Flying High
Jae Laffer, lead singer of THE PANICS, is an easy interview. Give him a brief thought and he launches into a breathy monologue from which you can easily skim phrases. Having just finished touring their new album, Rain On The Humming Wire, these disjointed tangents, cluttered with “y’knows”, were full of nervous positivity.
“It’s been really tough a lot of the time… We’ve got a decade of songs to choose from and that in itself is something you get to, y’know, hang up in front of everyone and go, y’know, ‘check it out’.” Laffer’s shy pride, self-deprecation and halting cadence fit The Panics. That the band’s longevity (let alone success) has not been guaranteed is something he seems to accept. Laffer’s concern for his music and (by proxy) his happiness was more personal. “Sometimes I feel like a slave to creativity. It’s hard to plan my life… I feel like all the best stuff I can make, it’s still to come… In the meantime I try to learn not to be a fuckin’ anxious mess.” His laugh said that becoming a “fuckin’ anxious mess” was a genuine possibility.
But things keep getting better for The Panics. They are playing St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in 2012, alongside creative powerhouses like M83, Girls and Toro Y Moi. “It’s festivals like Laneway that bring it together. It’s people who want to be out there, people who want to be bigger than they are, all excited because they’re just breaking through.” Laffer lingers to spare a thought for lesser festivals. “Some of the festivals… there’s just bands around who probably shouldn’t be still hangin’ out together, y’know,” he laughs, “‘cause they’re just miserable.”
That The Panics aren’t miserable seems to be the product of transience and simplicity. “I wish we could afford hotel rooms,” scoffs Laffer. “I do whatever you do. Socialise and try and fall in love and party and read and write and all the good things in life and when I can I like to get on an airplane and go somewhere excellent… I don’t know how to explain it but things gain clarity when you’re on the road or overseas.”
It’s hard to tell whether this lifestyle is sad or romantic. “I don’t know what home is,” Laffer goes on. “To tell you the truth, maybe home’ll be that place, wherever you are, when you finally reach a goal… I’ve been given some kind of path where I get to document that kind of feeling.” He takes a moment. “Sometimes I wonder why anyone would really want to listen to it.”
But Laffer finishes on a high. “The strength you take is never fucking let anything get in your way.” With new material on the way for Laneway, The Panics look set to put their four year hiatus behind them. “It’s time to go on an absolute creative high,” Laffer forecasts.
The Panics play St Jerome’s Laneway Festival around Australia from Saturday January 28 to Saturday February 11. Tickets are available from the festival’s website.
