Best Things You’ve Never Heard

Electrik Dynamite

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:08:04 +1000

Band Bio:
“There once was a time where 'heavy metal' was not about how low your tuning was, how brutal your vocals were or how much double kick action the drummer could belt out. Once upon a time, heavy metal encompassed more - the passion, the conviction, belief in the god of metal... oh, and the hair! That time was the 80's. 6 souls were born from the wombs of 80's heavy metal, these 6 souls are Electrik Dynamite!

With songs that transcend the course of two decades of music, epic harmonies, unforgettable melodies, 80's keyboard flavoured pop hooks with a totally modern 'don't give a fuck' attitude, wrapped in an explosive live package of feel good fun and timeless rock-god stage moves, Electrik Dynamite are jumpin' in their F-14 Eagles (See: Top Gun, the movie) and settin' their sights on electrifying the masses.

"It's party time tonight......with Electrik Dynamite!"

Produced by Lord Tim from Australian metal band Lord, the bands debut album Hair, Denim, Sex, Metal has just been released, with Midnight Rider as the lead single which you can check the video for right on this page. If you are in Melbourne this weekend, go see the guys at the House of Rock for their album launch!

We chatted with Duane “Ice” Jackson about the new album...

Hey Chris, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Firstly, can you share with us a little history of how SCC came to be in existence?
Hey Scott, thanks very much for the interview, and HELLO from crazy Connecticut to the May The Rock Be With You fans! Hahaha. Really cool site, ain't it?

Let's start with the basics first – what brought the band together and what was the inspiration behind the band name?
Electrik Dynamite was initially started between myself, and our original guitarist Tim. We were and are still avid supporters of the local scene, whether it be hardcore, punk or of course metal - but we were two of the only dudes around at hardcore shows that looked like we loved rock 'n roll. We had been mates for awhile then, so we joked about starting a band like 'Steel Dragon' from the movie Rockstar - eventually after deciding we'd actually do it, friends fell into the pieces and Electrik Dynamite was born. The name came easy one night as our singer, Ryan, and our old drummer were watching Tenacious D's 'In the Pick of Destiny' and the quote 'You dudes are like... electric dynamite!' hit the screen.

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each of them?
I'll start with myself... Duane "Ice" Jackson. I'm the bass player, and I once ate shit trying to jump over a chest high ledge during the first song of our set. I landed on my head... and I'm surprised I didn't break my neck. Up next we've got Ryan "Maverick" Reeve, he's our vocalist... and a legit tattooist by day. You can hit him up for sweet work at East Brunswick Tattoos, and he's tattooed a number of rad people in Australian bands. Sarah "Cougar" Lim plays keytar, and has been thrashin' out in various bands for the last 10+ years - and when you can't find her on the keytar in Dynamite, you can see her behind the keyboard in Australian metal legends Earth! Benny "Stinger" Clark is our skinsman, and works in high risk youth during the day. He once had a toaster smashed over his head by an angry kid... and last but not least, the Demon Twins - our axemen, Lockie "Circus" Knight, and Cam "Flexx" Slays. It's rumoured their guitar licks have awoken mythical legends like The Lochness Monster, the Tibetan Big Foot and the 3 Headed Dragon... but it's more than likely that because they both live on busy streets, along with their late night boozing and guitar playing - all they've awoken is their pissed off their neighbours!

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your new album, Hair, Denim, Sex, Metal...what do you tell them?
If it's a dude, I'd just have to show them the front cover of the album. I mean, seriously... Michelle Minx's hot ass on there about to get into a Mustang with an equally hot ass. If it's a chick, I flip to the band photo - they either froth over 5 hot dudes, OR, they look at Sarah and in that current 'cool to love hot chicks, when you're a chick' thing that is going on, they fall in love with her.

Speaking of the new album which is yet to hit the streets as I type this, how long did the process of writing and recording the songs take and what led to having Lord Tim from Aussie metallers Lord, produce the album?
Because I'm late with this reply, it's now hit the streets (August 19th!)... but to answer your question, writing took about 4 months, and the recording process was 2 weeks. We had only just got Cam and Lockie in the band, they joined a month before we went on a nationwide tour with Thy Art is Murder... and after listening to heaps of Lord in the van, we were like - why the fuck don't we get Lord Tim to do our record?! We were under the impression he had already heard of us, and we just wanted that uber polished power-metal esque production he gets - big vocals, clear as shit guitar tones, and pumping drum and bass. We hit him up when we got back home, and he was keen!!

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to be present in an Electrik Dynamite song?
The bass. We could pretty much be just a bass guitar on stage, and we'd probably sell even more records!!! (You must have known I was joking when I started with "bass", right?! haha) But in all seriousness, I think the Electrik Dynamite sound comes specifically from Ryans vocal stylings and melodies. We've gone through various member changes, yet it always sounds like us because Ryan's there with that flavoured icing on the ED cake. Benny's drum skillset also sets us apart... if we had a legit 80's rock drummer, we'd probably sounds HEAPS like a band from the 80's, but with his funk/jazz through to death metal background, he brings a LOT to the table.

Is the process of songwriting a whole of band affair, or are there a few key contributors?
Cam and Lockie are the main songwriters, followed by Ryan. Ryan also writes some guitar licks, along with songs to bring to the table. Ryan's also the main lyricist, but I also dabble in lyrics - we work pretty well together when it comes to that. The next album we've already started writing for, we didn't want it to be a rushed process like the 4 months we had for Hair.Denim.Sex.Metal. I think you'll hear a lot more emphasis on song WRITING with the next album... there's already a lot more flow and movement in the early songs. We're excited, now we've had a year to play together as this lineup - we know our strengths and weaknesses, and it'll help mould our new songs.

Checking out your website and promo material etc, there are numerous references to "party metal", does this "party metal" theme translate through into any lyrical themes that might be on the album?
Originally the term 'Party Metal' came from the fact we were sick of being called 'glam'. We know what REAL glam is, and we're nothing like it. People who had seen us live were always like 'Seeing you guys is like a big party!! All we do is smile and want to drink more booze!", so along with the aforementioned and the fact we do have some songs about partying we thought we'd coin ourselves 'Party Metal'. Maybe one day we can party hard enough to be considered 'Andrew WK Metal'!!

Just listening to your first single from the album 'Midnight Rider', I can hear a range of musical influences/styles. What or who would you say inspires/influences your music the most?
The most? That's honestly hard because all 6 of us love so much different music, and as individuals we're influenced by so much. Sonically, and maybe on first listen - the choice would be Iron Maiden, but apart form the gallops and the harmonies, we don't sound much like Maiden. If you took Maiden, mixed with Van Halen and Def Leppard, sprinkled with some Steel Panther and cooked it inside an Avenged Sevenfold oven before letting set on the Trivium table, maybe then you'd be right. But that being said, the latter two bands aren't really an influence parse.

Hair, Denim, Sex, Metal...that actually sounds like a movie title in itself. However, in your mind, what kind of movie do you think your music would be best suited to and why?
Haha! If only it was a movie. Funnily enough, and most specifically - our song Built to Rock - has been akin to a Rocky soundtrack song. I've had a few close friends, unrelated, smash out heaps of air punches when listening to it, and being all like "Dude, this is SUCH a Rocky song... it needs a montage!". As an album at large, I'd love to say Top Gun (as you'd expect from the callsign stagenames we've got), but it'd probably be closer to Days of Thunder. High speed racing scenes, sex scenes, good hair and getting frisked on the side of the road by a stripper in a police outfit. HELLO!

There are 2 things I think should exist far more in music...KEYTAR and cowbell. You guys, or I should say gal have brought the keytar back (aside from Psuedo Echo of course haha!), can you tell us all about the role of the keytar in Electrik Dynamite!
Sarah's played keys in so many bands in the past, and a lot of the time it's atmospheric - very strings orientated. When she joined Dynamite, initially it was a keyboard as well - but being quite a good guitarist/bassplayer as well, and sick of being stuck behind a keyboard, she thought she'd bring the keytar back. Originally there were a lot more key/synth specific sounds in our songs before we recorded with LT, but he felt that selective keyparts would be better fitted to the songs - which we collectively agreed on. Because of the albums production, some parts are impossible live - so we believe that the keys really make our live show production stand out, as Sarah has the ability to bring back some of the crazier sound patches and fill out some of the stuff we do. As for cowbell, we definitely need more cowbell... I think Benny's actually integrated it into his live setup permanently, so this bodes well for future Dynamite songs!! haha

For those reading this who haven't yet had the pleasure, how would you describe the experience being at an Electrik Dynamite live show?
Fun. If you've ever been to a show, and found yourself arms folded, sneering at the band - wondering why they look so fucking boring on stage, like it's a chore - then, well, you're obviously not at an Electrik Dynamite show. We move around, interact with the crowd, get drunk, and just bring an energy and attitude that we'd like to think lived in the 80's. Our sets aren't perfect, but we always put in 110% and have a shittonne of fun doing it.

For the benefit of those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the current state of the rock scene in Melbourne, Australia right now?
Probably the best it's been for a long time. Rock as a whole is on it's way back, the only unfortunate thing is we're quickly losing venues to play in. Almost every night of the week you can catch a rad rock band around town, but now you need to hit up some of the less known pubs/bars etc to see them. Luckily we have great rock bars like Cherry Bar and Ding Dong Lounge, pubs like The Tote and alternative/rock clubs like Bang, Next, House of Rock and Back in the Day.

With 2011 already over half way down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball.  In the remainder of 2011, Electrik Dynamite will have:
      1. The album in stores. Oh wait... that's already happened
      2. Be on the road throughout September on the back of the album release
      3. Finally got a management and booking team behind them with plans to get back out on the road. (we hope!)

The Samurai Cab Co.

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:14:40 +1000

The Samurai Cab Co. - now there’s a band name that you won’t forget that easily, and I tell you what, nor will you forget their infectious brand of power pop rock in a hurry either. Hailing from Connecticut, USA, some of you may already be familiar with Chris McCarvill, the bands lead vocalist and bass player, current member of House Of Lords and who has also played with the likes of Dokken, Jeff Scott Soto, Mike Vesscera (Obsession, Loudness, Yngwie Malmsteen) and Twisted Sister guitarist Eddie Ojeda. Likewise, BJ Zampa, drummer for the SCC can also be found not far away from Chris McCarvill in the likes of House Of Lords, Dokken, Obsession and Eddie Ojeda. And whilst Chris shall tell the story below in our interview, it was that association between the two that led to the creation of the Samurai Cab Co back in 2008 after finishing up with the Dokken tour.

Chris McCarvill, take it away...

Hey Chris, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Firstly, can you share with us a little history of how SCC came to be in existence?
Hey Scott, thanks very much for the interview, and HELLO from crazy Connecticut to the May The Rock Be With You fans! Hahaha. Really cool site, ain't it?

SCC started in a couple different ways. The main one was BJ Zampa and I were getting near the end of the Dokken tour in 2008. This was the Rock of Love tour w/ Poison and Sebastian Bach, so that's a pretty good-sized tour, y'know? But it was getting near the end and BJ and I live pretty close together in CT, so we both decided we should make an "off season" cover band so we could keep working between tours and other stuff. BJ and I seemed to be thrown together in a lot of other projects, so it seemed to make sense.

When we actually got home, we planned on getting a singer, but our first guitarist suggested I sing. I said I'd give it a try...hahaha. It SUCKED for the first couple months I think, but we got a lot of gigs, like 2 or 3 a week, so I had to learn a lot, fast. I still am.

We started getting a lot of work. I mean a LOT, like 3 gigs in one day. Seemed like people liked the band, so as we went on we decided to try out some originals and just not tell anybody that they weren't covers. It worked better than we thought. We ended up recording the EP and sold out of it in three weeks. That's not saying we can retire off this band, but we just seem to keep building, and it makes me really happy to meet so many great people in the process.

The Samurai Cab Co. - ok so an obvious question, but it's got to be asked, what inspired the band name?
It's a font. I admit it. I've been a graphic artist a long time, and sometimes when I see or hear something it inspires a lot of ideas and visuals. I saw the "Samurai Cab Company" font online by accident and I immediatley thought of the 5th Element movie, Blade Runner, etc. Those are some of my favorites, and it sounded like something from that kind of future world. I knew it would be a tough sell, but I'M THE SINGER AND I MAKE THE RULES! hahaha.

Musically, who or what would you say are the biggest influences on the SCC sound?
Well, I can tell you that we like a lot of older stuff. Queen, Zep, Van Halen, but I have a pretty big punk streak. My younger brother used to laugh at me listening to Asia and Night Ranger and would blast Melvins, Dead Kennedys, 7 Seconds, Nomeansno, Crass, etc. So I got a little punk education. I've always loved the 80's new wave stuff too. Duran Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, etc. That's where my bass style comes from. Keyboards.

One of the most important lessons for SCC has actually been doing the cover band thing. We can see what songs work and why. For example, our versions of "I'll Wait" by VH and "Uprising" by Muse seem to go over really well. So does "Crow and Butterfly" by Shinedown. Believe me, I pay attention to crowd reaction. That's a very big influence. I keep that stuff in mind when we're working on our own stuff. I've also been a big fan of producers and recording. I love Trevor Horn and right now I seem to be going through a Jeff Lynne phase.

Given the majority of our readers will not be familiar with SCC, can you introduce each of the band members and give us a little rock n roll fact or myth about each...
Well, I'm Chris, Hi. I play bass and sing, or try to. A rock and roll fact? Hmmm. Let's see...drank so much in Germany for my birthday after a festival w/ House of Lords, that I hurled for hours, breaking all the blood vessels in my eyes, so the whites of my eyes were bright red. I looked like satan for weeks. Hahaha.

BJ Zampa. The guy's a legend. I don't even know where to start on him. Hahaha. He's always classy, but leave it to him to buy a rubber band gun and start shooting people when they aren't looking when things get really stressed out. BJ has an awesome sense of humor, so we always get laughing about how ridiculous things usually are doing music.

We got Chuck Beckman, our permanent guitarist, cause he kept showing up and sitting in, and basically blowing everyone's doors in. When your friends are coming up and telling you "you gotta get that dude in your band" you sort of realize something's happening there. So...we got him. Then we gave Chuck a makeover. (I'm friends w/ a few hairdressers) There's a video of it on youtube. Since most people in our crowd didn't know him, he was an instant hit. Chuck is also a black belt in Tang Soo Doo.

We got our keyboardist, Jeff Baryla, in a similar way to Chuck. We were doing pretty good, shows were a lot of fun, Jeff kept coming to shows and finally said he wanted to play keys for us. We tried him out and he's been in since. Jeff hasn't had any outstanding rockstar stories (that I can mention) so you'll just have to take my word for us that we're all clean cut, Disney-like gentlemen. (coughing)

So when you are sitting down to write a song for SCC, what are some of the key things you try and ensure are in each song? Aside from catchy as hell hooks and chorus's!!!
Yes, I'm a big fan of choruses. They're fun to sing and perform, especially with guys that can play and sing so well. I think when I write there's several things I try to accomplish. Take "I'll Be Fine" for example. Sounds like pop fluff at first listen, but as much as the lyrics might seem disposable, there's a pretty strong message in there. "I'll Be Fine" is about overcoming hardship. I may make fun of myself, but that's the underlying message.

On the music side, it's not really hard to grasp on the first listen, but try to play it. It's trickier than you think. Now try listening to the bass and imagine singing lead at the same time. It's really no joke. Hahaha. Mix that with a lot of adult beverages and you're really pushing it.

I guess the overall point is that I expect a lot out of music. Of course, I want a great crowd reaction and get people smiling, world peace, sell lots of t-shirts, etc, but beyond that, music is something that gives people strength, it can take snapshots of the highs and lows of your life, releases aggression, or pull you out of misery, etc. I take it very seriously, I just don't take much else very seriously...

When it comes to songwriting, is this something that all members of SCC are involved with, or is it largely yourself?
IT'S ALL ME CAUSE I'M THE SINGER AND I....hahaha. Is it me or have you noticed an ego problem? Most of the stuff we have is written by me, and we're starting to record live, with all of us playing together, which is refreshing. Also we're getting more and more familiar with our own "sound", and as we do that, I think the other guys will start coming in with more ideas. Beckman has his own solo album, and BJ is always a great set of ears in the studio. No matter what I write, it still gets interpreted by the guys and that makes it sound like SCC.

You guys released a 4 track EP last year and are currently working on your first full length album. When can we expect to see this released and are the songs on the EP a pretty good indication of what we can expect on the album?
Great question! Timelines! hahaha. Well, I wrote something like 30 songs, and we've started chipping away at them. We were playing 4 times a week solid in the first half of the year and we were all so shot it was hard to even want to record. (some of us still work full time). But we've cut back on shows on purpose, and that's allowed us some breathing room. I think we'll have most of an album recorded at least before BJ and I take off for Europe w/ House of Lords in October. That's the goal anyways. We will absolutely have a couple free new songs from the record to give away on www.chrismccarvill.com in October.

Speaking of the EP, the lead track "I'll Be Fine" comes with a pretty amusing video clip...what was the inspiration for that video story line?
You ask good questions, Scott. I hope I'm not killing you with such long answers. I'm not a huge movie fan, but some filmmakers reach me enough where I want to try it. I decided that ok, we basically don't have a budget (this video cost less than $200 to make), yet everyone I know has an iphone or similar, which is awesome at capturing video and sound. We have a lot of friends and fans, and we're more or less creative people, we should be able to come up with something besides 4 guys playing in a warehouse.

I went to work thinking about "I'll Be Fine". I always liked Terry Gilliam's "Adventures of Baron Munchausen", and in that movie, Death is always chasing the main character, and he usually escapes. I really like the sybolism of that. It reminds me of my own life. I storyboarded most of the video, bounced a lot of ideas for it off friends, and it seemed like everyone really liked it. That really inspired me to get it done. I like playing with the Death figure as a symbol, but also as a real-life character. In the opening scene he's reading a newspaper and getting irritated at us making a lot of noise at the next table. So, yes, the video is supposed to be entertaining, madcap, and basically like an episode of Scooby Doo, but it's done with the hope that the message comes through.

Since we're on this, I also have to thank so many of our friends who donated their time, ideas and locations to make the video possible. SCC has one of the best posse's in the world. Really.

Chris, going from your usual role as bass player for the likes of House Of Lords, to being a singing, bass playing frontman for SCC, how have you found that transition?
Actually amusing. I'd been playing bass and singing backups a long time before I started singing lead. As soon as I did that, first gig, EVERY girl in the room wanted to talk to me. I was like "holy crap"! hahaha. I mean, I talked to girls here and there in the past as a bass player, but being a singer? It's like being the mayor. Know what? It doesn't suck.

You have played bass with 3 of the most recognisable vocalists in hard rock and melodic rock, James Christian, Jeff Scott Soto and Don Dokken...what have been some of the biggest learnings you have gained from them with regards to shaping your style as a lead vocalist?
I've been totally lucky with the training I've had. Don't forget Mike Vescera from Obsession also. He's got a very unique voice and style that's tricky to harmonize. I learned a ton from Jeff, I was real young when we first started working together. I think I probably learned the most from Jeff, just because I was kind of new to singing at that point. I'd have to say the most important thing with these guys is to make THEM sound good. It helps being able to get your voice resonably close to their sound so that harmonies gel. James is a totally tremendous singer and musician, so it's always a pleasure to work w/ him, and Don is a lot more talented musically than most people think. Everybody has taught me bits and pieces. Like I said, I'm very lucky for the experience.

