This year has been a very active one with gigs for The Areola Treat. What has been happening behind the scenes?

We’ve been focusing on more new work. We will always welcome the opportunity to compose new material. Our drummer Chris has also been keeping busy with his band It Came From The Desert and embracing fatherhood. We have all kind of adopted his son, Ben, during rehearsals. I’ve been listening to his band’s latest stuff and I rather like what they’re doing. It hasn’t been particularly busy for The Areola Treat so far this year.

And which were the highlights for the band?

This year’s Sliema Art Festival was fun. It was our second time playing at Exiles beach and it’s just great to be playing amidst other urban artists, performing and hearing other bands, watching some pretty amazing murals taking life, seeing some skateboarding and biking… all this activity is always a plus.

A couple of my friends are talented, full-time street artists and it’s always a treat to see what they’ll come up with next. And all this, to a rocking soundtrack and electro beats later in the night. We definitely enjoy playing at these types of events, because they bring urban art as a real art medium to the limelight.

We also played Rock The South, the mini-festival for alternative music, earlier on this year, which was pretty decent. Good sound and organisation and a silent disco into the wee hours of the morning. Good artists, fun to watch. Yes, we’ll definitely do that again.

What can you tell us about the tracks that you will be debuting at the upcoming concert?

It’s less layered, less structured, less irregular than the last album. We also have some smoother tones, but we’re still assertive and shrill

They’re a bit more melody-focused when compared to our Walk Into Nothing album, which was released last year. I would say that they allow you to be shaken and stirred. We still enjoy playing our old material, but we won’t focus on it. It’s good to evolve, sometimes.

Does this mean there is a new recording in the offing?

It would be good for us to sit back and discuss our ideas for the next release and re-evaluate our sound and the direction we want to take it. We’re in no hurry to record.

How has the band’s sound evolved recently?

It’s less layered, less structured, less irregular than the last album. We also have some smoother tones, but we’re still assertive and shrill. In a way, we’re back to our former selves and in many ways we’re still very much evolved – we may have reached equilibrium.

I think we are doing what we had been been talking about doing for a while. The last album had a few more shades of grey in it.

We’re back to having fun with it, perhaps the music is not as bleak about the future as the previous album, but there’ll always be uncertainty.

In my case, this probably comes from years of reading Orwellian, dystopian and fiction novels and Sylvia Plath style of writings. What we read and listen to affects our sound greatly. It wasn’t something we necessarily chose to do at the time, but it had to happen.

As a band sometimes we become collectively immersed in one sound and, once we get out, it’s the chance to do something differently.

Every artist and musician has to welcome change and step it up a bit. Then, if it doesn’t work, it’s back to the drawing board.

The Areola Treat is Adrian Mizzi on guitars, Chris Busuttil on drums, Lisa Micallef Grimaud on vocals and Steve Shaw on bass.

The Areola Treat performs on Saturday at The Black Pearl, Ta’ Xbiex and is supported by The Velts.

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