Wireheads - Potentially Venus LP

The gestalt rock and roll mutation that is Wireheads returns with their continued evolution of sonic mystery on their upcoming sixth album, Potentially Venus. The new album signifies the return from sabbatical for one the most prolific indie-rock bands to arise from the Antipodes in the past decade.

After a few attempts to reconvene at studios in different parts of the country, Wireheads found themselves at the totally-analog Sound Recordings studio in February 2022 to record the new album with recording engineer and studio-owner Alex Bennett in Castlemaine, Victoria. The band skipped on a producer this time - after recording previous critically acclaimed albums ‘Lightning Ears’ & ‘Big Issues’ with producer Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening - however the end results of Potentially Venus are the most refined, inspired and sonically profound Wireheads to date.

Since they cycloned out of Kaurna Country / Adelaide with an out-of-nowhere debut album in 2014’s The Late Great Wireheads (released on local label Format Records), Wireheads have become somewhat of a cult-like enigma throughout the globe. Starting out as a trio, they doubled in size for that first album. Led by Dom Trimboli, the loose ensemble kept stacking on new players and instruments for the consecutive albums to follow. In late 2014 the band released their first album for Tenth Court, the psych-laden cassette album Country Space Junk. Up next was a venture to Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, Washington to record with K Records owner and Beat Happening founder, Calvin Johnson, the result being Big Issues (2015), which procured the group avid fans throughout France & the US. Not one to shy away from an exorbitant undertaking, band leader Dom Trimboli wasted no time creating 4th album Arrive Alive (2016) which featured more than 20 performers from groups such as Fair Maiden, Bitch Prefect, Old Mate & Day Ravies, often making up their parts on the spot.

Wireheads’ 5th LP Lightning Ears garnered critical acclaim from publications such as NPR, Rolling Stone & The Big Issue. Lightning Ears was once again produced by Calvin Johnson, but due to the sudden closure of Dub Narcotic, Wireheads made their way into The Unknown, a 100-year-old church building on the island of Anacortes, Washington, which houses the recording studio run by recording engineer and producer Nicholas Wilbur (who Trimboli nicknamed ‘Lightning Ears’ during the album’s recording, which eventually became the album’s title), and experimental folk icon Phil Elverum (Mt Eerie, The Microphones). The release of the album resulted in a rather passionate audience of listeners throughout France, who were eager for the band to make their way over to Europe, but Wireheads played only three Australian shows after the release Lightning Ears, before members diverged to their respective parallel projects which include Dom & The Wizards, Nylex, Introduction, Zipper and Workhorse, to name only a few.

After writing and releasing two exceptional albums with Dom & The Wizards, which displayed a more baroque-pop style, a new batch of Wireheads songs began to develop in 2021. “I was just writing songs as normal and it seemed quite obvious to me at the time that the songs were Wireheads songs. Once you slip into that world, it’s very easy to keep mining the vibe and before you know it, you’ve got yourself a record. The time felt right for another Wireheads album. Seemed like it’d been long enough between drinks and everyone had the space in their respective programs. It’s a special occasion kind of band and this new record is a special occasion.” explains Trimboli. When a Tenth Court Records A&R rep inquired about the lyrical themes found throughout the album, Trimboli responded, “The usual stuff I guess: boats, significant weather events, aeroplanes falling out of the sky, flowers, love. The sadness one endures if one lives too close to the local police station. Dinosaurs, coffee, wine and cigarettes. Life’s hopes and dreams and the strange and absurd things that occur in this world and others.” - Tenth Court