There is a new House Of Lords album coming out soon, titled 'Big Money'. How did the recording process for this album go compared to the last couple of releases you were involved, and musically is it what we have come to expect from House Of Lords on the last few releases?
Well, the recording process for House of Lords is always pretty quick and very intense. I wouldn't say it's changed much since 2006 or so. I actually do the bass tracks in my home studio at my house. Generally, James writes with several other guys including Jimi Bell, Robert Marcello, Tommy Denander and others. I'd say that it's directionally consistent with the last few releases.

House of Lords is all about absolute precision when it comes to the bass tracks. It's quite a challenge to record that way. I don't know if everyone knows this, but James was a bass player back in the day too, and he's great still! So, he knows if ANYTHING is off or inconsistent. I really appreciate that he lets me do pretty much whatever I want live, so I'll do the best I can to do what he asks for on the recordings. I'm really a 4 string finger-style bassist, but this time I used a 5 string Steinberger copy with a pick. It just sounded best. Our last tour I used an octave pedal and played everything up an octave, with the pedal doing the lower, and everyone seemed to really like that. BJ said it "Sounds like the gates of hell." hahaha. That's probably what I'll do on this tour as well.

As far as your bass playing is concerned, you have released numerous instructional videos which I am sure have been used to influence legions of young bass players! However, who has inspired Chris McCarvill as far as playing bass is concerned?
First of all, Thanks! That's pretty cool to hear. The majority of those, and I think there's like 5, were recorded all in one day, and it was the first time I ever did a dvd. I felt like I was getting sunburnt from the huge studio lights. I wish I could do them differently looking back on them, but if people get something good out of them, then that's cool with me.

I started playing bass at around 11. My aunt had an old acoustic that I popped the top 2 strings off of and tuned low, and tried to play to the radio and MTV. I got a real bass when I was 12, and my teacher (mom and dad told me I had to take lessons) kept telling me that I kept bringing in music w/ keyboard bass, like 80's new wave, which has a lot of loud, crazy bass parts, even if it isn't really a bass guitar. So I learned to play a lot of really hard stuff right up front. You try playing "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood on a bass guitar...and while you're at it, watch the video. You can see a lot of my influences right there.

But, I got into bands and kept wanting to get better and better, so I eventually discovered the usual rock suspects of the late 80's, Billy Sheehan, John Alderete, but I also learned to play a lot of guitar parts and solos on bass, like Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen. At the same time I discovered Kate Bush, whom I still totally admire.

The day after I graduated high school I moved to Hollywood, CA and enrolled in Musician's Institute. Here I took lessons from Tim Bogert, Jeff Berlin, Steve Bailey and many others. I was a young, impressionable kid and I have to say that that school really opened my eyes to so much about music. Jeff Berlin stood out as a huge influence, but I get compared to Tim Bogert sometimes. I also snuck into guitar and drum classes, just to see what I could bring over to bass.

I promise, I'll shut up soon, but the guys I really like to listen to now are Flea, Paul McCartney, Tony Levin, Pino Palladino and Jeff Berlin. I also like guitar players. Guthrie Govan is pretty awesome, and I've always loved Brian May, Dave Gilmour, on and on... I get musical inspiration from all places and bring it back to bass.

You have had the opportunity to tour the world with the likes of JSS and House of Lords, is there a particular place or tour that sticks out as the most memorable, whether that be for good, or evil reasons haha!
Again, I've been very lucky to get to travel and play with some great musicians, and meet so many awesome people. If you think about it, you get to see people at their best when they're at shows. That means they aren't worn down by work, they're usually dressed in clothes they like, and they're there to have fun. Just being part of that thing that makes people happy is an indescribable high. It's not so important where that happens, really, it's just meeting all those people who get something out of the music. Awesomeness.

That said...trying to get a rock band into Peru is...difficult. Hahaha. Had to provide an itemized list of every single electronic device on us, since the exchange rate is totally in our favor, I think they thought we were going to sell everything. We also had to get yellow fever shots and pay a $4,000 deposit, which was returned to us since we didn't sell any of our gear. Fun, huh?

Barcelona. The people, the architecture, the food, the weather. Everything in that place is astounding. I really like it there.

Sao Paolo, Brazil is a pretty crazy hang. Our promoter brought us to the huge dance club surrounded by strip clubs. We had private tables in the balcony, and they would bring up twenty supermodels at a time for us to choose from. They also have unbelieveably over the top banquet style brazilian bbq's called Churrascaria.

Thanks for answering these questions Chris, if there is anything else you would like to add that we may have missed, here's your chance....mentions of bass or other endorsements permitted :)
I can't imagine saying much more than I already have, but...hahaha. I actually got interested in making basses from scratch this year. I have no experience, but I researched a lot, built a workshop over the winter, slowly bought tools, and I just made my first bass body out of a chunk of alder. It came out pretty good and it's hot pink. Not for everyone, but I don't think anyone will forget it too soon. I plan on making an entire bass this winter, neck and all. It's a fun hobby between all the running around I normally do.

Well, I'm sure that's enough. hahahaha. Been a pleasure and a big thank you to anyone who actually read this whole thing. I hope you'll give SCC a listen, and if i'm playing somewhere near you, don't hesitate to contact me, or at least come up and say Hi!

The Scarlets

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:42:16 +1000

From Band Bio
“Drawing musical inspiration predominantly from German and Scandinavian punk-rock and decorated with gutsy, powerful female vocals, THE SCARLETS have a rare spark that is a diamond in the rough of rock music today. Their wide-ranging appeal has seen them share the stage with the likes of everyone from underground punk royalty to Bon Jovi, play metal festivals to cabaret nights, and securing regular radio play on many Australian and international radio stations both community and commercial.

Born of singer NELLI SCARLET and bass player NICK IVKA'S combined love of ball-tearing rock'n'roll and respect for popular music, THE SCARLETS began as an idea to create a band that was everything they wanted to see and hear in a local band but couldnt find anywhere. Soon followed the arrival of pocket rocket drummer LIZZIE DYNON, where the three discovered they had a chemistry that couldnt go to waste. Enter guitar prodigy PETE DAVIES and the result is a ticking time bomb of sex appeal and rock'n'roll fury.”

Nick Ivka kindly answered our questions to give a great insight into what The Scarlets are all about!

Let's start with the basics first, in your own words, how would you describe what The Scarlets are all about, both musically and visually?
To quote Phil Anselmo on Pantera's first home video: "Eeeeeenerrrgy". The four members of the band are pretty different in terms of musical tastes and influences, but one thing we all share in common is that we are all huge fans of music. As music fans, we're pretty bored with what the mainstream has been feeding the public for the last couple of years and the fact that it seems that for some absolute bizarre reason it seems like the thicker the rims of your reading glasses that you wear on stage and the softer your music is, the bigger a rockstar you are considered.

Our aim is to basically steal the 'cool' back from the 'nerds' by writing good, catchy songs with enough energy to make you want to just pick something up and throw it through a window in sheer joy, and most important of all - to provide the most entertaining show in town.

Can you introduce each member of the band and give us a rock ‘n’ roll fact or myth about each?
Nelli Scarlet - Vocals
Myth: She ate lunch with Jon Bon Jovi in catering prior to our first show supporting his band at Rod Laver Arena.
Fact: She actually had lunch with Jon Bon Jovi while in utero. Her mum worked on the Australian version of the Rocky Horror Show, and Bon Jovi were on tour for the Slippery When Wet album (I think!). The guys really wanted to catch the show but due to their tour schedule were unable to get to the show, so Nelli's mum organised a special performance during the day exclusively for the band and crew. She was heavily pregnant with Nelli at the time and had the opportunity to sit down and have lunch with Jon.. so yeah, Nelli was there too!

Nick Ivka - Bass
Myth: He once partied hard with Tommy Lee after bumping into him at the hotel he was staying at when Motley Crue last played down under.
Fact: He once scared the living shit out of an intoxicated Tommy Lee after ambushing him at his hotel, screaming 'TEEEEE BOOOOOONNNEEEEEEEEE' while Tommy had his back turned, then quickly ran for his life as the man-mountain of a security guard tried to chase him down.

Lizzie Dynon - Drums
Myth: Her first official gig with The Scarlets at the Hifi Bar was memorable for the fact that she had to hobble onstage in crutches due to severely spraining her ankle after earning her black belt in kung-awesome by axe-kicking a planet in half.
Fact: Her first offical gig with The Scarlets at the Hifi Bar was memorable for the fact that she had to hobble onstage in crutches due to severely spraining her ankle after falling awkwardly on a JUMPING CASTLE. Credit where credit is due, she played brilliantly considering her ankle had swollen up to the size of a watermelon!

Pete Davies - Guitar
Myth: He won an award for best country and western performance by a person under 18 in Victoria.
Fact: He won an award for best country and western performance by a person under 18 in Victoria.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your brand spanking new EP ‘Bombshell’, what do you tell them?
"Do you like female fronted rock? No? Then you'll love this!"

if that fails, then i'd grab my ipod, fire up the EP, crank it loud and scream 'LISTEN!!! ITS AMAZING YEAH??????!!!!!!!!!!!!''

Earlier this year you recorded your EP Bombshell, which soon will be available for the whole world to hear, how would you compare this to your previous EP, Blow Your House Down?
The original idea was to record 5 more songs to add to 'Blow' and release it as a full length album, however the new songs that we had written held up a lot stronger as a separate package and made a completely different statement to what was made the first time around. We feel that the songs on 'Bombshell' still sound like the same snot-nosed kids trying to jump up and grab your attention, however the songwriting is a lot more solid, adventurous, varied and (I might have to whisper this) mature. Put it simply, when I listen to the 'Bombshell' EP, it sounds like The Scarlets, but better.

Comparing where the band was at around the time you recorded Blow Your House Down, to where you are now, what do you think have been some of the biggest changes in the band?….aside from a change of guitarists!
Well I'm going to mention the change of guitarists anyway! That obviously was the biggest change, but also add the fact that when we recorded 'Blow', the band was hardly 6 months old at the time. We've now had a hell of a lot more gigs under our belt, had touring experience, and gelled together as a real solid unit. The majority of the songs on 'Blow' were the result of me sitting in my bedroom for hours on end hell-bent on trying to come up with the best way to put 4 chords together without it sounding like the last song... Now I've discovered a 5th chord!!

All jokes aside though, the writing process has changed from myself barking orders to everyone else and ruling with an iron fist, to everybody throwing their bit into the mix and really having an equal say in whats being created. Pete is bringing in some killer riffs, Lizzie is creating some amazing drum beats, Nelli's vocal melodies are out of this world, and I'm doing whatever the hell it is that I do. The fact that we're really making the most of everything that we can bring individually to the mix has opened our sound right up, which is always a good thing as stagnation is never good unless your name is Thunderstag.. Then you WANT a Stag Nation!

In terms of your song writing, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in a The Scarlets song?
We jam a lot and are always brimming with ideas, however not all ideas are taken further after asking ourselves these important questions:
Is this catchy?
Will this sound good live?
Where's the hook?
Are we repeating ourselves?
Can we make this better?
Is this fun to play?
If a song we write has a great hook, is memorable and we know is going to pump people up when we play it live, then we know we have a winner. Also, it needs to be fun to play, otherwise we'll be sending everyone to sleep. If we feel its not ticking any of these boxes, we'll try and knock it into shape, otherwise it stays hidden on my little 4-track recorder and gets added to our 'Riff Bank', and trust me, there's some good stuff tucked away for future use.

What or who are some of the greatest influences on your music, in both a lyrical and musical sense?
Its hard for me to speak on behalf of the rest of the band because we're all so different, and you'd need to ask them yourself, however for me personally, I take the biggest inspiration from non-english speaking music from Europe. Germany to be specific. Die Toten Hosen, Bohse Onkelz, Der W, Die Arzte and Frei.Wild to be even more specific. I just find a deep connection to their music in that it's the perfect blend of punk-rock energy and rock n' roll, with all sorts of other influences added to the mix. If you're familiar with our music, then listen to any of these bands I listed, then you'd understand immediately where our biggest influence lies.

As much as your music does the talking, to complete The Scarlets experience is also the visual aspect, no better evidenced than in the video clip for ‘Bombshell’. Can you give a bit of background as to what you were aiming for with that video in terms of concept and visually?
The response to our debut video 'Dirty Rock Baby' was phenomenal. We were blown away by how that thing just exploded, so we really needed to think of something extra special to top it. We had a few ideas of what we were going to do, but we figured we have really honed in on our image and live performance that we needed to do something over the top without resorting to 'HEY GUYS LOOK ITS THE BAND ON A BIG STAGE PLAYING TO THEIR MATES' that a lot of other bands fall into the trap of doing.

As for the scenes of the amazing Nicole dancing around the even more amazing Gaz (from The Ramshackle Army... check them out!), the idea for that was to do a bit of a spoof on the scene in Reservoir Dogs where the guy dances around and chops the other guy's ears off. We wanted the twist at the end of the clip to be Nicole somehow killing Gaz, however we decided against it as we figured that as unpredictable as it might have seemed, it’s actually very predictable and cliche... two words we try to avoid like the plague... plus it'd just give people a reason to not play our clip, which isn't exactly good business sense on our behalf.

Here’s one of those “hypothetical” type questions, that one day may or may not come true…if you had the opportunity to play your music to one of your greatest influences, either alive or dead, who would it be and why?
We're doing it in a few month's time! One of my biggest musical influences is Stephan Wiedner, who was chief songwriter and bass player for the German band 'Bohse Onkelz' (Evil Unclez). After they split up, he picked up where he left off by forging an amazing solo career for himself under the name 'Der W' (The W). The music he has written is pretty much saying to me 'Hey, Nick, you think what you're doing is good, but wait 'til you hear THIS'. The man keeps raising the bar in what you should be expecting from him, and I am striving really hard to be as good as that, if not, better. Listen to 'Autonomie!', his latest album, and there's not a bad song on there!

Anyway, enough of the rambling! We have a tour booked in Germany for November/December of this year, and the man himself has contacted me telling me he really likes our video for Dirty Rock Baby and has mentioned the possibility of hanging out at his studio in Frankfurt and he would like to check us out live. So yes, there's a good chance that I may be playing my music to my greatest musical influence. Fingers crossed!

You recently headed to Brisbane and have a few more national shows coming up in support of the new EP, how have you so far found the response to the band from other states? And what about internationally, has the band started to build an international following that you are aware of?
The interstate shows have been amazing so far. The show in Brisbane was part of the 'Dead of Winter' festival, which showcased the best underground acts from around the country, and the vibe there was just awesome. I recommend any band or punter to head up north for this festival if you get the chance. We went there not expecting anyone to know who we were and we'd have a fight on our hands to win them over, however the reality was that a LOT of people know who we were, were genuinely excited and appreciative that we were there, and the reaction was off the charts. We've had the same type of response at our last couple of shows in Sydney, so we're hoping its the same for Adelaide and Perth!

As for International action, as mentioned earlier we are heading to Germany at the end of the year to meet the increasing support we are getting from there. I guess it makes sense considering since day one we've been preaching the virtues of our biggest German influences, so it'll be cool to strut our stuff to a whole new audience. The people there have been incredibly supportive, so we're hoping to make them feel like their faith in us has been well justified.

There's been a lot of support from the USA as well, in particular the website www.beneaththegrid.com has been incredibly supportive of us, so there could be a chance of us heading to the states next year if our first overseas adventure is successful.

In late 2010 you had the opportunity to support Bon Jovi on both of their Melbourne shows. Having seen both of your performances, you guys looked right at home up on the big stage...how did you personally find the whole experience of playing a stadium, as opposed to somewhere like Cherry Bar?
Rod Laver Arena and Etihad Stadium are two completely different beasts so its hard to provide a generalised statement when referring to the two. Playing Rod Laver Arena was the greatest moment of my life to date, and I'm sure the others in the band can agree with that (unless they've done something cooler that i haven't been informed of yet!). The crowd was close to the stage, the acoustics were great, the response was electric, and the overall experience of playing such a huge stage to so many people was fresh, new and exciting. It felt very intimate for such a large venue, and honestly didn't feel too big a departure from the bigger venues we've played like the Gershwin Room or the Hifi Bar. It was cool having a good part of the crowd watching from behind the stage, so I could pretend to be Metallica and play 360!

Etihad on the other hand, was a very weird experience. It was amazing to play such a huge venue to so many people, and was a hell of a lot of fun, however due it being so big, the crowd was so far away which was a completely new thing for us, as we're used to having to try and stop people from jumping up on our stage in a frenzy. It was a proud moment though, as all our family and friends were there, and man, it was Etihad Freakin' Stadium!!! I saw AC/DC tear that place up earlier in the year!! And this stage was bigger!!!

What is it that you think distinguishes The Scarlets from other rock bands out there?
Three things that are as equally as important as each other: Our music, our image, and our live show.

As far as our music is concerned, we've made a conscious effort not to sound strictly like an Australian band. As far as meat and potatoes hard rock is concerned, nobody does it better than the Aussies, as Rose Tattoo, AC/DC, The Angels, The Saints, The Screaming Tribesmen and Airbourne have proven, however how convincing would a chick be singing about 'garn' down th' pub with th' boys an gittn' shitfaced blotto'? Its not Nelli, and its not the rest of us, and we cant, and more importantly wont fake it like other bands do. Our main influences are from German bands that most people outside of the country have never even heard of, so that is a huge ace we have up our sleeve that other bands don't.

As far as our image is concerned, we put a huge emphasis on black and red, and even more on covering everything that does move in Swarovski crystals, and everything that doesn't move in red fairy lights. If you look at live photos of the band, its safe to say that no rock band in the world looks like The Scarlets, which is the intention. Some have said we are glam-rock influenced, but id say we are more Las-Vegas showbiz influenced. Its showbiz baby!!!!

As for our live show, we want to be the most entertaining band out there, and nobody comes offstage without lying in a pool of sweat and bloody knuckles. I actually take offence to bands who still have the energy to go out and party after playing a gig because it just means they didn't try hard enough while they were on stage.

Taking that last question one step further, how would you describe the current music scene in Australia, have you generally found people seem to get what you deliver with The Scarlets?
It’s a little bit difficult for me to speak on the entire Australian music scene as we've only recently been hitting all states around the country, but what i can say about the Melbourne scene is that it is the healthiest it has been in a long time. I've been gigging since i was 17, and what I've noticed since then is that the latest crop of bands that are coming through are without a doubt the best crop of bands that we've been producing in the last 10 years.

Right now we have a lot of talented bands trying to do something different musically instead of everyone trying to get successful riding Airbourne's coat-tails like they did five years ago, and anybody who is still stuck in that mindset are now considered yesterday's news. Everybody within the latest crop of bands are really keen on helping each other out as it seems that we've all realised that if everybody works hard together, then we all benefit in the end. You can already see it with the amount of people who are now coming to the gigs, and the quality of the music and live shows that the bands are producing are improving significantly.

