Even As We Speak

Even as We Speak emerged in 1986 as a Sydney-based Australian indie pop outfit whose jangly, upbeat approach diverged sharply from the aggressive and pessimistically punk currents then dominant. During their short initial run the group placed material on the iconically twee Sarah Records imprint and earned steady favor from John Peel, yet the project dissolved in 1993 once a modest cluster of singles and one album had appeared. After members spent intervening decades on separate musical projects, the band regrouped for a festival slot in 2016; further performances followed, culminating in Adelphi, their first full-length studio album in more than twenty-five years, issued in 2020.

Sydney musicians Mary Wyer and Matthew Love established the group, sharing vocal, guitar, and songwriting duties while recruiting bassist Paul Field, drummer Neil Johnson, and guitarist Scott Leishman. That original configuration delivered the debut 7" single Small Fish in a Big Machine in 1986, after which a slightly altered lineup cut a follow-up the next year that paired the spirited original “Blue Suburban Skies” with a cover of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle.” Their style aligned with the ascendant C-86 movement, merging bright, melodic songcraft and more abrasive experimental leanings. Additional singles appeared, among them 1989’s Goes So Slow, which drew the ear of BBC Radio 1 DJ and tastemaker John Peel and prompted his vocal endorsement. Airplay on Peel’s program opened a connection to Sarah Records, and the early-’90s period proved especially prolific: several Peel Sessions were taped, and the debut album Feral Pop Frenzy arrived in 1993, now featuring Wyer, Rob Irwin, and Love alongside drummer Anita Rayner, guitarist Paul Clarke, and keyboardist/producer Julian Knowles. The same year brought an acrimonious split that ended the band’s first chapter.

Individual members pursued further musical work, and Even as We Speak’s formative recordings were anthologized in 2005 on the singles compilation A Three Minute Song Is One Minute Too Long. A second archival set, Yellow Food: The Peel Sessions, surfaced in 2014 and gathered early-’90s Radio 1 material. The group reconvened without Clarke in 2016 to perform at NYC Pop Fest, an appearance that generated additional concerts and, the following year, the new EP The Black Forest on Emotional Response. That label also released a twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Feral Pop Frenzy in 2018 while the band prepared its next studio album. Shelflife Records ultimately issued the resulting record, Adelphi, in July 2020.