The Panics

Sometimes you know an album is going to be great as soon as you hear the beginning of the first song. Think back to favourite albums and how they stood bold and proud from the first note, inviting you to fall in love with and daring you to not recognise its brilliance.

Get Us Home, the lead track from The Panics’ first album on Dew Process is one such song. It kicks off with a big drum roll and a soaring string section, invoking the spirit of The Beatles and classic Motown. Deliriously catchy, not quite dance, not quite pop, and totally infectious. Get Us Home is followed by nine other songs, including first single Don’t Fight It, that keep up the quality to the last note.

It’s been slow and steady build for The Panics. Since forming in Perth five years ago, big things have been predicted for the band. After being spotted playing in a pub by Happy Mondays’ Gaz Whelan and his business partner Pete Carroll, following The Mondays performance at The Big Day Out in 2000, they were signed to their UK/Australian littleBIGMAN records label.

The band released a stream of quality EPs and albums with littleBIGMAN, including A House On A Street In A Town I'm From, Crack In The Wall and Sleeps Like A Curse (2005) which was nominated for a prestigious J Award. The band went on to support Happy Mondays in the UK and recorded live performances for The BBC.

Jae Laffer is very satisfied with Cruel Guards and does not flinch at its up-front boldness and ambition. “I’m proud to be in a band that keeps getting better and that people take seriously. We didn’t take any silly shortcuts to get radio airplay. I’m glad we stuck our guns and stuck to the core values of what we are about. A really cool song should do the work for you.”

The album was completed at BJB studios in Sydney earlier this year. The basis of several of the tracks stem from home recordings the band put down in the house they share in Collingwood while further additions were made during sessions in New York City. The production chores were handled by the band and Scott Horscroft (The Sleepy Jackson, Silverchair) and mixed by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, Beth Orton).

At the heart of the beauty of Cruel Guards is its unmistakable Australianness. There is a sense of space and scale that speaks of only one country. Musically the link may not be obvious but there is the same sense of our wide brown land that runs through the best work of The Triffids, The Go Betweens and Nick Cave.

“They were onto a good thing and were never pop stars because of it but it showed the importance of embracing where you’re from and who you are,” Laffer says. “There aren’t obvious lyrical references to Australia in the lyrics, but we are proud to fly our flag and we’d like to carry on in the tradition of our favourite groups who went away but continued to identify with this country.”

The small label created the perfect nurturing environment The Panics (Laffer, Drew Wootton, Paul Otway, Julian Douglas and Myles Wootton) needed to improve their craft. Now they feel they are at a point where they can stand on any stage and look any sized audience in the eye and deliver. Dew Process is a natural fit with the major success they have been able to enjoy with the likes of Sarah Blasko, The Grates and Bernard Fanning.

“I’m really proud of everything we’ve done but I’d like this album to be instantly appealing. We want to be able to continue what we are doing but expand the audience,” Laffer explains.

The Panics are unique. They have been allowed to grow and blossom. And blossom they have. This bunch of songs has immediate appeal and lasting beauty.

“Hopefully it will make people raise an eyebrow. We didn’t want to just give Panics fans something they are used to. I’d rather people were surprised and hopefully see that there aren’t any other guitar groups in this country making records like this.”

An Australian rock band that was formed while its members were still in school, the Panics released their first EP (a self-titled affair) in 2002. Two more EP releases followed before the band was invited to perform in the U.K. that same year. Signed to LittleBIGMAN Records, the Panics (Julian Douglas, keyboards, guitars, and vocals; Jae Laffer, vocals and guitar; Paul Otway, bass; Drew Wooten, guitar; and Myles Wooten, drums) recorded their debut album in Manchester and Australia. The ensuing work, A House on a Street in a Town I'm From, was released in 2003. After extensive national touring, the band embarked on another tour of the U.K. in 2004. Upon returning to Australia, they relocated to Melbourne and released their second album, Sleeps Like a Curse. 2007 saw the band sign to new label, Dew Process, and release their third album, Cruel Guards, which was a Top 20 hit in their home country. ~ Chris True, All Music Guide