As for people 'getting' The Scarlets, it seems that the punters do, and a lot of industry folks as well, however whenever we have had encounters with some 'big-shot' types, it just seems that they don't get it at all. I've been asked questions such as 'why do you play so fast if you have a female singer? its not sexy when you play so fast', 'why don't you play a ballad?', 'you know what you should do? add keyboards', 'why don't you do a dance track?' and here's my favourite: 'your video... I don't get it.. it’s too dark.. you know what we'll do, when WE go to Adelaide, we'll go to a skate park, and you can get the girls to slide down the ramps on their bums and shout out 'Bombshell! Bombshell!' to the camera. Kids love skateboards mate, LOVE them'..... I wish i was making it up, but sadly its true!

We understand we need to evolve to stay current, and this is the music BUSINESS so we do know that we need to compromise at times within reason, however, if we blend in with the pack and dilute the power of the band significantly we'd be killing what made us special in the first place.

We're confident the right person will come along, but until then we're just going to keep charging ahead anyway.

With 2011 half way through, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. By the end of 2011, The Scarlets will have:
1. Completed our first full-scale Australian tour which will have been a roaring success.
The response so far has been extremely positive, and more importantly, we've been having a hell of a lot of fun, so we're keen on keeping our name relevant nationally as best we can by following up on what we've done so far.

2. Headlined a successful show at the Hifi Bar with some great mates in tow.
This one is just around the corner (or may have just happened depending on when this interview gets printed), and we're pretty excited to be headlining the Hi Fi. We're planning on putting everything into this show, so that it guarantees that people will have witnessed the most over-the-top show we've ever done (hint: pyro may be involved)

3. Completed a successful and intense month-long German tour
The dates are being locked in as we speak, and so far the schedule is pretty full on. We pretty much touch down in Berlin and then three days later we're playing four shows in a row. Hard work, but man is this gonna be fun! We've got some very cool bands jumping onboard, and everybody is really supportive and excited to be helping us out, so it looks like its going to be a great tour for us.

Dynazty

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:41:32 +1000

Having just released their killer second album, Knock You Down, the Stockholm, Sweden based Dynazty have a collection of storming melodic hard rock songs that are set to propel the band amongst the leaders of the Swedish contingent of rock bands dominating the hard rock scene worldwide such as Crashdiet, H.E.A.T and Crazy Lixx. Having formed in 2007 and with relentless touring under their belts on the back of their debut album Bring The Thunder, Knock You Down sees the band well and truly answering their true musical calling.

Rob Love Magnusson kindly answered our questions to give a great insight into what Dynazty is all about!

Let's start with the basics first, in your own words, how would you describe the music of Dynazty?
I would describe it as thunderous, melodic hardrock. Heavy metal combined with anthemic choruses that really makes you wanna grab a beer!

Can you introduce each member of the band and give us a rock ‘n’ roll fact or myth about each?
Nils Molin, our singer, has such vocal power that he doesn't have to use a microphone live. He just has one for the visuals, but it's never plugged in.

George Egg, our drummer, is actually named Egg because he was born as an egg. For 20 years the egg just grew and grew, and you could hear smashes and strokes from inside this egg. The very same day Dynazty was born, this egg cracked and George came out and ruled the drumchair.

Rob Love Magnusson, guitars, plays so loud that he actually has been sued and had to go to court for this. True story.

Joey Fox, our bass player, has had more beers than there are people on this planet.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your new CD ‘Knock You Down’, without resorting to threats or violence, what do you tell them?
I would tell them to listen to Knock You Down because it's the hardest rocking album this decade! Great songs and great musicianship without overdoing it! The album is very well produced and really lives up to it's name and the fact that if you listen to Dynazty, you'll get laid more often! :)

Earlier this year you recorded your new album in Los Angeles, aside from escaping the Swedish winter for a few weeks…how was that whole experience of recording in Los Angeles and playing a show at the Roxy?
The whole trip was awesome! None of us had been to California before, and I must say that I prefer their winter before the Swedish winter :). We worked really hard recording the album for about three weeks, still we found time to explore Hollywood at night. The show at the Roxy was great, and we where really exited to play at such a legendary place. We really enjoyed the Sunset Strip and had lots of wild nights there. We also did a show at the Cat Club. You can find some videos from our time in Hollywood at our website www.Dynazty.com

You released your debut album ‘Bring The Thunder’ in 2009, what do you feel have been some of the biggest changes in the band between your first album release in 2009 and in 2011 having now released Knock You Down?
When we recorded our first album, we had only been a band for about six months. We really wanted to have an album out asap, so we booked the Polar Studio in Stockholm before we had all of the songs for the album done. We all wanted things to move on, and to have an album out was the first step.

This time we had more time writing songs, we had all grown as songwriters and musicians and we're more aware of the making of an album. While recording Knock You Down, we all knew what we wanted to sound like. While recording Bring The Thunder, we didn't have the same clear view of how we wanted to sound.

Now, I think Dynazty sounds more like a unit. We've gone heavier and really found our style.

In terms of your songwriting what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in a Dynazty song?
A heavy riff, a nice groove, a great chorus, lot’s of hard rocking vocals and a smashing guitar solo!

What or who inspires and influences your music the most, in both a lyrical and musical sense?
Very hard to say. We all listen a lot to bands like Whitesnake, Dio, Van Halen. But at the same time we listen to all kinds of music and bands, not necessarily hard rock all the time. Of course, life itself has a major input in our music and our lyrics.

As a bonus track to ‘Knock You Down’ you have recorded a rockin’ cover of the Edwyn Collins song, “A Girl Like You”, what inspired the choice of this song as a cover?
Actually, It was the President of our label that asked us if we wanted to do a cover of that song. We all knew that song from before. So we recorded it, and think It's pretty cool!

Chris Laney, who's work I am very familiar with over the years, mixed your new album and I know you have played with Chris in Zan Clan and in his own band...what is it that you think makes Chris so talented, without giving away all his secrets of course haha!
Chris is truly gifted. He really has ears for music, and he never runs dry of ideas. And he really does anything, and I mean anything to make the result as good as it can.

When I was in Stockholm in June 2011, I finally got my chance to see The Poodles perform, as one of the premiere rock bands in Sweden, how has it been to go out on tour with them on numerous occasions? Have they passed on any words of wisdom upon you guys, such as tips for trying to win the Melodifestivalen?
To go on tour with The Poodles has been great! We had a lot of fun together with them. I think they are a great band, and such nice persons, so hopefully we'll tour together with them soon again.

Having gone through the process of writing, recording and releasing 2 albums, as well as playing a bunch of live shows, I have to ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of being in Dynazty?
The most rewarding aspect as I see it, is to play the music that I love, with the best of friends in front of an audience that appreciates us and what we are doing.

What touring plans do you have during 2011, are the USA and UK in your sights??
We are doing six dates in the UK in October together with Electric Boys. Also we are planning a European tour. We don't have any more dates in the USA this year, but we hope that something shows up!

As far as Rob Love Magnusson is concerned, who have been some of the biggest influences on you as both a guitar player and getting into rock music?
My biggest influence is Yngwie Malmsteen. I discovered him when I was 8 years old. He is one of the reasons I started playing guitar and got me into rock. I listened a lot to him during my childhood and still do. Otherwise I listen a lot to guitarists like Zakk Wylde, John Norum, Kee Marcello and Gary Moore.

With 2011 half way through, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. By the end of 2011, Dynazty will have:
1.Toured Europe and UK
2. Written a third album
3. Been drinking several cases of beer

Dream On, Dreamer

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:07:38 +1000

For Melbourne hardcore band Dream On, Dreamer, August is set to be the bands defining moment, with the worldwide release of their debut album Heartbound via international labels UNFD (Australia), Rise Records (North America, UK, Europe) and Triple Vision (Japan), as well as embarking on their first ever headline national tour. Having recorded Heartbound in the USA with upcoming producer Cameron Mizell (Memphis May Fire, I See Stars, Woe Is Me) at his Florida studio, the band is set to return to the USA later in the year and have Europe dates confirmed for October.

We chatted with bass player Michael McLeod about the recording of the new album and what lies ahead in 2011 for Dream On, Dreamer.

Hey Michael McLeod, thanks for chatting with May The Rock Be With You! You have currently been busy playing a bunch of all ages shows around Victoria, how have those been going and have you snuck some of the new songs into your set?
Yes we have been, we are coming to the end of the all ages tour with Closure In Moscow and Awaken I Am. This has been going really good, it's more of a rural tour with the country kids I guess. It's been a lot of fun and crazy cold as it's randomly cold in some of these places. We have been playing our debut single Downfall from our debut album and then we plan to put in a few more before the tour is over.

So has Downfall been getting a good reaction?
It's been getting a bit of a mixed reaction actually. When we released the song, we also released details of our label choices and a lot of kids when they hear what labels you are working with, will automatically judge you. Which a lot of kids have unfortunately done, so in our case based upon one track off a whole 10 track album. I hope they at least give the whole album a go before they start labelling us or saying whether they like the new sound or not.

In August you are headed out on your first headline national tour, that must be some exciting times coming up!
We are all gearing up at the moment getting the setlist ready and heading out with our friends The Bride and Hands Like Houses and playing the new material as well. We haven't really had a massive chance since being back playing live shows, to play at all.

In October you are off to Europe for about 30 shows, are you going to get a chance to play any shows in Germany where your singer Marcel is from?
We are really excited to be heading overseas to Europe for our first international shows. I almost fell off my seat when I found out about that, so we are really, really excited to see what comes of everything. We are playing in Germany, so Marcel gets to head home and show his mates and family what he's been doing and what he has given up to get there. He came to Australia not knowing many people and risking it all to better himself in the music industry. So to come back to Germany and show his family and friends what he has achieved will be pretty surreal.

You are very soon about to release your first album Heartbound which I am sure you can't wait to get out there. Heartbound is also getting a worldwide release as well, which is awesome...
It's mind blowing to have the support of such influential and massive labels. In the back of your mind we obviously want out debut album to do really, really well and to have those labels backing you up is great to know.

Heartbound the album title, what inspired that?
That was a lot of sleepless nights. We came up with that in the USA whilst we were recording and it was hard to come up with an album title that a lot of people will remember and to have 6 people agree on the one thing was quite a task. We are happy what we ended up coming up with and we hope everyone else is too.

Lyrically what ground did you cover in this album?
It is a lot more personal than our Hope EP. Marcel and myself have been through a lot in the last year, so we have been trying to bring a lot more personal messages with life I guess. Stuff about love and about how we see the world and how we want to see the world. We hope that kids will go away and interpret the songs and whether they see things differently or know exactly what's going on. For me, I have always heard songs and I've been like, wow he's singing exactly what I feel, I wish I could rewrite that song or have written it. I suppose in a sense we hope kids can relate to the album.

When did you first start the writing process for the album?
I suppose a lot of kids when a new album hits the shelves think it's all brand new and exciting. But for the bands concerned they have been working on this material for 6 months to a year or more. So we are really exited to get this out and play live, but it's been something we have been involved with for about 6 to 8 months, since the writing stage. This all starts in our guitarists studio and then we do a skeleton of the song. Having 6 people in the band means a lot of decisions and back and forth to try and get what we all wanted and will be happy with at the end of the day.

When you are writing a Dream On Dreamer song, what do you think are the trademark ingredients?
I suppose the key ingredients would be all instruments, as we don't want to leave anyone out haha! It's hard because Callan does pretty much all the writing of the songs and then they're given to each member, then they put their own spin on things. So it's not so black and white, you want to get what you want in there and make sure everyone's happy.

How was the experience of working in Florida with Cameron, aside from maybe the sun haha…
It was pretty much an experience that is still a bit surreal. Still to this day it's like, wow we went to America to record our debut album. He has worked with a lot of bands we are fans of and he himself is a great producer and musician so it was all roses for us over there.

What led you to heading over to the USA, was Cameron the guy you had specifically targeted for this album...
We did try and stuck our fingers in a few pies there and we were amazed that Cam even wanted to work with us. He has worked on some albums that we listen to ourselves and to have a producer who you are pretty stoked to be with was great.

How much of the recording had you done before heading over?
We had probably done about 4 to 6 months of work. Callan actually runs a studio in the back of his home so we had done a lot of pre production and pretty much had everything we wanted to do done, all we had to do was get it to the States and work with Cam. We are really happy with how it's all turned out and we did a lot of experimenting whilst we were in there, so all in all it was an experience we will never forget.

Compared to the experience of recording you EP's, how did you compare the experience of recording your full length album?
It's definitely a whole different thing as you have about 10 to 12 tracks you are working with and not all of them are going to be hit singles. Yet with an EP, you are only working with 4 to 6 songs and it's a lot easier to get your hits on the EP, whereas an album you have to take it a lot more serious and work to get all the songs the way you want and also different. We didn't want a CD that sounded from Track 1 to Track 10 like it was 1 track mixed together. So we did take it a lot more serious and there was a bit of pressure given our name is getting out there and we had such a great response with the Hope EP and we wanted to back that up with hopefully a high quality album!

You have now released a couple of high quality video clips for your singles, is this visual representing something you place high importance on?
A lot of the kids are so different, even the way people learn, whether it be visually, or hands on or by listening to things. That's what we were trying to tick the boxes with a visual aspect and a listening aspect. So that's where we took the path with video clips in the past and we have had a lot of fun doing them, I suppose it adds that extra element to anything you release which is what we were going for.

Here's a chance to describe the Dream On Dreamer live experience, how would you describe your live show?
I would say it's an energetic show and we try and involve kids as much as we can. There's nothing worse than going to a show and feel like you are there watching a 50 year old standing playing guitar. You want to feel involved and we try to do that by getting everyone involved with clapping and singing and having a fun time and we have a fun time doing it as well. If it's 5 or 500 kids, we will give it everything we've got.

What is it about Dream On Dreamer you feel differentiates you from the rest of the hardcore pack?
It's a hard thing to answer, I don't want to blow our own trumpet, but I suppose we try and relate to the kids. Fans are everything to a band and for a musician to not give their fans the time of day is like shooting yourself in the foot. We are willing to talk to anyone and everyone after a show or before the show or give them advice or whatever. A lot of kids look up to you and the way you go about making them feel like a fan or a friend you have to do what you have to do. I suppose we have worked hard and we aren't a band who has just popped up over night, we have years behind us. We are giving it everything we can and taking it as far as we can!

Before we wrap this up, did you have any final words for all the Dream On, Dreamer fans out there....
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to chat with you and to anyone who has supported us or helped us get to where we are, we are forever grateful and we hope you continue to support us. Keep an eye on our Facebook etc and we will hopefully be in your town soon!

Be sure to catch Dream On, Dreamer on their upcoming national tour and of course buy the new album on August 5th when released....

THE HEARTBOUND TOUR: with special guests The Bride and Hands Like Houses  TICKETS ON SALE NOW    Tuesday, August 16th - Billionaire, Brisbane 18+ Tickets available at the Door. Say Dream On Dreamer for cheaper entry.   Wednesday, August 17th - Sun Distortion, Brisbane AA (Public Holiday) Tickets available from http://oztix.com.au and on the door   Thursday, August 18 - Hot Damn, Sydney 18+ Tickets available at the Door. Say Dream On Dreamer for cheaper entry.   Friday, August 19th - Campbelltown PCYC, Campbelltown AA Tickets available from http://www.moshtix.com.au and on the door if available   Saturday, August 20th - Masonic Hall, Blacktown AA Tickets available from http://www.moshtix.com.au and on the door if available   Sunday August 21st - Loudfest* @ Annandale Hotel, Sydney AA With Buried in Verona, Sienna Skies, Resist The Thought, In Hearts Wake, Northlane, Endless Heights, Stories, Hearts Like Wolves. *The Bride & Hands Like Houses will not be playing this date.  Tickets available from http://www.oztix.com.au and on the door if available.   Wednesday, August 24th - Tuggeranong Youth Centre, Canberra AA Tickets available from http://www.oztix.com.au and on the door if available   Friday August 26th - The Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne 18+ Tickets available from http://www.oztix.com.au and on the door if available   Saturday August 27th - Old Gaol, Mt Gambier Lic AA Doors @ 6pm With Lake Nyos, A Dead Silence and Admella Tickets available via http://www.oztix.com.au and on the door if available   Sunday, August 28th - Higherground, Adelaide Lic AA Doors @ 4:30pm With Lake Nyos, A Dead Silence and Graveyards Tickets available via http://www.oztix.com.au and on the door if available

Sister

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:13:52 +1000

For all you Swedish sleaze rock loving people out there, then Sister are a band you need to get onto pronto, that is, if they haven’t already found you! With their debut album Hated dropping a few weeks ago, Sister are armed and ready to join the likes of Crashdiet and Hardcore Superstar leading the charge of the Swedish sleaze movement that’s invading ear drums worldwide...including right here in Australia! The Soundwave Festival 2012 Facebook page certainly experienced that recently with an avalanche of support for bands like Sister, Crashdiet, Hardcore Superstar, Crazy Lixx to be added to next years lineup.

Raw, sleazy, loud, heavy and addictive...that’s what you can expect from Sister and Hated.

Hey Rikki, thanks for taking the time to chat with May The Rock Be With You in Australia! First things first, to help introduce the band to our readers, can you give a bit of an explanation of what Sister as a band is all about and stands for?
We've been playing together since about 2006. There's been a few member changes in that time, I started playing about 4 years ago and our guitarist has only been in the band for 2 years. We just started out basically as we all listen to the same music and we had the same goal. Now it's really easy to be in this band as we are all really focussed on what we want to do. There's a lot of bands here in Sweden so we have to push a bit extra to get what we want as there is a lot of bands out there playing similar styles of music.

What have you tried to do to differentiate yourselves from the rest of those bands in Sweden you mentioned?
Well it just came natural basically, it wasn't anything we had planned as such to look the way we do. I think also our music has gotten a bit heavier through time.

A month or so ago you released your new album Hated, when did you first start working on that and how long did the recording process take all up?
It was funny as we had some interest from different labels, some really big, but nothing really came through. We decided pretty much exactly one year ago that we wanted to do a new record in the autumn, with or without a label. That didn't really matter, we were just focussed on doing something. Then Metal Blade contacted us and everything fitted into our time plan and they gave us pretty much total freedom to do what we wanted. So we started recording in December and we had discussed how you can do a lot of the recording yourselves these days. We worked with Martin Sweet from Crashdiet and Calle Faldt from Deranged who we worked with on the EP. So we knew we could record in their studio and then we knew we could put all the money on the mix, that's the main focus to get a good sound.

Speaking about the mix, you worked with Tobias Lindell in mixing the Hated album who is one of the bigger name Swedish mixers/producers at the moment…how was it working with him? What did you say to him as far as the sound you wanted for this album?
Well we thought we would have to give him a lot of direction with the sound we were after, which was basically a live sound, to keep that punk edge. He pretty much nailed it with the first shot, we changed a few little things, but basically from the start he knew what we wanted and it turned out perfectly, he really knows what he is doing.

