Amps and I considered getting another guitarist; we even auditioned a few people, but decided it just wasn’t the same. Amps and I then went and lived over in the UK for a couple of years and moved to Melbourne when we returned to Australia. During that time, Ostia seemed something of the past, something that could never be resurrected!

Justin: The other guys moved to Melbourne which is a few thousand kilometers away! I stayed here in Brisbane. We just went on with our business for a while but eventually craved fame and fortune, so here we are again.

Amps: Ha ha, fame and fortune!! I think it happened earlier than our move though…we sort of did split up after “From the Aether”…we lost contact with each other for a time. There was never any animosity though. I had harboured the intention of reforming the band for a very long time…in fact I’ve thought about it so much that it hardly seems like we had a break at all!

GAW: What encouraged the development of the new album?

Justin: That should be who. Amps was the encouragement factor. I can be either very lazy, or very easily distracted. Without his encouragement I’d still be mixing the damn EP.

Amps: Yes, that’s true. I take full responsibility! There was some very interesting reasons that motivated me to motivate Justin though. For me it was a feeling of frustration at a lot of nasty things happening in the world. You know…war and dodgy politics etc. Ostia allows me to feel that I have played a part in contributing something ‘nice’ or ‘beautiful’ to the mix…there’s too much bad stuff happening, the scales need to be tipped and you need an outlet for tipping them. That’s my feeling anyway.

Kylie: I’ll never forget this time, Amps and I were on holiday down on the coast and we were staying at this lovely place on a hill – really very isolated from everything apart from the birds, and we listened to ‘From the Aether’ and a couple of demo discs that we had from Justin; and Amps just decided that on our return to Melbourne he would contact Justin and give him no choice but to do more work! That’s how ‘Between Two Cities’ came about.

GAW: What are your biggest musical influences? Have they changed from the first album to now?

Kylie: I don’t think I’ve ever been heavily influenced by music when contributing to Ostia. Without entirely disregarding music as an influence, because there are certainly artists who are amazing and who I’ve loved for ages, I find inspiration from other things…particularly visual pictures; stuff about the way we live in contrast to how we could do; I find scenes near the ocean and lonely, isolated hilltops quite inspiring I suppose!

Justin: The following recordings were instrumental in shaping my musical aesthetic - ‘The Crunch’ by the Rah Band; ‘Song Sung Blue’ by Neil Diamond; ‘Popcorn’ as played by Hot Butter; ‘Tamoure’ as played by Bill Justis; ‘Horror Movie’ by Skyhooks; Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ LP. These influences have remained constant in my life since childhood. There are only a few bands/musicians I’ve followed in the last ten years. None of which has obviously influenced the new material.

Amps: Unlike Justin, I am going to sound very boring and predictable…to some extent the music we do does reflect my influences…I don’t write much so I can’t explain why…but I am still…as ever…obsessed with bands like Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Clan of Xymox (Kylie wants to do a duet with Ronnie…!) Slowdive, Cranes and all that stuff. I like a lot of folk stuff too like Nick Drake, Vetiver, Vashti Bunyan etc. Stylistically the latter music doesn’t influence Ostia; but I do take something from their sense of peace and calm.

GAW: How has your musical vision changed over the several years between your last album and your new release?

Amps: Justin is the maestro of the band so he’s best to answer this question properly, but I feel the same motivation and see the same vision that I always did…to do assist in the creation of something beautiful and calm.

Justin: I’m not sure that I have a musical vision as such, though I probably believed that I did while writing music for From the Aether. Music just happens eventually after searching for sounds on the fret-board for a while. You know it when you hear it, or feel it, that it’s right. I’m not a trained musician so creating songs is an intuitive process. So the only analogue to a vision would have to be the spontaneous moment when I detect elements in sound that are pleasing to me. That element may then form the central aural idea for a musical piece.

Kylie: It’s weird, I’m the opposite of Justin here because when ‘From the Aether’ was released I didn’t have a ‘musical vision’ at all – it was all about being in a band with people I admire and had fun with, now it’s slightly different, I suppose it’s part of being a bit older but I feel that there is something more tangible I need to articulate now, and ‘Between Two Cities’ releases some of that.

GAW: Does your upcoming album represent a new body of more albums to come or is this going to be a singular release?

Kylie: Well, not being the ‘man in charge’ it’s a bit hard to say, I certainly hope this is just the start of something big, I would love Ostia to continue, I believe this is just the starting point of bigger and better things….I keep telling Amps and Justin that there is a number 1 hidden in them somewhere!!!

Justin: Yes, we would like to keep going at this point. I’ve enjoyed making the new EP despite the frustration of having the process drag on for 18 months, and having the pressure of being solely responsible for the production (mixing), which is something that I obviously struggle with. Though the fact that we’ve done it all ourselves (except the mastering) is rewarding in itself. If we continue pursuing the do-it-ourselves approach then the recordings will hopefully improve technically in time.

Amps: From my perspective, the new music was very much a stake in the ground. We needed to see how we worked together again and we also needed to see how our new-found autonomy would play out. It is much harder work, particularly for Justin, he did everything production-wise. We are going to spend a weekend reflecting soon…just to talk about how it worked for everybody. My sincere hope is that we continue and really grow. I think our next piece of work will reflect what we are really capable of once all our collective ‘hearts’ are in it! There are still a few songs floating around that we demo’d around the time we started on Between Two Cities and there are a couple of classics in there that definitely warrant revisiting.

GAW: What kind of sound can we expect from the new album? The first album was very ethereal, hence the name, can we expect something in a similar vein with the new album?

Justin: We’re not really breaking any new ground with these recordings, even in the context of our own sound. As this is our first go at it in ten years, I feel that we have played it safe stylistically, and stayed with the familiar. However, there is something very different about the new material that I cannot articulate, but its’ got something to do maturity and confidence. I’m interested to see where the sound goes after a while of continuing down this current path.

Amps: It’s certainly stylistically similar, but that’s what we do. To me there is a strange combination of assuredness and caution in there…we sound more confident and strong…we’ve stripped back the effects a little…but we’re cautious about re-entering the musical atmosphere after such a long break…I don’t know if you can actually ‘hear’ that but I certainly feel it!

Kylie: I would say that ‘Between Two Cities” is very much where we left off with ‘From the Aether’. Mick Mercer recently reviewed two tracks from the new EP and commented that the songs sound familiar as if they’ve been around for years…I sort of agree with his comments!! ‘Between Two Cities” is a really beautiful EP; I really love all four songs; although I am already looking toward our next project!

GAW: Are you planning a tour in support of the new album?

Amps: I think we all want to…it’s just a question of logistics now that we live in different cities.

Justin: It is not out of the question.

Kylie: Well, I certainly hope so! I keep hounding Amps and Justin about an EP launch! I don’t think we’ll be touring overseas though, unless a promoter is willing to help us out!

Amps: Which would be great as once again we find that most of our audience seems to be in Europe.

For all of the most up-to-date information about the band please visit the following sites:

Ostia on MySpace
The Official Ostia Web Site