Triosk are one those acts who traverse the music vs. art conundrum. Triosk appear to be very much about the art of creating music. Laurence laughs. “I’m flattered that you think I’m an artist, first and foremost. It’s good, what can I say?!”

It’s also something that’s hard to want to do with your music, rather than heading off in a more pop direction, like some people have that Triosk have been associated with, such as Presets.

“It is hard,” he agrees, “because I guess within myself I have lots of ambitions musically that aren’t just limited to Triosk and there’s lots of things that I feel I’m yet to achieve to sate my musical ambition, and part of that comes into Pivot, part of the other band I play in.”

Growing up playing a great range of music and listening to a great range of music, it was partly this that has made Triosk more proactive in some ways – the three-piece have got so much going on at the moment, but at the same time Laurence feel that if he only did Triosk all the time it might not be as enthusiastic or seem as fresh. “But definitely Triosk is one aspect of my musical personality,” he explains. “As the music comes from an artistic, creative slant where we’re not keeping the commercial wolves at bay in terms of having demands from record labels then it’s very much about doing the music we’re comfortable with and achieve an artistic goal.”

He is, as a matter of fact, in the midst of recording new Pivot material at the same time as undertaking touring with Triosk. He explains it away as a matter of knowing how to switch off between one and other, and maintain the focus where necessary. For The Headlight Serenade, it would seem that a much more deliberate approach to the recording experience was taken than last time. “We were a lot stricter with ourselves this time,” Laurence confirms. “One of the big issues is that the first two albums were made in the same session and made extremely quickly. We knew that we work well under pressure and we work spontaneously, so we booked the time and went in and made some music.

“I think part of it is a discipline thing,” he continues. “You refocus yourself and it’s what gets you up out of bed in the morning. Being a full-time musician is hard but it’s rewarding in a way where we couldn’t think about doing anything else.”

At the moment, Triosk are grappling with how best to represent The Headlight Serenade in the live context, as mostly when they perform they prefer to try and play a few things from the album, to give folks something to grab onto that they’re familiar with, but also focus on playing new things and trying out new material, because that’s how they write best. “To be honest, in the last few weeks we’ve found ourselves with eight new tracks,” Laurence claims. “We like to throw caution to the wind.”

The writing process for this album came through playing when they toured Europe last year. The other parts of material were more studio-based where Triosk came in with concepts. “We tend not to write things structured that much,” Laurence says by way of explanation. “Having said that, the first song on the album is very tightly structured, and in some ways was a really strange experience. We thought we’d deliberately try and do something tightly arranged and rehearsed, and it was a fun experiment.”

Often the crux of Triosk’s music revolves around feeling and mood, and establishing some headspace that can take the listener to a certain place. “That’s the thing we look for when we try and make music,” he agrees, “and finding those things and making it musical is how the band works. We find that to play things note-for-note is a bit of a curiosity for us. I think with playing live you get a good feeling when you feel like the band is walking a tightrope, and the audience responds to that and we respond to that as well.”

It is in Europe that Triosk have had some of their greatest successes yet, with great responses to their album, and the group are intended on heading back at the end of the year to build on that. “Obviously having the record released internationally makes it possible for us to do that,” he says.

“It was one of those things; I’ve always been of the belief that you make your own chances,” Laurence says as to how the band came to secure release beyond these shores. “It came about because we did that collaborative work with Jan Jelenik, and that in some ways was a chance thing. It was pretty fatalistic in some ways – I had sampled things off his albums off the radio late at night, and looped ten second things from one of his albums. When I found out whose music it was, and I was looking for it, when he toured here shortly afterwards I literally approached him afterwards and explained what we’d been doing. He was really flattered by the idea, and ironically the album we sampled from was sampling micro-seconds from old jazz records and turning them into his music – it was this weird cycle where the process was spun back on its head. He was really into it and suggested we write music specifically together, and with him being on a label in Germany they were the first label we went to to consider releasing the project and that sort of got us in the door in Europe.”

Triosk’s The Headlight Serenade is out now, with the band touring accordingly. Dates:
Perth - Monday 26th June, 2006 - Hyde Park Hotel
Canberra - Wednesday 12th July, 2006 - Hippo Bar
Sydney - Friday 21st July, 2006 - @Newtown RSL, Level 2
Adelaide - Monday 24th July, 2006 - Wheat Sheaf Hotel
Melbourne - Wednesday 26th July, 2006 - Northcote Social Club
Hobart - Thursday 27th July, 2006 - Republic Bar
Brisbane - Wednesday 2nd August, 2006 - Judith Wright Centre