What is the songwriting process in the band, is this a few key players, or shared?
Lestat our guitarist is pretty much the main songwriting person. He comes to rehearsal with some ideas for songs and then we arrange it together and finish the song from there.

When writing a Sister song, what are some of the key ingredients that must feature in a musical sense?
Well it just comes naturally and everybody knows what they want. When we are preparing the songs, we all fight for sometime as everyone thinks they are right. Then when we are all calmer we can focus a bit more, but it's a lot of talking and fighting in rehearsal when we are writing. We all have pretty strong personalities in this band haha!

One specific song I was interested to find a little more out about…Would You Love A Creature, what inspired that song both musically and lyrically?
Actually, that was a song Lestat did before he joined Sister and it was a pretty personal song, so he wasn't convinced he wanted it on the album. But we convinced him that we really thought that song would add some diversity. We didn't want a typical power ballad or 80's ballad. We just kept it simple with 12 string guitars and our singing.

Do you have any specific songs off the album that were your personal favourites to sing whilst recording?
The fav songs for the whole band I think is Bullshit & Backstabbing and Hated. But after hearing the album now 5,000 times, for me it’s also Spit On Me and Too Bad For You which is a bit more of a Rancid, punky song.

Are you guys planning on releasing a video clip anytime soon for any of the songs off the album?
Actually, we haven't told anybody yet as it's maybe not official, but I will tell you now, we are hoping to record a video this month hopefully. But what song it's going to be, we will keep that a secret haha! It's going to be a massive video coming out soon and I think it's really important these days to have a video. Even if you don't have as much music on TV, like in Sweden there is nothing right now. So it will be good to have that on the Internet as we are such a visual band.

What are the musical influences in the band, do they vary greatly?
We pretty much listen to everything. I listen to everything from Credence to Pantera. This week I have listened to a lot of Vains of Jenna which is a cool band from Sweden, but they have had some changes and haven't heard much since Lizzy left the band. But of course we find inspiration in a lot of music really.

Sister started back in about 2005 and you have largely been an “underground” band up until now when you signed with Metal Blade records. It must be awesome knowing that your album is being distributed pretty much worldwide through Metal Blade!
Yes it's a really good thing with them as they are a global label so you get that chance to be exposed all over the world. I don't why exactly, but the last few weeks there seems to be a focus on Australia which seems to be a really cool country.

Here in Australia, Swedish rock, particularly sleaze has a cult following…Hardcore Superstar toured a few years ago, as did the Deathstars and later this year, Crashdiet are coming out, so yes it’s certainly a country where the Swedish sleaze bands are starting to get more of a following.
I actually have an Australian friend from Melbourne and they say that it's a pretty good scene over there with a lot of people into hard rock. Of course you have bands like AC/DC and Airbourne that are from there, but theres the whole interest in sleaze rock too. It would be a great place to play one day.

You have a bunch of cool shows coming up later in the year, one in August playing with WASP, DAD, UDO, Hardcore Superstar and a bunch of others, then you have a tour in November/December with UDO and Sister Sin. Is heaps of touring your plans for the rest of 2011 now the album is out?
Yes we want to tour asses off right now. We could go out on tour and never come back! We want to focus on Europe for now or maybe then head over to America or Australiaaaa! So let's hope we can expand all over the world.

Definitely, you will have to get in contact with Martin Sweet (Crashdiet) after they have been out here to Australia and hopefully they will have had an awesome experience with lot’s of people coming out for the shows.
I am really envious of them, I didn't know they were heading over to Australia. Maybe next time Scott we can do an interview in Melbourne, Australia haha!

Done deal Rikki!!

Check out our review of ‘Hated’ right here.....

Centred Self

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:30:41 +1000

From Bio: Centred Self was created towards the end of 2008, quickly gaining the attention of fans and respect of peers in the Sydney live music scene.   With a strong live presence and music that reflects the diverse influences of its members, Centred Self refuses to be labelled or fall into battered clichés; and instead focuses on creating high energy, challenging, yet accessible music for everyone.

Their debut EP – Measure of Madness is out and we had a chat to Centred Self guitarist Symon Madry about the band.

Let's start with the basics first – how long has the band been together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
Allan and I first got together in mid 2008 and just started jamming out some riffs. 'Neverland', which is on our current EP was born out of that very first jam! We've gone through some line up changes since, but the band in its current form has been together since mid 2010. 
The name was Allan's epiphany (allegedly it came to him while in the shower). Everyone gets something different from it (the name, not Allan's shower). For me it's about being centred and knowing the potential once in tune with one's self. Whether you call that a consciousness or soul, or something more corporeal, I guess that's an individual thing. It's quite humanist for this day and age and isn't without a touch of ego, I guess.

Can you introduce each member of the band and give us a rock ‘n’ roll fact or myth about each?
 Scott Marcus (vox) - he is part cherub, which I guess explains his amazing vocal ability. He once impregnated an entire women's softball team, simply by looking in their direction Sean Mason (bass) - Sean has the amazing ability to weave long winded stories and fail to arrive at the point. In the end, you feel like someone owes you a significant amount of time. Like after reading "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Man that book shit me. Allan O'Rourke (drums) - all rumours about the beard are true. Once when he developed a cold, I offered to rub Vicks in it  Symon Madry (guitar) - is constantly disappointed by Allan declining to allow him to rub Vicks in his beard. This is simply misdirected jeaslouly due to his own folliclular inadequacies 
You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your Measure of Madness EP, what do you tell them?
I'd hit the emergency stop, beat them unconscious and take them back to the CS dungeon and leave the EP on endless repeat for three days. Then I'd chaperone them back to the original scene of the crime, apologise for any inconvenience and ask them to tell their friends.   Unless their friends are the police. Or they're the police. Could they be the police? I'd have to make an educated guess as to their likelihood of being law enforcement, but it's a good plan I feel. 
In terms of your song writing, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in one of your songs?
A good riff or hook. I always listen out for a song's distinct character, and that most typically comes through that riff that makes you stand up and take note. We get bored very quickly if the song doesn't take you somewhere. A song's like a spoiled child: it screams what it wants or needs, and you just have to provide it. There's no use forcing an idea on it if it just doesn't fit. 
The three songs on the EP with two of them clocking in over 6 minutes are leaning towards the prog rock genre of epic tracks, this is far from the commercial side of the music industry, when did you decide that this was the way to go rather than trying to write 3:30 songs for the radio?
The lengthy tracks were never something that we consciously decided on. But by the same token, our sound isn't commercial so there's no use sticking to conventions of a genre we have no interest in being a part of.  We did try to write a 3 minute track once, and within itself it was a good song, but it just wasn't CS. We haven't ruled out revisiting those riffs or hooks to see what new material we can come up with, but in its current form, it's unlikely to be heard from again. 
What or who inspires/influences your music the most, in both a lyrical or musical sense?
What's great about CS is the depth and range of influences of each member, which then comes through in the music. Listening back I can identify a song or band I was stuck on at the time. FNM, Soundgarden, Opeth, Mastodon, Dream Theater, Tesseract, Periphery, Tool, The Ocean, Devin Townsend, Sevendust... We've had a few comparisons to SOAD lately, which is interesting because while we like those guys we wouldn't count them as a particularly strong influence. I think Scott takes a lot of his lyrical inspiration from life, and particularly its little ironies and human idiosyncrasies.  
What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your album?
I grew up with a lot of music being played through the house, be it on the stereo or by dad on the piano down the hall. There was a lot of Beatles, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Sting... those classic songwriters. And I guess that's something we keep coming back to: there's no point displaying technical skills if the song isn't cohesive and sections don't flow or relate to each other. It's one of the criticisms I have with genres like djent. While I'll listen to Periphery, Tesseract and Animals as Leaders I think it's resulting in a lot of younger bands just stringing a whole bunch of sweep-picking, finger tapping and polyrhythmic bedroom exercises together and calling it a song. Again, I have a lot of respect for their technical ability but I have a feeling it could go the way of becoming the 'new nu metal'.
 Having gone through the process of writing, recording and releasing your EP, as well as playing live shows....I have to ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of doing what you do with Centred Self?
It sounds cliché, but there's nothing better than someone telling you that they enjoy your music - whether it be at a gig, or after listening to your CD - or even at the rehearsal rooms, which has happened a few times. Either we're playing too loud, or the soundproofing needs immediate addressing.
 Are there plans for an album in the near future?
We've actually just started pre-production on a full length album that we hope to record at the end of the year, with a likely release in early 2012. It's pretty exciting as we'll get to lay down some new tracks that most wouldn't have heard outside the occasional gig (or through the walls!). Still, it's a long process and there are many arguments be had. The main thing we'll try and do is capture the energy and vibe of us four, and enhance that through what we hope will be a full on sonic experience.
 You’ve developed quite a live following in Sydney, what touring plans do you have for the remainder of 2011? Where can people catch you performing live?
While we're in album mode I think the gigging will be sparse, and there's not much planned at the moment. Best thing people can do to get a taste of our sound is have a listen on the interwebs and check in regularly to our Facebook for any listed gigs.
 What is it about Centred Self that differentiates you from other bands out there?
I think it's a combination of things. We like to think of ourselves as prog, but easily accessible; we challenge ourselves as musicians but don't alienate the audience with over-the-top technical wankery. We also bring in a lot of different influences and elements. And we're not afraid of a major chord, which can be a rare thing at some heavier gigs!   But the biggest difference I think is that at our core are good songs. We're not content to chug away on power chords and blast beats for minutes on end. I write a lot of riffs and chord progressions on an acoustic guitar, or clean amp setting so if your were to strip it all down you'd still have the foundation of a solid song. Or at least I hope!
 With 2011 half way through, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. By the end of 2011, Centred Self will have:
1. Recorded its first full length album (*cheer*) 2. Hopefully won over a few more fans (hopefully without getting in trouble with law enforcement) 3. Set ourselves up well for 2012!

MofoIsDead

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:42:12 +1000

FROM BIO:
“It’s like Muse having sex with Guns N’ Roses… and then having a baby called Radiohead.”
MofoIsDead are a truly impressive rock band, creating a fresh blend from their eclectic influences. Frontman Paul Galagher is renowned for his milkshake fetish, phenomenal vocals and Zeppelin-esque guitar skills. His vision and passion for epic rock ditties has produced a pure and international sound for MofoIsDead’s debut release Nubile. The raw, ferocious beats, rock riffs and hooky melodies take you on a tour of musical angst and despair, while the spine-tingling vocals and lyrics draw you in completely.

For a band that is displaying this kind of quality as their debut unsigned release, the journey promises to be a long and successful one to say the least.

We spoke to Paul about the band and were happy to make them one of our Best things you’ve never heard…

Let's start with the basics first – how long has the band been together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
Technically we brought the band to life early 2007. Shortly after we played our first 2 shows (Brisbane & Gold Coast) I relocated to London UK mid 2007, for reasons I'm still unsure of, so we weren't much of a band for the 12-18 months following, however this was when & where the recording process for the album began.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your CD 'Nubile’, what do you tell them?
It's like your first acid trip... you might sit there for a while wondering when or if it's going to hit you, then somewhat unexpectedly you just feel it melting your face.

Even though it seems that you have had more drummers than Spinal Tap, can you introduce each member of the band and give us a rock ‘n’ roll fact or myth about each?
Well we've only really had one official drummer, Queezy Beats, but several drummers played with us in the UK as our main man was unable to join us internationally at the time. Queezy was with us in the beginning, and has been with us since I returned home in 2009. Queezy Beats is an enigma.

In London, there were quite a few painful auditions, but the 2 that ended up on the record were Roy Pfeffer, and the incomparable Eric "The Machine" Ford. I wish we could've had Queezy there to track the whole album, but working with Eric was really awesome, he brought something special to 'The Pretty Ones' and 'The Vulcanologist'.

'Colonel' John Slattery was our original bassist, resigning early 2010 to pursue parenthood. Juddy Jeffs was the obvious choice to fill his shoes, as I've worked with Juddy in other bands since 2002. Juddy lives by the mantra "you're born, you do some shit, and you die".
My name is Paul Galagher. I like milkshakes.

I’ve seen you say that the recording of the ‘Nubile’ was informal and sporadic, give us some insight into just how the album took shape and came to be released?
The long version...
It officially began accidentally. I was super broke at the time, in London UK. My good friend Damien Dean (and audio engineer who'd relocated to London a few years prior to me) and I were tinkering with a program called BFD late one night, and ended up building a drum track for one of the MofoIsDead tunes titled Inevitability. We liked it so much it ended up on the final cut. We soon decided it would be rad to record more tracks and make a record. We wanted to use real drums but Queezy was unable to make the trip over, so we began the hunt for local talent. We managed to salvage one track of drums from a demo Queezy had recorded with us in 2007, which ended up being the final track on the album. Colonel (our original bassist) flew over for 3 months for the bulk of the recording, and a few live shows. Originally we were planning to make an EP, but after 6 songs were done, we decided to record 3 more that were written, and added a little instrumental I had in my vault.   In the end we recorded 4 tracks of drums in the basement of a theatre Damien was working at with Roy Pfeffer, and a couple of months later recorded 2 more tracks of drums with Eric Ford in the cheapest rehearsal room in London. We also recorded most of the guitar tracks at this rehearsal room because the amps they had in the rooms were exactly what I wanted, and it was cheaper than hiring the amps from a hire company. Most of the vocals were done in Damien's spare bedroom, which also became my place of rest for my last 3 months in London. 'Darkness Splendour' was recorded in my mum's garage. We ended up re-tracking the bass parts in Melbourne after I returned home in 2009. A few additional percussion tracks were laid by Queezy.

We began mixing with Damien whilst I was still in London, but I later finished the mixing myself in Brisbane & the Gold Coast (and on planes to and from The Falkland Islands, Cyprus, and London).

Once we were happy with the mixes I flew down to Sydney to have it mastered at 301. Steve Smart was the official mastering engineer, but we had my dear friend Greg Clarke (and his dog Chai) sit in with us to ensure maximum phatness. 12 hours later, it was done. As far as a release goes, we ended up doing it 100% independent; iTunes for digital and BigCartel for physical. We've learned a thing or 2 since then, and the next record will see a much more formal release process, and hopefully more exposure.

My personal favourite on the album is incidentally the first single ‘Love Me’ I dig the meaning behind the song but what I want to know about is the cats in the video. Is there a story there?
Cats are Love Vacuums. Enough said.  
In terms of your song writing, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in one of your songs?
I guess the transportation factor. I like songs that take you to another place, whether you like it or not, so I suppose that's what I try to achieve in my writing. No particular format or instrument is essential for me.

On the flip side, what or who inspires/influences your music the most, in both a lyrical or musical sense?
Lyrically I like to write from real experiences, usually exhausting ones, be it things that I've gone through or watched loved ones go through. As for other artists inspiring me, Maria Taylor is probably at the top of my list. Musically I've taken inspiration from a LOT of artists, everyone from Sinatra to Slipknot.

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your album?
Guns N' Roses were my bible as a kid. Led Zeppelin, Billy Thorpe, AC/DC, early Ben Harper, and Better Than Ezra were all big influences. There was always a lot of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles playing when I was a kid, so that stuff's all embedded in me somewhere. The GN'R influence probably shows the most on Nubile.

Having gone through the process of writing, recording and releasing your CD, as well as playing live shows....I have to ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of doing what you do with MofoIsDead?
People's reaction to the music. When people are genuinely blown away and fall in love with the music, that's the biggest reward for me. People's compliments are usually accompanied by profanities, in a good way. Some money would be nice too.

Seeing you perform some of the songs acoustically with just you and a guitar really gave the tunes a different feel, how does it feel to take these rather heavy rock songs and be able to perform them acoustically?
In the moment it felt surprisingly good, but I found it a little frustrating doing these songs solo. The limitation of being born with only two hands bores me. I really enjoy the layers of the songs working together. I would enjoy doing the songs acoustically if I had two more arms to play some piano and percussion at the same time. I thought we would've had that kind of genetic-engineering technology by 2011, but I were wrong.

What touring plans do you have during 2011? Where can people catch you performing live?
Our plans are to play to as many fresh faces as possible, whenever we can afford to lose money, which is not very often at present. We're doing Canberra, Wooloongong, Lismore and Byron in July with Sydney band Syndicate, and we plan to get down to Sydney, Melbourne and hopefully Adelaide around October - check mofoisdead.com for tour info. Whoever said money can’t buy you happiness is an idiot. Touring makes us happy, and you can't tour without money, ergo money buys happiness.

With 2011 half way through, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. By the end of 2011, MofoIsDead will have:
1. A proper manager!?
2. Enough gnarly tunes for a 2nd record.
3. More fans.

Check out our review of ‘Nubile’ right here.....

Devine Electric

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:25:40 +1000

Devine Electric is an Australian Hard Rock band formed in Sydney, N.S.W. 2005. Emerging through the breakup of bands: Tommy Gun (Eli, Ivor), Dark Order (Zoran), Powerhead (Paul) and Zino who was at the wrong place at the right time. At a time when pretentious and lack lustre acts were dominating the local Sydney venues - Devine Electric brought a raw and uplifting form of dirty rock crashing back into the local scene.
 All band members have often been noted for their diversity and range in song writing; from their hard edged “Devine Highway”, “Rock Bottom”, to the more vulnerable and sensitive “Sweet Temptation” and “Shylove”. Devine Electric’s music is solid, bluesy, raw and honest- everything a good hard rock band should be. 
Guitarist Ivor Radocaj hit us up and we found them very worthy of being one of our Best Things You’ve Never Heard…

Let's start with the basics first – how long has the band been together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
We’ve been together since 2005, but did split up for around 2 years during that period; now we can’t resist each other! The band name is the brainchild of our drummer Paul...like all good things came to him whilst sitting on the Thomas Crapper!

Can you introduce each member of the band and give us a rock ‘n’ roll fact or myth about each?
I’ll give it a shot!
Eli Reskov - lead vocalist, and has flown the flag for the rock/glam scene in Sydney for a good time now, kept it alive especially when it wasn’t the trend, these days everyone’s in a rock band!
Zoran Mrakic – Bass guitar and “Metal God”, very experienced campaigner, solid through and through, can weed out fakeness in anybody.
Zino Zei-Nero – Lead Guitar and the contagious positive energy that the band members and audiences feed off.
Paul Corben – Drums and a having a bloody good time activist, very thorough in his field!
Ivor Radocaj – Lead Guitar and mama of the band who always has a spare plectrum ready at his disposal.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your new EP ‘Excuse The Mess’, without resorting to threats or violence, what do you tell them?
No threats or violence? Impossible!

In terms of your song writing, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in a Devine Electric song?
No ingredients in particular, we all just have to be really happy with it and not do anything below par. Each song has to be taken to its full potential.

On the flip side, what or who inspires/influences your music the most, in both a lyrical or musical sense?
We all have vast influences; it all seems to stem from the 70’s and 80’s. From early AC/DC, INXS, Aerosmith to stuff like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.

Following on from that, what bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard on your EP?
Bands like Thin Lizzy and Queen have definitely opened our eyes about intelligent arrangements, harmonies and making a band’s diversity really work; which we as a band are really conscience of. On the other hand, groups like Rose Tattoo and AC/DC always showed us the power of lyrics and simplicity in songs where less is more a lot of the time.

