The Creases

If you want proof that upbeat indie pop melodies and pizza go together, you need look no further than the story of the Australian pop combo the Creases. Joe Agius and Jarrod Mahon are two friends from Brisbane who were hanging out one rainy evening in April 2013 when, after ordering a pizza, they started goofing around with their guitars and came up with some ideas for songs. By the end of the evening, they'd finished off the pizza, made rough recordings of two tunes, "Fun to Lose" and "I Won't Wait," and made a video of one of the tracks that they posted on YouTube, using the band name the Creases. Several weeks later, Agius was checking his e-mail and discovered a message from Tom Travis of Rough Trade Records; he'd run across the Creases' video online and liked their songs so much that he wanted to release them. By October 2013, the Creases had scored a deal with Rough Trade and their pizza-night recordings of "I Won't Wait" and "Fun to Lose" were being released as singles, while Agius and Mahon had expanded the band to a proper quartet with the addition of Aimon Clark on bass and Bridie McQueen on drums. The band soon hit the road, gigging steadily in Australia and mounting short tours of the U.K. In 2014, the Creases replaced drummer McQueen with Gabe Webster, and were appearing at major festivals in Australia, opening for the Jungle Giants, PEACE, and Franz Ferdinand, and making their American debut at South by Southwest. The Creases struck a deal with the respected Australian label Liberation Music, and went into the studio with producer Simon "Berkfinger" Berckelman. With the Creases showing a stronger shoegaze influence, the band's first proper studio project, the EP Gradient, was released in July 2014.