Hard to Google though they may be, Sydney four-piece Songs has proven a name worth getting acquainted with. The band’s self-titled debut ranks as one of our favourite albums of the year, delivering on the promise of their ever-evolving live show. We get a moment with Jeff Burch and Steve Uren.

The album has been receiving some rave reviews, were you expecting that kind of reaction or are you surprised by it?

Steve Uren: I dont think anyone really expected much from the album. We have received some kind words from people we respect, but every dork with a computer is a music critic these days so you have to take the good, the gushing and the pathetic with a grain of salt don’t you?

Jeff Burch: Yeah, I don’t think we expected anything at all. Some of those songs have been kicking around in various incarnations since we were writing for our EP, so we have labored over it a bit. And perhaps there was some satisfaction in knowing that we probably couldn’t have made a better album than we did given our skill, knowledge, resources and time. Once you have worked on something like that, it is kind of out of your hands what people think or say. You just have to hand it over…

With a band name like Songs, were you tempted to give the album an actual title to make it easier for people to find you online?

Steve: Yes. The point was discussed. We tried to throw ideas around nothing really stuck. What do you do.

Jeff: We went through a few possible titles as a band, but at the end of the day we didn’t really have anything we wanted to say, no grand statement to make. All three releases prior to the album haven’t been titled either, so I guess it’s in keeping with. The Google/iTunes thing comes up often. I’m probably quite alone in the band with my blasé attitude towards that. I like the idea of possible anonymity for Songs on the internet; it’s such a rare thing. Our name does present a challenge that people have to overcome, in that takes two minutes instead of two seconds to get information on us.

Your live shows have grown massively in confidence over the last 12 months. Has that been a natural evolution or have you worked hard at it?

Steve: Not consciously, but if it makes sense, working hard, or at last efficiently comes quite naturally to the band. We are probably a lot more comfortable onstage now.

Jeff: I’m amazed anyone was actually paying attention. Before we started the band we had all been out of music for some time, and it can take a while to get back into the swing of things. Over the last couple of years we’ve probably just been in a process of finding our feet with it again, and I’m happy to do that publicly. But we play a lot, we usually practice three or four times a week, and working at it like that naturally gives you more confidence as you trust the other people you’re playing with the more you learn how it is they play. Once you can work more on intuition it can really help a live show.

Much has been made of the influence of bands like The Bats and The Clean on your sound, which is inevitable given 3/4 of you grew up listening to it. What are your main influences outside of the Dunedin sound?

Jeff: Yeah a lot has been made of that. No doubt we love those bands. We’re friends with The Bats and have shared a record, but our listening isn’t really confined to that at all. I dont think you can ever make good art or music just absorbing one thing. As well as a lot of other kinds of stuff, I’m personally quite interested in minimalism, improvised and experimental music.

I think there are moments on the album where that might become evident. We can have a calm approach if we feel it’s right to explore that; just play one chord, drone or motif for periods of time, whether or not thats always related to those ideas is quite arguable… but there is that there. I enjoy subtleties and small changes or ‘developments’ and I try to bring those ideas into what we are doing sometimes, though obviously it’s not always appropriate.

Is there any secret behind the cheesy artwork for the album other than the obvious analogy that the record is made up of a variety of different smells and flavours of music…

Jeff: That’s funny, that reading had never crossed my mind at all. A friend of ours thought it was a joke about being a cheesy pop band. There you go.

Our good friend Max Creasy shot that image for an exhibition he was doing. He proposed it to us while we were trying to find or commission some work for the cover. It took a while for us to come round to, but I’m glad we did. I think it’s an incredible image. That photo is from a body of work where Max kind of played around with commercial still life traditions. In some respects it’s a parody, but as he is also really into architecture his intention was to present this duality.

The same can be said for the image of the video camera that appears inside. It initially reads as a cheap – œ80s stock catalogue photo, but that specific camera model holds quite significant cultural value in some circles. Aside from all this art stuff; at the end of the day when that image is put on a record cover in that classic Jandek way, I feel the potential is there for it to become something quite iconic.

New songs…you played one at your recent album release party that hinted at a bolder and driving sound; less jangly pop. Is that where Songs are heading?

Steve: Enough people have commented about that one new song to make me think we really have to get some new songs up our sleeve. But honestly at this stage I think no one has a clear idea as to where it’s heading. We are still finding our feet as a band.

Jeff: We are still in a process of discovering different sounds for the band and we will keep pushing ourselves. At the core of I think it will still always be a simple melody and song.

Releasing the album was a nice way to round out 2009. What are your plans for 2010?

Steve: We have the BDO coming up, an excursion across to New Zealand in February and then I think we will just start writing again.