I picked up a copy of your debut EP ‘Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece’ at a show a couple of years back, how do you feel as a band you’ve grown in the two year period between EP’s?
In terms of growth, we’re actually going backwards; we’re like teenage imbeciles again! But song wise we have definitely nailed it more this time and the production is a lot better than the last E.P. – which we had a zero budget for.

Devine Electric have scored a few big supports over the years such as Stryper, Pretty Boy Floyd and Rose Tattoo, who stands out as the one you were blown away by the most?
Supporting Pretty Boy Floyd and Rose Tattoo were massive honours but the Stryper tour really blew us away. They were the most humble and professional guys you could ever meet and can back it up every night with flawless shows. A very much underrated rock band and a shame they’re not taken seriously enough due to their Christian orientated lyrical content.

Did any of them give you any advice as a newer band trying to get noticed?
Michael Sweet from Stryper gave us some good advice about keeping at it, to keep recording as we’re only gonna get better. Supporting all these bands in general was very educational for us as a band.

Now seeing you guys play a few times there is definitely an energy on stage, at times it was like you were playing to 20,000 people instead of the 1,000 there. What if anything do you feel Devine Electric does differently to stand out as a live band?
We aren’t fake, what you see on stage is the real deal, we don’t change back into ourselves after the show, because it is ourselves performing up there, whether it be in front of 10 people or 10,000 people.

So, having gone through the process of writing, recording and releasing your EP, as well as playing live shows....I have to ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of doing what you do with Devine Electric?
Definitely the live shows, we love playing live and seeing the reactions of the crowd... even when they’re negative hahahaha.

What touring plans do you have during 2011? Where can people catch you performing live?
We’ll be doing a bunch of shows in Sydney like we normally do and also working on some dates for Melbourne which we always love coming to, as well as Adelaide and Canberra. Fingers crossed for some shows in Europe and the States in 2012.

With 2011 half way through, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. By the end of 2011, Devine Electric will have:
1. Its very own Magazine
2. Be sponsored by Jack Daniels
3. Have its own figurines on sale in Kmart

Check out our review of ‘Excuse The Mess’ right here.....

Heroes For Hire

Mon, 9 May 2011 22:10:10 +1000

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
Riding high on the success of their debut album and a non-stop touring schedule, Sydney’s pop-punk rulers, HEROES FOR HIRE are excited to announce the release of their 2nd full-length album Take One For The Team on May 13, through Shock Records.

HEROES FOR HIRE made the jump from the highways of Australia to stereos worldwide, with their debut album Life Of The Party in April last year, a record any passing fan of Blink 182, Fall Out Boy and New Found Glory would be instantly enamoured of. Not surprisingly, their catchy-as-hell lead track Bright Lights In Paradise snagged the attention of Triple J Unearthed, who awarded the band the only Australian spot on the Sydney leg of the 2010 Soundwave Festival. The album debuted at #4 on the AIR charts, and held strong before peaking at #3 a few weeks later.

Since then, HEROES FOR HIRE have been gallivanting around the country on national tours with Fireworks, Boys Like Girls, House VS Hurricane, Hot Chelle Rae and The Wonder Years, as well as landing slots on the Come Together festival, and the inaugural No Sleep Til festival. They most recently completed a national support run with iconic San Diego pop-punks Unwritten Law, and they are about to hit the road again for the massive This Is Bat Country tour with Short Stack this July! Phew!

Even though the HEROES touring schedule would break a lesser band, the quintet still found the time to head to Baltimore, USA (in November/December) to complete their sophomore release Take One For The Team with esteemed producer Paul Leavitt, who had previously worked with All Time Low, Senses Fail and many more.

Take One For The Team is set for release on May 13, 2011 through SHOCK RECORDS and the band’s vocalist Brad took one for the team in answering our questions!

Let's start with the formalities first, as there are probably a bunch of our readers who are not familiar with the band – how long has the band been together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
We started the band in 2006 and have had a few member changes here and there. The band name was just something that I randomly came out with one day in the hope we could dress up for a photo shoot one day...this is still yet to happen 5 years on!

Can you briefly introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each?
Right, well I’m Brad. My rock n roll myth would be that I don’t smell bad.
Potter is our bass player and his fact would be that he could out-drink almost anyone.
Lee is our drummer and the fact is that he is a bastard.
Duane is our guitarist / other singer and a fact is that he writes awesome songs even though he looks like a possum.
Lastly is Alex, who plays guitar as well. A fact about Alex would be that his family's homemade Rakia (look it up) is a terribly awesome beverage.

Your 2nd album 'Take One For The Team' is due out on May 13th. How would you compare the songs you aimed for on this album compared to the awesome rock we hear on your first album?
I feel this album is the next step we needed to take; it’s a more fun upbeat album that really shows what our band really stands for. We also went into this record with the goal of writing a record as opposed to just random songs we had ready.

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in a Heroes For Hire song?
Meat pies and beers.

You headed to USA to record the album with producer Paul Leavitt. What drew you to Paul to make you head over to the USA to work with him on this album?
We kicked around a few names and Paul’s kept coming up, he had worked on a lot of records we liked. We decided it would be an adventure to record in Baltimore then try and make it to Perth for the no sleep till tour so we went for it!

In terms of production and sound, having benefitted from the experience of your first album, what did you set out to achieve on this, your second release?
We just really wanted to make a more flowing upbeat record that all fit together a lot better than our last record and I feel like we have really nailed that on this record, this record is a lot more fun.

Having given the promo release of the album and a few spins, I have to say one of my favourite songs on the album is 'No Milk Will Ever Be Our Milk, with it's crunching guitar riffs. What is the lyrical inspiration behind this song and do you have any interesting stories to share from writing and recording this song?
More than likely we went to O'Sheas, the pub next to the studio, at some stage during the recording to eat Baltimore crab soup and drink cheap tall cans of beer, then maybe watch a ravens NFL game.

From my own interpretation at least, the genre of pop punk is certainly dominated by the likes of American bands such as New Found Glory and my own personal favourite, Bowling For Soup. How have you found the Australian market responding to the pop punk style of Heroes For Hire?
Australia has a long history of pop punk with Frenzal rhomb, the hard ons, Bodyjar and so on popping up. We try and do our own thing and just play good shows. Some of our friends in pop punk bands are killing it at the moment like Tonight Alive, Short Stack, Skyway and Highways.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your brand spanking new CD 'Take One For The Team', what do you tell them?
"Want to hear the new lady gaga record?".

What or who inspires/influences your music the most, in both a lyrical or musical sense?
We write songs from our life experiences whether it is about friends, family, Girlfriends, partying or something we caught from that girl at the club last night.

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your album?
The usual suspects, Blink 182, New Found Glory, NOFX, and Frenzal Rhomb. They are all bands that world wide made this genre what it is and had a huge part in the members of this band even liking music.

Having gone through the process of writing, recording and now releasing your two CD's, as well as playing a whole bunch of live shows all around Australia....I gotta ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of being in Heroes For Hire?
The fact that we get to meet so many amazing people out on the road whether it be other bands, fans or random people on the street. That and the fact we get a rider with alcohol in it now.

What touring plans do you have during 2011 beyond the upcoming tour with fellow Aussies Short Stack?
We have some rad shit lined up for the rest of the year but as usual can’t say too much just yet.

Speaking of touring, you have certainly done your fair share of live shows around the country in support of overseas touring bands. What have been some of the key experiences you have picked up from no doubt hanging out with bands such as Unwritten Law, Boys Like Girls and those that played on the No Sleep Till. Festival etc?
We definitely learnt that you need to give 110% every time! Whether kids are into it or not, those bands put on tight amazing shows day after day. It really is amazing to watch.

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, Heroes For Hire will have:
1. A broken down van
2. Lots of frequent flyer miles
3. Non-existent bank accounts

The Great Valley

Wed, 4 May 2011 20:30:53 +1000

Catchy Power Pop Rock music just isn’t done that much anymore, and that makes me somewhat sad as it should be a genre taking over the Universe. Luckily a band like The Great Valley has come along to keep that tradition of hooks and catchy choruses going and they should be thanked for that. We thought them so very worthy of being one of our Best Things You’ve Never Heard and were able to have singer Louis Matos answer some questions for us and share with you all just why you should check out The Great Valley and their debut album ‘Ruthless.’

For those that haven’t had the pleasure of hearing of you, can you give us a little brief on just who The Great Valley are?
We are two brothers that have been playing music together for over a decade. We released our first EP in April 2010 and our first Full Length in March 2011. We come from a musical family. Our parents are musicians and have always supported us in our endeavor.

Growing up together obviously, being brothers and all, but when did you finally realize that you needed to make music together?
We knew at a young age what we wanted to do. We were surrounded by it our entire lives. Mom played the piano and sang all day and dad played the drums. I was 12 or 13 and Nick was 11 when we picked up our rock instruments. We had been playing piano and singing in choir for our mother years before that.
 With only the ‘Wrecking Ball EP’ out in 2010 how was it that you captured the attention of AOL?
It just had a big sound that caught their ear. Wrecking Ball is just one of those songs that is so catchy with a demographic that is much wider than some of the bands with more records under their belt.

From that you recorded a ‘Stripped’ session where you did 3 songs acoustically, how surreal was that being a relatively unknown band with primarily an on line fan base to be given that kind of opportunity?
It felt great that people actually wanted to hear more from us. It's something that we have aspired to be and want to continue to give fans what they love. Some even prefer the stripped down versions but I will always love the full band "in your face" versions.
 Your ‘Wrecking Ball EP’ was released in early 2010 and your album’ Ruthless’ released early 2011 within a year of the EP release. How important was it to have the album out so quickly?
We immediately started writing for Ruthless as soon as we released Wrecking Ball. The songs on the EP, except Wrecking Ball, were written two years prior to the release. It was such a struggle for us to get the music out so we were so determined to never let that happen again. Hence, we have the quick follow up with Ruthless. We have never been happier with our music. Now the hard part will be to continue to surpass the song writing on Ruthless with the next release which we are already planning the writing and recording of. Very early stages haha

What if anything did you do differently for the recording of ‘Ruthless’?
Ruthless was done differently than any other recording we have ever done. Nick and I have been writing and recording for as long as we have been playing together. Nothing really ever made it out until WB. We have been in and out of studios and finally just said, "Let's do something different and more relaxing on our own time". And that's exactly what we did. Instead of having the expectation of recording the songs as fast and as accurate as possible we had the opportunity to wake up and walk into our basement to focus on what we were actually saying and writing.
 Can you give us some Inspiration behind the songs on Ruthless?
All the inspiration for Ruthless came from life experience or the human experience you could say. With all the hard work and failure we have seen in ourselves, family and friends it just came out after being pent up inside for longer than I could remember. You can tell in "Wrecking Ball" with the lyrics and music it was more "fun". "Ruthless" really honed in on what over a decade of failure and ignorance in others can do to people.
 Your sound is very power pop / rock oriented, who would you consider your major Influences?
Growing up it was really bands like Nirvana, silverchair, Foo Fighters, Green Day, etc. Further down the road we're talking your Drive Thru bands like The Starting Line, The Early November, The Movielife, etc. Coheed & Cambria are probably one of the biggest influences musically for the both of us. The list could go on for days but we'll stick to that for now. We're such huge fans of just about every genre.
 With the internet making everyone in the world accessible and the ease of something like iTunes to purchase your music, is this in a way a help or a hindrance to what you’re hoping to achieve?
It's difficult to say. We, the music community, are still in transition. Record companies are scrambling for the next big money maker while unsigned bands are barely making enough to get by. I think it has never been harder to be a musician in this day and age. I notice so many copies of copies are being created every second. All those people will be weeded out in the next five to eight years. The intelligent and talented musicians will last the test of time. Everyone will look back at 2005ish to 2012ish (hopefully no longer) as most do the 80's hair metal bands.

Even though it does make it somewhat easier to get your music out there, are you worried that something like illegal downloading could mean the end of a band like The Great Valley?
No. Illegal downloading has its positive and negative effect. Negative in a sense that the band doesn't make money for their work and may have to increase the price of their merchandise or ticket sales to compensate for the loss. Positive in the sense that people want to hear them. Music just has to be marketed in a different way because the time for purchasing an album is on it's way out.

What gives you the drive to do what you love and want to do?
We want to give our family a better life and give our fans something motivational. We want to help people. If our songs gets our fans through tough times, make them smarter and stronger then we did our job.
 On a side note, you have recorded a cover of Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. What drew you to this track?
It's so catchy haha we heard it and thought it would be a blast giving it our own spin.
 What's next on the agenda for the Great Valley?
We have some tours coming up to support Ruthless. We want to meet as many people as possible, write another record and continue on the path we set out.
 OK, lastly you have a crystal ball, in five years The Great Valley will…
1. Be a household name. 2. Be in movies.
3. Finally pay their parents back for all their love and support.

Fenrik Lane

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:31:32 +1000

Hailing from a country that is best known musically for producing Black Metal bands, Norway’s melodic rock trio Fenrik Lane are the latest band from Australian based Melodic Rock Records to be featured as one of our “best things you’ve never heard”.

Whilst firmly entrenched in the roots of melodic rock, Fenrik Lane also have a very distinct commercial modern rock sound that rivals anything that is heard on rock radio today. If songs like Diamonds In The Waste, Runaway Car and Cover Your Eyes found their way into the hands of a MAJOR record label, Fenrik Lane would certainly not be featured as one of the “best things you’ve never heard”, because you would have already heard!

There is a distinct uniqueness to the bands sound and their songwriting and arrangements are certainly not those of your everyday melodic rock band. The bands total revamping of Rhianna’s song Russian Roulette is a perfect illustration...check out the video clip below.

Collectively, Knut, Christer and John provide an insight into Fenrik Lane....

Let's start with the basics first – how long has the band been together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
We have been playing together since 1997. We started out under the name "Breed", but it was similar to a lot of other band names, so we decided to change it to Fenrik Lane in 2002 with the release of our EP Come Down Here. In 2003 bassist Anders Isaksen was replaced by John Erik Soltvedt and in 2004, after winning the World Idol, vocalist Kurt Nilsen left the band to continue his solo career. The band has continued as a trio since then.

Band name: Fenrik means ensign or second lieutenant. Fenrik Montgomery Lane was actually an English soldier in WW2. He was the only survivor of a downed ship outside of Norway. He had the opportunity to go back to England, but he decided to fight for the Norwegian army as a gratitude for saving his life. He bravely died for a country that was not his own.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your CD '317', what do you tell them?
Here is our CD, mate. Maybe you will love it, or maybe you will hate it. But if you don`t listen to it, you will never know.

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each?
John: I was thrown in jail after a concert for calling a cop an idiot. Norwegian police officers are quite sensitive it seems ;)

Knut: We were playing a gig in Floroe, Norway, and during the concert I got carried away and jumped off the bass drum and hit my head in the ceiling. I immediately turned to Christer and yelled "Am I bleeding? Am I bleeding?!" and Christer just said YEAH!, because he didn`t hear a word I said.

Christer: My bass drum pedal broke in the middle of a song at a concert in Bergen. I didn’t want to finish the song half-assed, so I immediately decided to run to the front of the stage and stage dive. Totally right decision, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Your latest CD release is titled "317". How long did the process of writing and recording the songs take? Given this album has been out for quite a few months now, has the process already commenced writing for the next album?
We started in 2007 already with the demos of Runaway Car and Going Nowhere. After this we decided to try out all ideas we had and to find a sound that we were all pleased with. In between all the trying and failing we had a lot of concerts because we needed the money for the production that grew larger and larger. This is by far the biggest and most expensive production we have ever had.

About a new album, we have already 8-9 songs ready for recording, and will begin to record 2 of them probably in May.

The production and arrangements throughout "317" are amazing. Going into the recording of the album what were you aiming for as far as the sound was concerned?
Thanks.:) We were aiming to have a much heavier production than our previous releases, and to create our own sound to it. We have read in some reviews that we are compared to everything from U2, Snow Patrol to Stage Dolls and System Of A Down. All great bands, and we appreciate the comparison, but we have no ambition of sounding like other bands. That is not our intention, but it is almost impossible to make music without some people saying: " Hey, that sounds just like........". But we will keep trying...

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in a Fenrik Lane song?
A catchy chorus has always been our "trademark" since we started out, filled with lots of backing vocals. We always try to put some surprise elements in our songs (example: outro on Paranoia) and will try to take this further in the future. We have never been a "look at my skills" band with lots of showing off, and we will never be. We don`t feel that it is important for our music. If people like it, there are a lot of other more skilled bands they can listen to. A good melody with creative arrangements is all good for us.

One of my favourite songs on "317" is 'Diamonds In The Waste' which is better than anything I hear on radio here in Australia. What is the inspiration behind this song and do you have any interesting stories to share from the recording/writing of this song?
"DITW" is a song that our producer Eirik Groenner and former vocalist Kurt Nilsen wrote for Kurt and was supposed to be a nr.1 single for Kurt`s new album in 2008, but his record company felt it was to heavy, so they put it away. Since Knut and Christer already had played guitar and drums on the demo of it, there was a Fenrik sound to it, and our produced Eirik felt that the song would be better suited for us. After we recorded it, everyone agreed that the song "came home".

You recorded a cover of a Rihanna's song titled "Russian Roulette". What was the decision behind covering this song and how did you go about deconstructing the original to add the Fenrik Lane stamp of authority over the song?
John came to rehersal one day and said: I think we should cover Russian Roulette. I know you don`t like the song, but the beat has something special. We were sceptical at first, but when he showed us what he was thinking about the arrangements, we were all in.

What or who inspires/influences your music the most, in both a lyrical and musical sense?
As mentioned before, we don`t try to sound like other bands, but if an idea is similar to other music, we try to get a Fenrik twist over it.

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your album?
Good music is good music who ever makes it, but some bands have got our attention more then others. Metallica, Iron Maiden, System of a Down, Bon Jovi, U2.

I have to ask, what inspired your CD cover art and do you care to share the specific meaning behind it?
The title 317 comes from our childhood when we used to watch the TV show MASH on my father’s uncle’s TV. He was the only person we knew with a satellite dish, and without knowing the name of the channel, we watched that show about those medics in the Korean war on channel 317, hence the medic T-shirt in the cover. The song Hot Lips is about Major Houlihan in MASH, and we also sing about channel 317. The mannequins have been an important part of our image since the beginning, and we felt it was time to include them on the cover again (They were last seen on the cover of our first CD “Come Down Here”)

Having gone through the process of writing, recording and now releasing your CD, as well as playing live shows....I gotta ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of doing what you do with Fenrik Lane?
A fan contacted us mail after our release and said: "When I heard Bulletproof for the first time, I immediatly started to cry. I played it the whole night, and the beauty of the song just knocked me over". When you touch people like that with your music, it gives us a great feeling.:)

What touring plans do you have during 2011? Do you have any shows lined up during the Europe summer touring craziness of June/July/August etc?
We have no gigs planned for Europe this summer. But we contacted Andrew McNeice and said that we were interrested in coming to Australia for a little tour. He is working on making that possible. We surely hope we will be given the opportunity.:)

Listening to your album, I certainly can't help but be swept away by it's endless hooks and melodies and musical twists and turns, much like a suspense movie! Referring to movies, what kind of movie do you think your music would be suited too and why?
Damn, that was a difficult question. Guess a lot of these songs would fit any movie including guns, fast cars and people beating the crap out of each other.

