Australia at the moment seems to be saturated with artists who are bringing the electronic genre into heavy popularity right across the nation and overseas.  Superstar groups such as The Presets, Sneaky Sound System and Empire of the Sun bring their futuristic dance tones to our radios, while harder outfits such as Perth’s own Pendulum are smashing up the U.K. and European drum and bass scene.  In all this chaos of fast beats and catchy choruses, it’s easy for some of these artists to become overlooked, or hang teetering at the edge on national success.  One of these who seem ready to burst onto our stereos are brothers Joshua and Benjamin Garden unite together to bring you Grafton Primary.

Appropriately born in Grafton New South Wales, both brothers entered into the world of music from fairly young ages, covering classical music and various instruments.  Over the years, they experimented in writing and playing many different types and genres of music.  Entering into their young adult years in the early 90s, the boys discovered electronic music through their clubbing experiences and through the 80’s music that had previously surrounded them.  Eventually five years ago, Josh and Ben exchanged bits and pieces of music they had been working on via email and decided to work together on Grafton Primary.

“We found that we were pretty much in the same space in terms of the music we were making (or that we wanted to make). We both had really high standards,” Josh said.  Working together as brothers has its advantages for Grafton Primary. If you believe that your family and friends are your biggest critics, it usually means they are right.  “We both kind of need somebody that can be totally honest, who’s opinion we would actually value. If someone tells you it sucks, then you usually just take it as an offense. If someone you really know and admire kind of says ‘Ah look I’m just not into this or this is really great, you know that it means something. “

Grafton Primary was officially created four years ago, with touring and live shows starting three years ago.  Prior, Josh and Ben had been busy as a production duo, mixing their different styles and talents into quality music.  Eventually, as with most musicians, they realised that they would need to start playing live shows if they were to progress any further.  Once they started playing live, they discovered a new found love and knack for taking their creations to the clubs.
“I think if I never got on stage, I wouldn’t of been happy,” Josh said.

Grafton Primary’s early performances were welcomed with positive reactions from initial crowds at small shows around Sydney.  There didn’t seem to be any show early on in their live set performances that ever turned out to be a total disaster.  Alas, the brother’s had their fair share of technical problems and not as planned nights but overall they credit their early days as a positive introduction to live music.  Now after three years of shows, they feel ready to launch themselves into International territory.

“The band has tightened and elevated the production, as well as the live show, to a point where it’s definitely worthy of taking to the World,” Josh said.
Grafton Primary launched their latest album Eon recently in late 2008.  Eon was an important release for Josh and Ben as it contained elements of their work formulated from the initial days of the band’s formation.  There were always plans for the album to be released, coming into development not long after the Relativity EP of September 2007.  Much material for Eon was sourced from earlier works "from the vault" while 80 percent was finalised in the last two months before release.

“We just had a really creative patch where we were cranking out lots of songs, because we kept dropping things off the album and putting them back on and writing more songs and swapping things over, even up to the mastering,” ***said.  Eon’s first single All Stars, which has been receiving good air time on Triple J almost never made it to the final album. Months of work went into the latest single to get it to sound right, with at one stage it was officially ‘off the album’. When questioned by management, the brothers expressed their frustration of just not being able to get it right.  Then with one last overhaul, All Stars came out sounding amazing and proved truly worthy of being the album’s first single. Not bad for a track that almost never happened.

Grafton Primary pack their bags to go on tour this month, starting on April 9 in New South Wales.  The boys will be bringing their retro 80s, new wave, synthesizer, electronic and quirky style to Western Australia to wrap up at Mojos in Fremantle and finishing on May 2 at Capitol.  Tickets are available from Moshtix. For a taste, check out their MySpace at www.myspace.com/graftonprimary

By Shane Musarra