The Avalanches to play Since I Left You album live for first time at Illuminate Adelaide

The Avalanches’ debut album was dubbed a masterpiece, but took a personal toll. Two decades on, they are finally ready to play it live for the first time.

It’s taken 20 years, but influential Melbourne band The Avalanches are finally performing their groundbreaking debut album on stage for the first time.

That 2000 album, Since I left You, a glorious musical art piece made from 3500 samples and layered soundscapes, is one of the most critically acclaimed albums of all time, unanimously praised as a masterpiece, a classic and a game changer.

“A band will write a song, put it on a record, and that’s how they’ll play it live,” Tony Di Blasi, one half of The Avalanches duo, says.

“But we always made things difficult for ourselves. We’d rearrange songs … and try to be heavy. It’s almost like we were trying to reject it.

“Since I Left You is an album of songs from the heart. But as a kid, you don’t want to show that. You want to show how tough you are.”

Asked if The Avalanches were intimidated by their own record, Di Blasi replies: “No. We just couldn’t replicate it live.”

Australian band The Avalanches are teaming up with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for Illuminate Adelaide. Picture: Grant Spanier

Times have changed, obviously. Di Blasi, and the band’s other half, Robbie Chater, are older, wiser and — after decades of drink problems threatened to derail the band — sober.

They’ve released two albums since their debut — Wildflower in 2016, and last year’s We Will Always Love You, and played live shows for the latter record earlier this year.

However, Since I Left You will finally have its time in the spotlight, on stage, when Di Blasi and Chater perform their opus live, in full, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) as part of Illuminate Adelaide on July 30.

As classically untrained musicians who initially rose from Melbourne’s punk and noise scene in the late 1990s, they are feeling slightly overwhelmed.

Di Blasi says their email back-and-forths with ASO conductor Nicholas Buc, so far, look like academics trying to read the minds of hip hop alchemists.

“Nick is young and he really likes the record, but it’s just … because we were using samples, and slowing things down, not everything is in the (standard) A440 tuning. Everything was done by ear,” Di Blasi says.

“To a perfect-pitch orchestra, we’re having to adjust and tune things that are out of their wheelhouse. But it’s like a dream. Since I Left You is so rich with orchestral sounds from all the samples, (the ASO) is going to make it pop and come to life.”

Chater and Di Blasi will be on stage firing off samples, arranging vocals, and tweaking the songs and loops to create “moments” with the ASO.

“I love that this all feels new, and a little bit difficult, like ‘How are we going to pull this off?’” Di Blasi says with a laugh.

“We don’t know anything about orchestras, but Nick makes us feel comfortable that everything will be great and it’s going to work.”

The Avalanches’ debut album, Since I Left You, has never previously been played live.

The original Avalanches line-up that worked on Since I Left You was Di Blasi, Chater, Gordon McQuilten and Darren Seltmann.

DJs Dexter Fabay and James Dela Cruz were recruited to the band to boost its hip hop and turntablist flavour.

“It was a time of freedom and joy, very carefree,” Di Blasi says.

“To us, it wasn’t a business. We were just making music and we loved playing live. It was naive and innocent. Today. it’s more serious; a business, an operation. But we were pretty wild back then.”

The noise and punk iterations of the band, Di Blasi says, were pretty bad.

“It was mainly me, Darren and Robbie; two guitars and a bass thrashing out songs through a terrible amp. It was like a Nirvana-ry, weird post-punk crazy thing,” he says. “It’s good to start with what you know, but we soon ventured into other things.”

Robbie Chater and Dexter Fabay in 2002.

The band felt the pressure after the success of their landmark debut record.

Di Blasi says the equipment they used to make Since I Left You was primitive and, by necessity, cheap.

“The samplers had 12MB of memory. We bought our keyboards from op shops,” he says.

“We couldn’t afford records, so we went to junk shops to buy crazy sounds, spoken word albums, lounge records, strings, whatever was there, basically.

“When we mixed the album, it was bounced down to an 8GB hard drive that cost $5000. That was as modern as it got. But it’s all about the idea rather than the equipment.”

Twenty years on, Di Blasi reflects on the album as a work “filled with joy and love … a record that just floats and flows”, adding: “When I look back at that era, all the good times come to the forefront for me. I think that’s reflected in the music.”

But the landmark record sparked stresses, personal and professional.

“We lost our way a little bit,” Di Blasi says. “The further along we went, Since I Left You started growing in stature. People kept telling us it’s a classic record, which put the pressure on, and it really built up.”

Chater also battled long-time alcohol addiction.

“It’s hard to watch someone have all those demons, and it almost got to the point where you’re waiting for that phone call that says he’s passed away. It was that bad,” Di Blasi says.

“It wasn’t until he got sober that we began to look at ourselves and say, ‘How can we improve who we are?’”

Illuminate Adelaide runs from July 16 to August 1. The Avalanches and ASO play live at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on July 30.