You hail from Norway, for those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the rock scene in Norway? Are there many other bands that play similar music to Fenrik Lane, or is it all Norwegian black metal haha?
The blackmetal stage in Norway is huge, and there are lots of great bands in that genre like Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon and Enslaved. Not many bands in Norway are similar to us. There are a lot of great bands from Norway, especially Bergen. Datarock and Royksopp have all had their base in Bergen and international succes. The nearest to us must maybe be Madrugada. I have seen people mentioning us as the next big thing from Norway since Stage Dolls. If given the same succes, we say: "Yes,please".:)

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, Fenrik Lane have:
1. Released a new single.
2. Toured Australia
3. Played on stage with AC/DC.;)

All I Know

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:09:17 +1000

In a May The Rock Be With You first, All I Know are the first band from Belgium to grace these pages. Having recently released their album Vanity Kills via Melodic Rock Records, All I Know are a band who deliver instantly memorable melodic rock songs. So memorable in fact, that the Beau Hill (Warrant, Ratt, Winger) mixed Rain and the majestic ballad Asphyxia have quickly shot up the charts on my most played iPod songs and are both already firmly entrenched in my Top 10 songs of the year thus far.

Eager to find out more about All I Know, the bands vocalist Ward, kindly answered my probing questions....

Let's start with the basics first – how long has the band been together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
AIK started out in early 2005, so it’s been 6 years now. Since music is all we really live for, at the time we thought the name ‘All I Know’ more than fit the bill. In hindsight, had cooler heads prevailed we might have gone for something a little more ‘rock n’ roll’. In fact, just before the re-release of the album we briefly toyed with the idea of changing the name to ‘Vanity Kills’.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your CD 'Vanity Kills', what do you tell them?
If, like us, you haven’t heard any new band in over 20 years that doesn’t downright suck, if you’re just as sick and tired of all the crap on the contemporary radio as we are, and you lose yourself in nostalgia about the late ‘80’s, look no further, AIK will deliver !

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each?
Sam, the drummer, is the new kid on the block. He first auditioned for the band back in early 2008 when we lost our original drummer, so it took him 3 years to join the band ! Seriously, he can play the drums, sing and spin his drumstick at the same time, so we knew he was our guy.

Michael is our lead guitarist and go-to guy when it comes to recording. He was trained at Jet Studio, one of Belgium’s most renowned studios, and he has worked with some of the biggest names in rock and pop in the country.

Amély plays the bass and she is the Benjamin of the band. Obviously, the three of us are in it for the girls, but since we want to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, we figured we needed a hot chick to draw in the boys, you know? She had never touched a bass before joining the band, how rock n’ roll is that ? Eat your heart out, Sid Vicious.

Finally, there’s me, Ward, the singer. At 29, I’m the ‘oldest’. I’m already cultivating my L(ead) S(inger) D(isease), so I’m right on track for rock stardom.

You have recently released your CD 'Vanity Kills', how long did the process of writing and recording the songs take?
The album is actually a re-release of our debut which we released independently at the tail end of 2008. It probably took about a year to get the songs together, which was a cakewalk compared to the actual recording, which took another full year. Having zero budget forced us to rely on recording during ‘dead time’ in the studio where Michael was working as an assistant. That led to months and months of waiting in between sessions. If you’d add it all up, the actual recording took about a month, and another 2 weeks of mixing and mastering.

Your album has been released via Melodic Rock Records, which is based here in Australia. How did a band all the way in Belgium attract the attention of Andrew McNiece and Melodic Rock Records?
In this day and age, it’s not easy getting noticed for a young unsigned band. So we shopped our independent release around to any and all labels in the world, hoping for someone to take a shot.

I knew about Andrew because of his amazing website (www.melodicrockrecords.com) and I knew he had a lot of connections, so I figured it was worth the shot to try and get him involved. He liked the album from the get-go, and was convinced he could get us signed with one of the leading AOR labels. However, like us, he quickly learned that the music industry is in a deep crisis and no one is eager to take a chance on an unknown band anymore, even if most of them were, by their own admission, blown away by our album. So, in the end, being the dedicated music lover that he is, he took it upon himself to start his own label, and release the damn thing himself! We are forever in his debt.

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in an All I Know song?
It all comes down to the melody. Anyone can write a song, but if the melody doesn’t stand out immediately, it’s not a hit. I always go for the hook. I want to make sure that anyone can hum along to it from the first time they hear it, and have it stuck in their heads. It also, obviously, needs to rock. As a band we want as broad an audience as we can get, even your mother should be able to like it. But we’re a rock band, not a pop band. So it has to have that edge to it.

One of my favourite tracks on the album is "Rain" which the legendary Beau Hill has mixed. How did you get Beau involved in your album?
In April of last year, we were contacted by Beau out of the blue. To make a long story short, our album managed to cross the Atlantic, and someone at the US radio station KEGL, who scouts bands for Beau Hill’s production company, passed him the album. He claimed that out of all the bands he gets to hear on a daily basis, a song like ‘Rain’ was really rare true gem. He felt he could improve on the mix, to let it reach its true crossover radio potential. After recovering from the shock of getting such praise from a hero in the genre, we sent him the session tracks, and boy did he deliver! It opened a lot of doors for us. It’s been a real dream come true, and a definite motivation to keep going, even if the odds were stacked against us.

The track "Asphyxia" is a majestic ballad with some awesome arrangements and musicianship that I almost have on repeat whenever I listen to the album. What is the inspiration behind this song and do you have any interesting stories to share from the recording/writing of this song?
‘Asphyxia’ was inspired by a true story of love gone bad. I’m not going to go into detail, it’s kinda personal, and I’d like to leave it up to the listener to get their own message from it.
It’s one of the older songs on the album, probably about 5 years old. It was written on acoustic guitar in no more than half an hour. As usual, the lyrics weren’t finished, and the bridge was completely rewritten at the last minute, right before I sang it in the studio. The keyboard arrangement was done by David Poltrock, who is a famous pianist and producer in Belgium, and has worked with the biggest stars. I remember the shivers down my spine when we first go to hear the whole thing. Definitely a personal favourite, and one of the things I’m most proud of.
We don’t get to play it much live, with the intricate arrangement and all. We’ve done it acoustically a few times. In time I’d like to add a keyboard player to the band, to do it justice.

What or who inspires/influences your music the most?
I write two kinds of songs. They’re either fun songs, about chasing chicks and living the life, or they’re based on true stories. Things that touched me emotionally, that I need to release one way or the other. Songs like ‘Asphyxia’ or ‘I Need You’ are prime examples of that. I’ve lived those stories, but I always try to make it universal enough so anyone can get something from it.

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your album?
My interest in music started at the very beginning of the nineties, so I pretty much missed out on the original wave of late ‘80s hair metal. Like so many of my peers, I was heavily into Guns N’ Roses, at the height of their popularity during the Use Your Illusion era. To this day I’m still a fanatic GNR collector. AIK doesn’t have that blues based rock foundation that GNR had, but that was definitely a defining moment on my way to picking up the guitar and being in a band. Other things I picked up on early on were more pop oriented bands like Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, and even Roxette. Later on, I worked my way backwards, through Hollywood stuff like Motley Crue and Poison, all the way to the mid ‘70’s origins of AOR, with legends like Foreigner, REO, Journey and Toto. I’d say throw any of the aforementioned sounds into a blender and add a modern twist, and you’re pretty close to the sound AIK is going for.

Having gone through the process of writing, recording and now releasing your CD, as well as playing live shows....I gotta ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of doing what you do with All I Know?
It never ceases to amaze me how music can reach and touch people in the outer corners of the world. It’s immensely gratifying to see something you’ve put your heart and soul into, not to mention your hard-earned cash, make waves in far out places like Brazil or Japan. Signing to Melodic Rock Records helped us reach a truly international audience. The positive reactions we’re getting from all over the globe makes it all worthwile.

What touring plans do you have during 2011? Do you have any shows lined up during the Europe summer touring craziness of June/July/August etc?
We’re looking into the possibility of doing some of the European rock festivals this summer, and/or scoring an opening slot for a more established band in our genre. Like I said earlier, it’s not easy these days getting noticed, so if the demand is there, don’t hesitate to get in touch !

Listening to your album, I certainly can't help but be swept away by it's uplifting musical vibe and endless hooks and melodies, a perfect soundtrack to accompany a happy mood! Referring to soundtracks, what kind of movie do you think your music would be suited too and why?
Soundtracks can be a perfect vehicle for an unknown band to cross over in a major way. I think what’s happening to Belgian choir Scala after landing the Social Network trailer soundtrack is a perfect example of that. Obviously we’d open to anything like that, although I still feel paying your dues and starting at the bottom of the ladder is the way to go in the long run. Going from zero to hero can make or break a band.

As far as soundtracks I would have liked to have been a part of, I’d have to go for ’80’s blockbusters like Top Gun. Those synth-heavy melodic rock songs can really take a simple story to the next level!

You hail from Belgium, for those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the rock scene in Belgium? Are there many other bands that play similar music to All I Know?
Belgium has an extensive pool of bands that have a shot at crossing the borders, but they’re all in the same vein of indie rock or Britpop (and a few dance acts). There's no audience whatsoever for AOR or melodic rock bands, in fact it’s frowned upon very heavily. It’s no big secret we get most of our reviews/interviews from abroad ! As far as I know, at the moment we are the only band doing what we do, not counting cover bands. If only we were born 20 years earlier!

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, All I Know will have:
1. Completed the writing and recording of the next album, due somewhere in 2012.
2. Opened for a legendary rock act.
3. Reached more people than in the first 5 years combined.

degreed

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:22:52 +1000

Just when you thought we had finished our little run of featuring new music from out of Sweden, we hit you with another high quality melodic rock band in degreed. A five year journey of musical discovery and settling the band lineup and name, has now lead to the release of the band’s debut album “Life, Love, Loss” on Melodic Rock Records. An album featuring twelve crunching melodic rock songs based around lyrics we can all relate to in one way or another...life, love, loss.

Having already started work on their 2nd album and with Life, Love, Loss still finding it’s way around the world, we can guarantee you will be hearing a lot more about degreed within these pages and beyond...

Mats Ericsson kindly answered our questions and gave us an in depth insight into the evolution of the band.

Let's start with the basics first – how long has the band been together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
We started the band back in 2005 as "The Greed". Back then I think we just wrote random names that we thought were cool in a Word Document and one of those were "The Greed" which was the name we later used. After about a year or so it hit us that we didn't think it was that cool at all and that we should change it before we went any further. So we sat down and talked about it and came up with "degreed" instead of "The Greed" which is pretty similar but not a total change of the name so people who already knew about us wouldn't get to confused about the name change.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your CD 'Life, Love, Loss', what do you tell them?
"Life,Love,Loss", everyone can relate to that. I would tell them that it’s an awesome album with something for everyone, just give the album 20 seconds and you'll love it!

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each?
Robin Ericsson - Bass/Vocals
Jesper Adefelt - Guitar
Daniel Johansson - Guitar
Mikael Jansson - Keyboard
Mats Ericsson - Drums

If you come and see a show, buy us some drinks and you'll get some rock n' roll facts straight from us I guess, haha!

Having only recently released 'Life, Love, Loss", you are already recording demos for album 2! Whilst it's only early days of course, how would you compare the material you are writing for the 2nd album, to the awesome rock we hear on your first album?
Its been five, almost six years, since we started the band now and we're a really productive gang and we're constantly writing new material, which results in that we already have a load of demos for the next album. Everyone always say that their upcoming work will be much better than the previous work, but I think we can guarantee that our new work will be better, bigger and heavier. However our debut album is pretty awesome too!

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that need to feature in a degreed song?
The most important ingredients when we write songs is of course everyone's participation to put the "degreed" touch on it. We write in different ways though, sometimes we just write all together and sometimes someone comes with a demo and we go from that.

One of my favourite songs on the album is 'Color Me', what is the inspiration behind this song and do you have any interesting stories to share from the recording/writing of this song?
That's actually the last song we wrote for the album, and it got written fast! Daniel came up with the guitar part, the "riff", and we fooled around with it when we rehearsed, coming up with the different parts. The same week as we tried it Micke and Jesper recorded a demo of it which became the version we recorded on the album as well. The fun thing about it is that we never played the whole finished version of the song together before we recorded it. I practiced it from the demo version before I recorded my drum parts, then we just went from there and well.. It became "Color Me" and I guess it shows that it doesn’t have to take a really long time to write a good song.

You recorded a cover of a Steve Perry song titled "Captured By The Moment" which is from his Street Talk album. What was the decision behind covering this song and with yours being a punchier version, was this where you thought degreed could stamp it's authority on the song?
Yes we did! Everyone in the band are fans of Steve Perry and we just love his vocals, both his solo things as well as his Journey things, so we decided to honour him with doing a cover of his brilliant song "Captured by the Moment". As well as it’s a magical song with great lyrics so we thought it would be cool to make our own version of it - however we want the world to know that it’s a Steve Perry song.

What or who inspires/influences your music the most, in both a lyrical or musical sense?
Life itself and a whole lot of people and bands. I guess lyrical is mostly life and our own experiences and when it comes to the musical part we have different influences each and everyone of us. But I can tell you this, that we have pretty wide musical influences in this band - it’s all from pop/soul to heavy/death metal, everything from Matchbox Twenty, Matt Nathanson to Opeth and Meshuggah. And i think the artists/bands we listen to have inspired us to write lyrics in a certain way but the topics are about own experiences.

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your album?
All of us have listened to bands like Iron Maiden, Guns n' Roses, Kiss and Toto and I guess that can be heard somehow in all of the songs throughout the album. Our own music style is a wild mixture though and includes a load of different genres but i think those 4 bands "style" can be found in every song on the album.

Your album has been released via Melodic Rock Records, which is based here in Australia. How did a band all the way in Sweden attract the attention of Andrew McNiece and Melodic Rock Records?
I first got contacted by Andrew back in 2007 when I think, if i remember correctly, he wanted to review our little promotion CD called "These Black Eyes" for MelodicRock.com and also suggest us to a label he was an A&R for back then. The promotion CD included three songs that are on this album, "Arms of Misery", "Catch the Feeling" and "My Fall" however the label he suggested us to weren't interested at the moment. But since then me and Andrew kept in touch and when our album was finished I thought - Why not send it to Andrew and at least hear what he thinks of it?! So I did and Andrew contacted me back and said that the album sounded great and that he recently started Melodic Rock Records were he really wanted to release the album. We had gotten a lot of offers from labels who wanted to release "life,love,loss" but Andrew was so excited and he really wanted to work with us so we choose his label. And well, here we are and we're proud that we're signed to Melodic Rock Records.

You have also recently signed a deal with a Japanese record label. How much interest has there so far been from people outside Sweden in your music?
Well so far I think I could say that there's been more interest in our music outside of Sweden. In Sweden its something that takes some time to grow and I think we're on our way here now, but in Japan the interest has been big and is still growing bigger as we speak. As well as in France, Germany and some other European countries, so I would say that there's been a big interest for the band so far and I hope it'll grow even more all over the world.

Having gone through the process of writing, recording and now releasing your CD, as well as playing live shows....I gotta ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of doing what you do with degreed?
The most rewarding thing is when someone sends you an email or comes up to you after a live show and say that they likes our music and gives you compliments for certain songs or just the live performance, without a doubt.

What touring plans do you have during 2011? Do you have any shows lined up during the Europe summer festival and touring craziness of June/July/August etc?
We have a few shows booked for 2011, however we wont play that much festivals which is a shame - if you have a summer festival, BOOK US! No just kidding, but we're planning a little fall tour since we recently got ourselves a booking agent. So keep updated on our Myspace, myspace.com/degreedmusic, to see the dates for that later this fall.

You hail from Sweden, where some of our favourite bands come from such as H.E.A.T, Houston, Eclipse, Crashdiet, Crazy Lixx, Treat, Work Of Art and of course degreed! For those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the rock scene in Sweden? Is there a healthy and friendly rivalry amongst all these awesome bands?
That it’s an awesome rock scene with a lot of great bands and yes the rivalry is friendly. Some of these bands are friends of ours even, others we've played with and others are bands which we love and get inspiration from. We actually played our first gig as "The Greed" with some guys from H.E.A.T back in 2005 just before they became H.E.A.T and the guys in Houston checked our last gig and rocked with us, as well as we played with Crazy Lixx last summer and one of the previous drummers of Treat has been my drum teacher, when it comes to Work of Art we're huge fans of those two acts. So its a friendly rivalry and even though the rock scene is big here in Sweden, everyone pretty much knows each other in one or another way.

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, degreed will have:
1. A tour in Sweden and hopefully the rest of Europe.
2. One or several dates in Japan.
3. Start to record album #2.

WakeUpCall

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:10:41 +1000

“WakeUpCall is a totally brand new rock band, but their members have been around, rockin’ the italian underground scene with their past projects, for years, even though their really young age. Their music is a mix of passion for rock, with hundreds of different shades….so just turn up your stereo and let the music do the talking…or even better, if you live in Italy, come to see them on their natural habitat…the show!”

Let's start with the basics first – what brought the band together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
There are different stories about when and how WakeUpCall started, one is that we started a rock n roll band just for the glory….and this is absolutely not truth, hell no. Another one is because we love rock n roll, and this can be a little truth, then we have the money reason, but we realized there’re no money for young rock n roll bands. Last but not least is because the girls, and this, my friend, is the only reason why WakeUpCall exist.

About the name, I’m sorry but there’s no big deal or cool story behind it…we were just looking for something cool, everybody came with lots of names and we chose WakeUpCall because we thought it sounds really cool. I’ll tell you the truth…I stole it from Europe song “wake up call”!

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your music, what do you tell them?
Hey, if you like good music, good rock n roll with some hard guitars and catchy melodies, listen to WakeUpCall, you won’t stop singing the songs…they will make you smile and cry, give them a chance!

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each of them?
Olly - he is the guitar player, he’s my brother, we have the same tattoo on our shoulder “Blood on Blood”, he hates Slash and used to be “the wise” of the band…it means that when we are all drunk if we wake up all safe in our beds the next day is because of him.

Dario - bass player….ahahahah I don’t know which one of the hundreds of rock n roll/stupid facts about him I can tell you. Just look at his big smile on this pic:

Matt - is the rock n roll at its roots, rough and loud (and drunk).

About me (Tommy) - I don’t know…never trust a singer!

You have recently released your EP which features some great rock such as my favourite, Before I Fall. Can you give us an insight into the song and also the concept behind the video clip you recorded for the song?
Before I Fall was the last of the first songs we wrote when we started WakeUpCall and we needed new songs to record something with American producer Beau Hill (Alice Cooper, Eric Clapton…). Because it was the last song we wrote on that session, we decided to wait and didn’t record it soon, because we believe it has a great potential and we wanted to work more and without rushing it. So we started to work on Before I Fall later, recorded it during our second sessions and it came out to be the perfect single…so we also recorded the videoclip. The song is about a guy who used to don’t believe in love and had lots of different girls, but now he found the right one and he’s so afraid to make the same old mistakes and loose her.

