Limelight
Outlandish Aussies overcome self-doubt to make show-stopping return.
AS VOCALIST CHRISTOPHER de Cinque delicately puts it, Closure In Moscow’s story went from the clichéd tale of high-school kids jamming to“a fucking whirlwind” in the blink of an eye. Their 2008 debut EP, The Penance And The Patience, quickly earned the eccentric Australians a record deal with Equal Vision Records. After relocating to the USA, they wrote their LP First Temple on the road amid an exhaustive, and exhausting, touring schedule.
“For a few of us, that was our first time moving out of home,”says de Cinque.“It was not a normal life. We wrote an album and toured the shit out of it, but the more time away from that period of our lives, the more I see it was just this absolute, on a wing and a prayer,‘clown fiesta’of a time. I think it affected us all in different ways; it was the best and the worst time.”
Craving a slice of normality, the band returned home where a more grounded setting helped them write the outrageously adventurous Pink Lemonade, and it rapidly became something of a cult classic. Suffice to say, the nine intervening years between its release and its longawaited follow-up, Soft Hell, have been fractious for the band.
“‘Should’is a dirty word, but I think there should be a few more albums under our belt at this point,”the singer admits.“If I can be real about it, a lot of it taking so long does come down to self-doubt and crippling anxiety. It’s hard to be productive when you pile so much expectation in your own mind. But I learnt that waiting for inspiration or waiting until you feel better is a mug’s game: self-doubt, fear and anxiety will always be lurking there.”
WEBSITE closureinmoscow.com
On a foundation of fragile mental health came more touring, pandemics and, for some me