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that make up a WakeUpCall song?
The ingredients for a WakeUpCall song are: A cool riff with great melodies and a chorus that sticks in your head at the first listen…all played as loud as we can. Of course we believe lyrics are very important too, even if these days some of the biggest rock n roll bands you can hear on radios and TV don’t think the same.

Is the process of songwriting a whole of band affair, or are there a few key contributors?
If it wasn’t a whole band affair, we wouldn’t be a band. Of course you have to start from something when you write a song, so when someone has an idea we start from that, and everybody give’s something to the song.

What or who inspires/influences your music the most?
We listen to lots of music everyday, every week we find out new cool bands and I think that everything you listen or have listened inspire and influence you. Personally my first loves were Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Bryan Adams. These last few months I’m listening to bands such as Shinedown, Nickelback, 30 econds to mars, Papa Roach, Goo Goo Dolls….everything from Pop to Hard Rock / Alternative Rock.

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your EP?
As I told you it’s all Bon Jovi fault…if it wasn’t for that juke-box on that beach, that summer…where I heard It’s My Life for the first time I wouldn’t be here writing. Soon after Bon Jovi I started get into the all 80s music, hair metal and glam bands. But these last years I completely change direction and now I’m a huge fan of Foo Fighters, Alterbridge, Shinedown, Sixx Am, 30 seconds to mars…and the mix between these bands and the other guys tastes is what you can hear on our EP.

What kind of movie do you think your music would be best suited to and why?
We got a song for every situation, but I’d love to see the end of a movie where the hero drives his car on the long highway at the sunset and you can hear a WakeUpCall song…we have some new songs that would fit perfect.

For those reading this who haven't yet had the pleasure, how would you describe 45 minutes spent at a WakeUpCall live show?
Pure 100% true energy, we can’t afford fireworks, dancers and other stuff…so it’s just us, playing as hard as we can. We’re gonna sweat and your ears are gonna bleed. There were times when I had no voice and Olly or Matt hands hurt like hell, but we have always finished and gave the best we could.

You hail from Italy, for those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the rock scene from which you originate?
It’s shit! ….rock n roll in italy is not big at all, most of the Italian music sucks, people prefer to go dancing to disco music or see tribute bands than see original rock bands, such a shame because there are really good bands here in Italy. This is the reason why we try to play as much as we can outside our country.

Of the gigs you have played so far, is there one that stands out from amongst the rest?
Personally there are some gigs that meant for me, as when we played with Heaven’s Basement (best UK band today) when they had their original line up. Or all the shows we have played few days ago in Holland, such great experience, even if the clubs weren’t full of hundreds of people but it was awesome because that tour showed me what this life I want so much is about…lots of sacrifices, letting people know about your music 1 by 1…it’s a long (and tough) way to the top, but that’s ok.

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, WakeUpCall will have:
1. Dario will leave the band to have success as actor in the porn buisness
2. WakeUpCall will tour the world with Bon Jovi
3. We are going to rob a bank to get the money to pay a huge promotion

Cinder Road

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:31:59 +1000

We at May the Rock be with You have been fans of Cinder Road from way back when they were still known as Plunge, had the chance to see them live in the States and love what they do. So it’s great to be able to bring them to our readers, especially for those of you that have never heard of them. Unfortunately this interview comes as the band is about to take a hiatus but the music will continue to live on until they decide it’s time to make music together again.

We got singer Mike Ruocco to tell us about the band, their latest album Damage Control and the advice that Gene Simmons gave the band.

We give you Cinder Road as we truly believe they are one of the Best Things You’ve Never Heard:

For those that may have heard of Cinder Road, give our readers a quick synopsis on the CR story and sound…
Cinder Road is a band formed by a bunch of friends in Baltimore Maryland in 2006. We were signed by EMI records shortly after we formed the band and wrote, recorded and released our debut album "SuperHuman" in 2007. We spent all of 2007-2008 touring the world in support of SH and were fortunate enough to support some great acts like KISS, Daughtry, Tesla, Sick Puppies, Alice Cooper and Candlebox among others. Our sound is something we like to refer to as "Arena Rock". It's a brand of rock & roll similar to the 70's and 80's rock bands with a modern flavor!

The new album ‘Damage Control’ that you released in 2010 we feel is a killer rock album, the direction is somewhat different to your debut which was more poppy / melodic, and you’ve taken a harder edge on ‘Damage Control’ was that the intention when you were writing for the album?
I think that when we went into the studio to write and record DC we had a lot of things on our minds. Anger about the first album not being a bigger success among other things. This is probably where some of the heavier songs were inspired from. I think the album really has two sides, the heavy side and the more melodic side. The more mellow tunes came from us growing up a bit and having the amazing opportunity of touring the world. We really learned a lot over the past few years some good, some bad. I think it all came out in bits on the album. I am sure the next album will be different as well!

You worked with Scott Stevens from The Exies as producer on the new album, how did you get involved with Scott? How did he differ from working with Marti Frederiksen who you worked with on Superhuman?
Scott and I have been friends for a few years through the music business. We met when I was playing in SR-71. I always thought The Exies were a great band so when it came time to write the new album Scott and I sat down and quickly formed a songwriting bond. Everyone was excited with what we were coming up with so we decided to have Scott produce the album. As far as the differences between Scott and Marti... Each producer is different and has a different style of doing things. Both experiences were totally different but equally as cool. We love both albums.

Is there anyone else in the industry on your wish list you'd love to work with?
Mutt Lange would be awesome! I am a huge Def Leppard fan so anything with Mutt would be a dream come true. Hopefully one of these days we will be talking about the difference between Marti, Scott and Mutt!

Now I know a lot of bands boast that they’re ‘Big in Japan’ but seriously, you had a top 10 single over there and recently played some shows with our Aussie girl Orianthi, how did this notoriety come about in Japan?
The Japanese fans really seem to love Rock & Roll that has a bit of an old school throw back feel to it so this market was perfect for us. We felt very at home with the Japanese fans and they welcomed Cinder Road with open arms. We love Japan!

Japan is so close to Australia, did you ever think about coming over to say G’day and possibly play some shows? As you know we’d love to have you guys here!
We would LOVE to play in Australia. It's one of my dreams but the opportunity has not come up for us to play there as of yet. Hey maybe you guys can organize a Cinder Road Aussie tour...!

Tell us about the single ‘It Hurts’ which without sucking up is about 1,000 times better than anything on the radio at the moment, lyrically are all your songs taken from life experience?
Thank you very much. We feel like our songs are as strong as anything on the radio but sadly we do not control what goes on the radio. The music business is in a rough spot right now we just hope is gets itself right while CR is still rockin! As far as the lyrics, yes all of the songs come from life experience. Some songs are more direct and to the point than others, any way you cut it all songs are stories about life. My life, someone else's life or just people you pass in the street. Whatever inspires you.

Personally, I feel like you’ve bugged my apartment to get ideas for songs as far too many of the new tracks hit home in a big way and are just too real, are there any new ideas you need? As I’ll get on that for you ASAP ha ha, but seriously, I feel that relating to a song is what makes a band so good, so who if anyone did you relate to growing up to steer you in the direction musically and lyrically that you’ve taken with Cinder Road?
Well I think like most people we were influenced by our parents, friends, etc. growing up but when I discovered music it started with the 50's and 50's band like The Beach Boys. I then migrated to 80's metal which is still my heart and soul. Gotta love the hair!

Recently you’ve added the newest members of Cinder Road in Eric and Jordan taking on the rhythm section, how are the new guys settling in? How is the band sounding at the moment?
The band is doing well. You really get a chance to gel when you tour extensively which we have not done in a while but Japan was a great chance for us to travel and form a bond.

We at May the Rock be with You were lucky to see you live in 2007, as a live band you are electric and I put this out to everyone, you need to see Cinder Road if you can. Is the stage a much more comfortable place for you than the studio?
Absolutely, I live to play and we love to be on stage. There is something really great about the art and creation of the studio but for me nothing beats the thrill of a live show.

Recently we saw that you had the opportunity to open for Rock Legends ‘Stryper’ how was that?!
It was great! I have loved those guys for a long time and it was awesome to share the stage. Hopefully we will do more shows in the future. 
Over the years you have opened for many bands and played numerous shows, who stands out as the greatest so far in your eyes and did any of them give you some words of wisdom?
All of the bands we have toured with have been great. Obviously opening for KISS was a pretty huge thing for us. They are Rock & Roll legends after all! We were covering Billy Idol's Rebel Yell on the tour and Gene Simmons came up to me and say "You guys are too goood to do covers, stick to your own songs..." I thought that was pretty damn cool. Chris is really good at that tune so did it when we got back to the states!

You played a few dates in March, but are there plans to head back out on the road anytime soon?
We are always looking for good opportunities to tour but those chances have become fewer and fewer, but trust me if the right opportunity comes up we will jump at the chance!

Mike, you’ve been in the industry now for a while with other bands such as SR-71 and prior to Cinder Road you were Plunge, how have you personally seen the music industry change in The States over the last 10 years or so?
Absolutely and sadly not for the better. Less bands are being signed, less tours are going out and ultimately less people are buying music. This really hurts the chances for new bands like us to get off the ground. Hopefully things make a come back though!

What do you think needs to happen to make Cinder Road stand high atop a mountain of Rock?!
A lot more people like you guys spreading the good word of Cinder Road!!!!

Lastly, with 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, Cinder Road will have:
You'll have to wait and see.... Thanks for the support gents!!

Dead Star Renegade

Fri, 8 Apr 2011 22:29:47 +1000

“Dead Star Renegade is the bastard son of a band started more than 15 years ago right out of high school. Believe us, it's a loooooooooooooong story. We've played so many shows over that time I've lost count. We've played to packed houses on some of the best stages in the country and we've played to nobody in some of the dingiest dives imaginable. We've survived drug and alcohol abuse, infighting, out of controls egos, breakups and even mental breakdowns. We play Rock and Roll... That is it. We love it, we always have and we always will.   Melbourne has one of the greatest LIVE music scenes in the world and Dead Star Renegade is proud to be part of it. If you love LIVE music and you're lucky enough to be in Melbourne, come and experience Dead Star Renegade. Great times, great bars, great music, great city.” Bio courtesy of www.deadstarrenegade.com

Check out our interview below with the bands bass player, Tim Dobie and catch them at one of their upcoming Melbourne gigs!

Let's start with the basics first – what brought the band together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
Well, the nucleus of the band started way back about 15 years ago when Jimmy, Jay and myself were playing together in a band called Kwijibo. That band fizzled after a while and we all went on with other projects but always kept in touch. Dead Star Renegade started when I heard some demos Jimmy had been putting together. I had some of my own so we got to talking and decided we had something we both wanted to take a little further. I'd done plenty of projects with Jay over the years and I knew he'd be up for it. It has been great so far, kinda like getting the old team back together. Our 2 guitarists Matt and Vik really inject some new blood into what we do. It's a really strong unit these days.

As for the band name... I think we all grow up idolising those larger than life rock star, movie star types ...especially the outlaws. We love 'em even though they all end up dead. Maybe we love 'em BECAUSE they all end up dead I dunno. It's just a morbid fascination thing for me I guess. haha!

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your music, what do you tell them?
I've just released a toxic gas into this elevator which enters your head via your ears and implodes your brain! Here... quick! Put these headphones on. They are your only hope!

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each of them?
Jimmy Van Zeno: Vocals. Once swung on the lighting rig at gig tearing the bolts out of the roof and leaving it hanging precariously over our heads. He continued singing as the concrete dust sparkled in his hair.

Jay Pizzey: Drums. Over indulged and threw up on his own feet during the first song of our previous bands EP launch. He didn't miss a beat!

Tim Dobie: Bass (me). Once got nailed in the head by the headstock of a very sharp guitar during a particularly vigorous headbangin session. I don't remember the rest of the gig but I'm pretty sure I didn't miss a beat haha!

Matt Owen: Guitar Mmm... I haven't built up the courage to ask him yet but I think he might be part hobbit. I'm sure I heard him whispering to his ring the other day.

Vik Kundra: Guitar. Vik's only been in the band a couple of weeks so I don't have much dirt on him yet... but it wont be long!

You have recently released your CD 'Blackwing', how long did the process of writing and recording the songs take?
The songs were written over the course of about a year. We probably went through about 20 or so songs to get to the point where we thought we had 10 strong enough to do an album with. ‘The Serpent' was the only one that really had any tweaking done to it once we started the actual recording process. Jimmy and I pretty much rewrote the entire vocal melody for the verses in the studio... I think he notched up around 250 takes getting it just how we wanted it. He was pretty spent after that haha!
The entire recording process was about 12 days. Jay spent 5 of those on drums and came away with a couple of chipped bones in his fingers and some pretty awesome bruises on his legs. He's a trooper.

For those of us familiar with fellow Melbourne/Australian rockers Electric Mary, the name Ricki Rae should be familiar, who you have used to produce your album. In appointing him as your producer, what instructions were delivered to him about the sound you were after?
well... you don't exactly instruct Ricki, you bow to his genius haha! Nah, he's an awesome producer and we had a great time working together.  He kinda knew what we wanted by just coming down and watching us rehearse. It's big, it's loud and thumping'. The main thing he kept reiterating was that he wanted to capture us being us. That's a big part of why we chose to work with him... he got where we were coming from right off the bat and we felt comfortable bouncing ideas off each other through the entire process.

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that make up a Dead Star Renegade song?
I think everyone in the band comes from a slightly different place musically and because of that there are probably a few important elements to our songs. We're fans of massive chorus’s, interesting arrangements, guitar solos and big riffs. We love a good key change and we have this habit of jumping into something that is seemingly unrelated to the previous bit of the song... Ricki coined the phrase "Frankenstein Music" to describe what we do. I think he was taking the piss but we kinda like the analogy.

Is the process of songwriting a whole of band affair, or are there a few key contributors?
Jimmy and I wrote all the songs on this album. That's not to say the other guys didn't contribute because a huge amount of making those songs come to life is in the unique style and influence of the band. We would come in to rehearsal with a song that in itself was pretty bare boned and the band would then flesh it out and make it into something worth listening to. Just recently we have started collaborating a bit more on some new material and all the boys in the band are keen to contribute songs for the next album so we're really excited about what might come of that in the next couple of months.

What or who inspires/influences your music the most?
You know there is so much great music out there to choose from. Rock and Roll has been around for a pretty long time now and each decade has something great to offer. I find myself pulling influence from everything from Chuck Berry to Disturbed. Hopefully what happens in our band is that we pluck influences out of different corners and create something that is more than the sum of it's parts.
Lyrically Jimmy and I both tend to dig into our slightly darker side I guess, we both have plenty of experience with obsession, addiction, frustration and all that fun stuff. I find writing lyrics to be kind of cathartic... get the demons out in the songs so they don't haunt you in real life haha!

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your album?
My two older brothers brought me up on a healthy dose of Zeppelin, Kiss, The Angels and The Police but my parents were pretty into Jazz. I loved all the Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich kinda stuff. I also had an Uncle who gave me a bunch of Surf music when I was like 3 years old. I had my own little plastic record player and I used to flog that stuff... I still have a 7" single of Wipe Out in my cupboard at home.
The first Album I ever bought was Iron Maiden 'Number Of The Beast'. I was in grade five... my mum was horrified when she saw the cover haha! Around the same time I remember hearing Motley Crue "Shout At The Devil" and W.A.S.P. "F**k Like Beast" on the same day at a mates house and they blow my mind. In my first year of High SchooI I discovered Van Halen and Ozzy Osbourne and there was no turning back. So I was definitely a metal kid.

After High SchooI opened my mind to all sorts of other possibilities and got into all kinds of pop, grunge, dance, hip hop, you name it. I thinking that period really helped my song writing.
As you can tell soon as you listen to the Album all those heavy rock influences really shape how we approach music but hopefully some of the other stuff leaks through now and then as well.

Having gone through the process of writing, recording and now releasing your CD, as well as playing live shows....I gotta ask, what's the most rewarding aspect of doing what you do with Dead Star Renegade?
I guess it's two fold. On one hand as a teenager I used to listen to guys like Ozzy and Nikki Sixx and think man this guy has just reached into my head and plucked out my thoughts! Or how is he making me feel this awesome just by playing a piece of music! So the biggest thrill for me is when some is turned on by our music. If just one kid can sit back and feel even half what I felt listening to those guys I'll die happy haha!

The other part is playing Live... that special connection that you feel when the room is buzzing and everyone seems like they are feeling it as one... it's pretty special.

For those reading this who haven't yet had the pleasure, how would you describe 45 minutes spent at a Dead Star Renegade live show?
Well, I've never stood in the crowd at one of our shows obviously but HOPEFULLY they can spend 45min just getting lost in the whole thing. Forgetting all the bullshit that's going on their lives and just sweat and move and take it all in. I mean, that's what I do on stage so hopefully the people in the crowd can experience some of the same.

You hail from Melbourne, Australia, for those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the rock scene from which you originate?
Right now it's really a great place to play in a rock and roll band. We are constantly meeting great guys in hard working bands playing awesome music. Bands like Electric Mary, Fastrack, Destroy She Said, Attack Of The Mannequins... there's heaps of em. And the fans are just died hard loyalists who really throw there support behind you which is awesome. Unfortunately I don't thing the general public realise what an awesome scene we really have. If you’re into rock and roll but your not actively seeking out the music you’re probably getting spoon feed a a bunch of recycled stuff on the radio. We all acknowledge that there were some great bands rockin' stages in Australia throughout the later part of the last Century but you wouldn't even know there was a scene to speak of out there these days.  It's a shame cos there is some awesome stuff going on out there... you just have to look for it yourself.

Of the gigs you have played so far, is there one that stands out from amongst the rest?
Yeah probably when we launched our first single "Tommy Gun". The crowd was just really supportive, pushing to the front, singing along and generally having a great time. We really felt the love that night. We even got asked to do an encore which was awesome but hilarious because we didn't have anything else to play! We ended up doing the single again which kinda went down well anyway I think. Was a top night.

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, Dead Star Renegade will have:
1.  Played shows in QLD, NSW, SA, and TAS as well as reaching out into regional VIC a bit.
2. Generated enough interest in 'Blackwing' to start planning a follow up album
3. Made a few thousand people feel like coming to see Dead Star Renegade was well worth getting of the couch for!

Babyjane

Fri, 8 Apr 2011 21:39:37 +1000

“Babyjane, Australia's rawest, sleaziest, no-frills hard rock band have come out of the rusty gate with all guns blazing.

Andy Smith (no singer comes closer to the swagger of Jagger and the presence of Plant than this one); John Gerasolo (rock's next guitar hero -- forget the Top Hat); Paul Judge (a snarling Sid Vicious who can actually play the bass) and Nik 'Animal' Kats (the bombast of Bonham meets the terror of Tommy Lee) have just released their debut scorcher 'Are You Listening?'. Mixed in Nashville by famed producer Michael Wagener (Metallica/Janet Jackson) it features 11 tracks of hard rock at it's absolute best.

A rousing support gig with Skid Row's Sebastian Bach in 2008 led to a distribution deal with 100% Rock. Road-tested, well-oiled and set for world domination (their pub shows are the talk of the town in Perth). Are you listening? You soon will be...” Bio courtesy of: www.babyjane.com.au

Check out our interview below with the bands lead singer, Andy Smith.

Let's start with the basics first - what brought the band together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
Like everything with this band we did things the long way. John, Nik and Judgie were looking for a singer and I auditioned. We ended up jamming together for about a month and although I could see that the guys could play, it just wasn’t musically what I was looking for at that point. I put another band together and over time firstly our bass player left and Judgie joined, then our lead guitar player left and John joined. That line up lasted maybe a year before it ran out of steam and I left. I went to Europe for a couple of months and when I came back John came to my house and pitched his offer: Nik will learn 4 of my old bands songs, I will learn four of their old bands songs and we’ll see how it sounds. It sounded great with all 8 songs sounding better than they ever had.

As far as the name goes we had a few suggestions going around but they were all old clichéd metal names. As soon as I heard Baby Jane I was sold. I loved it. I like the contrast of us being a hard rocking band with such a sweet sounding name. Of all the names we had been testing on our friends BJ was the one that got the best feedback. I’m pretty sure it was Judgie’s idea that he had got from an old movie, ‘whatever happened to Baby Jane?’ so you’d need to ask him the specifics-I just thought it sounded cool.  You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your music, what do you tell them?  Here it is. If you like it great…if not-who cares?  Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each of them?  I don’t kiss n tell.   You have recently released your CD 'Are You Listening', how long did the process of writing and recording the songs take?  As I mentioned some of the songs came from previous bands so we had a lot of it written when we got together. The old songs were changed a bit here and there. Everyone put their own stamp on the songs to make them Baby Jane tunes. We wrote some new stuff and when we had enough good material we started looking for somewhere to record it. We got about half the CD done at one studio but the production was not what we were looking for. Plus the engineer would bad mouth whoever wasn’t at the studio to the rest of the band which is never really the sign of a positive working relationship. After that we had one of Perths ‘Big Name’ producers come down for a listen. He had grand plans for us but his ideas weren’t practical. He wanted to pull the songs to bits, analyze every fuckin bar and put it back together. We just wanted to make a good rock album. But again we went in and put down about 8 songs for pre production. Then the engineer went off on a tour and we were forced to work around his schedule. This wasn’t working so we canned the idea and went to another studio. Finally we started to get some good results and the album began to take shape. It probably took around 6 months to get all the parts down. The reason it was so long is we were all working full time so we were doing sessions whenever we could find time…and money

For those of us in the know, you used one of hard rocks finest Michael Wagener to mix the album, how did this association come about?  I think it was after we supported Sebastian Bach. Someone put us in touch with him, he heard our demos and was keen to mix them. 
In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that make up a Babyjane song?  From my point of view it’s all about hooks and dynamics. Whether that be a killer guitar riff, gang vocal or cool lyrics there has to be a hook.   Is the process of songwriting a whole of band affair, or are there a few key contributors?  We all contribute. Even if someone brings in a song that is 80/90% done it gets chopped and changed until it’s a BJ song. I write the majority of the lyrics, but everyone chips in. On a lot of the songs one verse will be mine and one will be Judgie’s with the chorus being relevant to both-even if each verse is covering a totally different topic.
 What or who inspires/influences your music the most?  Lyrically I like to write about emotions, human behavior and experience. It has to be honest and believable. And it’s got to have attitude. I think my best work comes out when I’m pissed off. That’s not to say I write negative lyrics. I think it’s more therapeutic to me to use a negative emotion and create something positive. 
What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your album?  I think the Beatles are the greatest band of all time but the first time I saw a Motley Crue video I was hooked and never looked back. They were my new favorite band and that still stands today. Nikki Sixx is the number one inspiration to my lyrical style and the whole attitude of the Crue really brought me out of my shell. Mick’s riffs, Tommy’s beats, big hooky chorus’s. This band had everything I was looking for and I soaked it all up. The bands I really like have all got attitude. From GnR, Sex Pistols, Aerosmith, Zepplin- even Oasis. They are all dangerous.  What kind of movie do you think your music would be best suited to and why?  Probably something fast moving with a lot of action. You could use a lot of our stuff in a car chase scene : )  For those reading this who haven't yet had the pleasure, how would you describe 45 minutes spent at a Babyjane live show?  Hot, sweaty fun. Although we are all ‘show-offs’ to some extent there are no posers in the band. What you get is what we are. Were rock n rollers and we love playing our music to a crowd.  You hail from Western Australia, for those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the rock scene from which you originate?  It’s very small and gets no support from the local industry or media. Considering Perth has such a small population there are literally hundreds of great bands out there. Perth has always been famous for producing quality bands, ACDC and INXS to name two, but these days there is a clique and unless you’re in it you get no help.  
Of the gigs you have played so far, is there one that stands out from amongst the rest?  Even though I was full of flu and had my head in a bowl of Vicks and hot water 5 minutes before going on, I’d have to say the Sebastian Bach support. Everything was up a notch. It kinda felt like, ‘wow so this is the next level…I like it’  With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, Babyjane will have:  1. Toured the East coast 2. Written more great songs 3. Firm plans in place for a US/UK tour

Sunset Riot

Fri, 8 Apr 2011 20:06:58 +1000

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Sunset Riot are the latest Aussie rock band to blast onto the scene trying to forge their reputation as a live act with an arsenal of big riffs and even bigger ambitions. But unlike many who crash and burn, these ambitions in Sunset Riot’s case are matched with an ability to deliver some kick ass ROCK!

The band’s EP released in the latter months of last year, certianly caught our attention. Lead track ‘Rattlesnake’ with it's bass heavy riff and swaggering style rock is a song that will crawl into your senses with repeated listens, a rocking blend of the hard rock of the 80's and a healthy dose of 70's classic rock. For anyone familiar with the band Diamond Nights from a few years back, that's a neat little comparison. A stomping riff announces 'Trash vs Class' which given the title, expectedly is a sleazy style rocker that to these ears has a distinctly Australian flavor in the vein of The Screaming Jets. 'Moonshine' and 'New Day' display the bands ability to write a kick ass and memorable rock song, whilst still retaining the EP's rawness and live feel.. They are the EP's highlights and perfect showcases for the unique vocals of Del Rio and the bands shit hot musicianship.

Having first come to our attention with the EP late last year, it was about high time we found out more about these up and coming rockers and the bands lead singer Del was the man in the firing line of the usual hard hitting questions haha.... Make sure you check out the bands website for all the latest tour dates, which there are many all over Australia and even the USA for that matter!!!!

Let's start with the basics first – what brought the band together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
JP (lead guitar) decided to form a band several years ago. Most of us joined thru ads in the newspaper and online. Apart from the band we literally are just 5 random dudes who love to play music. The name is derived from the last few moments Jesus Christ had on earth. When He died on the cross there was an eclipse and a bunch of dead people came back to life. Sunset Riot is completely out of control chaos that somehow manages to find its way to the ultimate destination.

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your music, what do you tell them?
We're just fun rock n roll. Party rock if you like. A little swagger, a little tongue in cheek and alot of guitar hero ;)

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each of them?
JP - He plays lead guitar like no other guitarist I've ever seen. Rock n roll myth/fact: The idea for the band and the band name came to him in a vision while he was in the shower

Ziggy Scott - Best rhythm guitarist on the scene at the moment. Rock n roll myth/fact: He was actually shortlisted to play Johnny Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls frontman) in a film about the evolution of the New York music scene

Resh - Most complete drummer I've ever played with. Plays a variety of styles and always consistent with time. Rock n roll myth/fact: Turned down a stint as drum tech for Whitesnake to join Sunset Riot.

Jazz - Bassist with a keen ear for chord structure and very complete grasp of key. Rock n roll myth/fact: Met his Finnish girlfriend while standing on a table performing during a show.

Del - Frontman. Rock n roll myth/fact: Once watched Metal Skool (now Steel Panther) from side of stage with Ron Jeremy and Eddie Van Halen.

You have released an EP with some cracking rock songs such as 'Moonshine' which is a particular favourite of mine. Can you give us an insight into that song and also how long you spent writing and recording for the EP?
Moonshine is about that moment of choice when you are in your deepest pain. We all reach out for something. Sometimes its the 'moonshine' beside the bed sometimes its the light at the end of the tunnel. JP wrote the song long before I joined the band but its a song that I can easily relate to and a song that connects with me on a heart level.

The bulk of the writing for the EP was done in amongst gigging. We're very much a live band in that we write all the time and try out songs live before we record them. All the songs that we record have been played in some format before we lay them down. The whole recording process only took a week but there was alot of prep that went in beforehand.

When can we expect more awesome rock music from you to be released such as an album or another EP?
We've already been back in the studio to begin work on a follow up but we haven't decided what format that will take yet. We've got 8 or 9 songs that we play live that could be recorded and another 7-10 unfinished songs on the shelf so the material is there its just a matter of funding and decided what we want to release.

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that make up a Sunset Riot song?
The first key ingredient is energy. If the song doesn't have the right energy it won't work. I think for our music as well it has to have an element of mystery, whether thru the music or the lyrics, and a good beat. We are a very multi layered band with plenty going on lyrically and musically on many levels but at the end of the day we are also just a good old party rock n roll band. People need to be able to dance and have fun to our music first and then explore it later...perhaps our songs are like a parfait, they've got layers ;)

What or who inspires/influences your music the most?
We all come from very different backgrounds but some of our collective influences would be Aerosmith, Guns N Roses, Metallica, U2, Bon Jovi, Live, Velvet Revolver, Goo Goo Dolls, Disturbed, Led Zeppelin, Matchbox Twenty, The Beatles, Iron Maiden, Parkway Drive, Audioslave, Electric Mary, ACDC, and thats just a scratch on the surface!!!

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your music?
I actually grew up listening to alot of the folk inspired music from the 60's (James Taylor, Carole King etc) but moved on to the grunge and post grunge movements of the mid-late 90's (Rage Against the Machine, Matchbox Twenty, Live, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains) before landing somewhere in the middle with my love of glam/sleaze and good old 4x4 rock n roll (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Guns N Roses, Velvet Revolver, Alterbridge, Audioslave, Electric Mary, Crashdiet). I learned a lot about lyrical arrangement, story telling and harmony from the folk era but have been really captured by the force and power of the later styles. I'd like to think that within Sunset Riot we can capture both a well told story and a powerful picture.

What kind of movie do you think your music would be best suited to and why?
A sci-fi epic (Think the Matrix meets Terminator 2) or a an action thriller like Crank or Fast and the Furious. We're energetic and fun, what else needs to be said?

For those reading this who haven't yet had the pleasure, how would you describe 45 minutes spent at a Sunset Riot live show?
Sweat-soaked, exhuberantly energetic, fast-paced, out-of-control madness with double and triple shots of guitar hero moments and sing along choruses. A swaggering circus of rock n roll that will catch you completely off guard and leave you breathlessly smiling.

You have a bunch of shows coming up in the USA in June, how did these come about and what are you looking forward to most about your trip to the USA?
Our USA Tour talks started after we signed up with Delaware based Mama Trash Promotions (69 Eyes, Acey Slade and the Dark Party, Dope Stars Inc, Lord of the Lost). We are the only Australian based band on her roster so we started talking about doing some shows with some of her international artists. She's putting on a festival in Philadelphia which will include performances by Trash Gallery (Can), Acey Slade (USA) and Sunset Riot as well as a few other bands from around the globe. The rest of our tour has grown around that. I'm probably most looking forward to play in front of so many different people every night. I am an Aussie through and through but we have vast distances between our major population centres so it will be cool to drive less and play more.

You hail from Sydney, for those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the rock scene from which you originate?
The best word for the Sydney rock scene is 'growing'. We've seen a distinct rise in the number and quality of rock bands in Sydney even in the 2 years we've been playing. The rock scene is still very much underground but its rising rapidly. Don't be surprised if you see quite a few international exports over the next 5 years.

Of the gigs you have played so far, is there one that stands out from amongst the rest?
Either the time we played in front of 3,000 to 5,000 on a floating stage on Darling Harbour for the FIFA FanFest or playing front of 350 people at our local pub the Fitz. Totally different rush with each one, although I do have to admit that I much prefer intimate, packed, sweaty pubs because we can get up close and personal with the fans.

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, Sunset Riot will have:
1. Our very first music video
2. Our first international tour
3. A new recording to release

Ten Thousand

Sat, 2 Apr 2011 10:32:37 +1100

Ten Thousand's sound is a cocktail of outrageous rock ‘n roll and explosive style. A dynamic mixture of southern blues, funky latin percussion, epic stadium sized guitar riffs, shredding solos and mysterious eastern melodies, its Sin City meets Led Zeppelin, an edge of your seat action blockbuster which has left audiences and promoters screaming for more.....

Comprising the talents of Jay Bowen (vocals), Marty K and Brandon Valentine (guitar), Mike Rivers (drums) and Luke Mckenzie (bass).. take the journey and enter the world of Ten Thousand.... You will discover a finely tuned machine, an elite force of talented mercenaries unquestionably committed, capable of unleashing tremendous energy & power! A diverse, dramatic yet sexy blend of powerhouse rock which has shaken the Australian music scene.

Since exploding onto the scene in mid 2010 the band has been busy playing shows supporting the likes of Electric Mary, Jerrico, Tread and Johnny No Mercy. Already with a music video under their belts and in the process of filming a documentary, Ten Thousand are keeping themselves busier than ever. With a sound thats both provocative, in your face yet completly melodic and accessible the band is poised to take on the music industry head on. With the release of their debut EP set for early 2011 its looking like its going to be a huge year.
* Bio above courtesy of Ten Thousand Myspace Page

The bands singer Jay Bowen tells us all about Ten Thousand and why they might just be one of the best things you’ve never heard!

Let's start with the basics first – what brought the band together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
We met the old fashioned way – on the internet! Marty put the call out that he was putting together a guitar-based, groove driven band to which Brandon and I answered. I remembered Mike’s drumming from working with him years before and thought he might’ve been interested. Turns out he was and with the core group of four established, we simply wrote and jammed for close to eight months while looking for a bass player. All of us were attached to other projects which all seemed to take a back-seat as the bands sound developed into a progressive, southern-roots based sound. It was not till we found Luke through a mutual friend that the group consciousness just clicked into another gear and we felt whole at last – and with a full bag of tunes behind us! Looking back, it’s a miracle that we got through! It was very humble beginnings let me tell you, getting the line-up right, negotiating our sound…it was down to Marty and I for a while! All of that stuff is so funny now considering how strong we are as a unit.

As for the name i guess we cant give everything away so we ll leave that for you guys to work out... haha

You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your music, what do you tell them?
Remember being a teenager and the rush you would get when seeing the person you had the hots for? What it felt like running strong with your mates with the freedom and abandon you once knew? The burning importance of everything you felt at that age? Dancing crazy for the fun of it, screaming out loud for the love of it. Imagine all that intensity and passion rolled up into a voice, a song, a sound. That’s our band!!

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact or myth about each of them?
Marty K – Guitar. DJ by day, axe-man by night! Lives and breathes music. A certified lady-killer! Survives on an hour’s sleep a day!

Brandon Valentine – Lead Guitar. Youngest member…naaaww!! A musical prodigy, can talk underwater, has more energy than the greater Melbourne power grid!

Luke McKenzie – Bass. Freshly relocated to sunny Melbourne from the ship-wreck coast.....corruption underway! A smiling assassin, he can play a gig completely blindfolded!

Mike J Rivers – Drums. The Italian stallion! Has faced death and won! A lover AND a fighter! Breathes fire and has arms forged from real adamantium!

Jay Bowen – Vox. Oldest member, should know better! Horse-wrangler, thespian, international man of mystery! Acid-tongued, acid-washed and powered by Jack!

You have recently released the single 'Devils Dance' from your forthcoming EP. Can you give us an insight into the song and also the concept behind the incredibly visual single cover?
Devil’s dance is about baaaad girls... haha ..girls who do anything to climb their way up the social ladder!! Its about living on the edge and playing with fire... and that one day chances are your gonna get burnt! We’ve all been burnt by someone like this…as a guy you cant quite put your finger on how you feel when you’re in love or lust with someone who treats you bad. Sometimes it heightens their appeal, sometimes you just wanna wreak havoc! lol...having said that they is nothing wrong with bad girls though haha!

Our images explore a kind’ve wasteland…the wasteland of the human mind, where primal, base survival kicks in. They channel the darker side of human emotion, motivations and behaviour. We’re all huge fans of Grindhouse cinema, Tarantino, westerns and gangster films…so we get a lot of inspiration from that as well. But ultimately the single artwork represents the immediate danger that these girls face, it;s right there, right in your face but at the same time its masked in shadow and silhouetted so its hard to see who or where its coming from!!

When can we expect more awesome rock music from you to be released such as an EP?
We’ll be releasing another single soon with the full EP to follow in the next three months.

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that make up a Ten Thousand song?
The groove is important - theres nothing like seeing people groove their arses off to our songs! I guess taking something classic and just flipping it on its head to see where it can go and just trying to experiment like that. Other than that, the call and response between the vocals and the guitars…with a guitar hook that you just cant stop humming.

Is the process of songwriting a whole of band affair, or are there a few key contributors?
Different combinations of the band will bring in different ideas, theres not one person that it all comes from. We spend a lot of time experimenting and exploring ideas and really try to get to the core of the songs. We ll each bring in ideas, riffs, lyrics, concepts and build songs around them... we spend a bit of time in Marty’s home studio and we record hours and hours of jams from which we might get only a single rifff. I guess its a pretty intense process which gets pretty heated sometimes haha.. we ve had cameras following us around for the last couple months so a lot of it will be featured in a documentary which should be coming out later this year!

What or who inspires/influences your music the most?
I guess our music is inspired by the sound of the big 80s bands like, dare I say, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Guns n’ Roses etc… mainly I think because we essentially have a blues and roots core and so did they. But we try not to copy those bands, rather I think we try and capture what they were vibing on and inject it into the music we write without necessarily sounding like them. The largesse of that sound is also something we try to push – big riffs, big notes, see how big we can make it and how much we can get away with.

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout your music?
I’ve definitely come back to what I listened to when I was 13 or 14…thankfully I had pretty good taste…I just lived and breathed INXS, AC/DC and Guns n’ Roses at that age. They were everything to me. I was from a small town in the bush, very isolated. These songs were the way I learnt about the world outside. It’s the band that we’d always dreamed of being in at that age – that’s what we went ahead and created.

What kind of movie do you think your music would be best suited to and why?
Definitely action or something with a lot of grunt. A road movie, a western…any grindhouse horror from the 70’s and 80‘s. It’s the kinda stuff guys wanna play loud and girls wanna dance to…the bad girls! Haha The dude that saves the world and gets the girl at the end of the flick? Our stuff would be his theme-music. haha... .but in a cheekier, slightly more baddass way haha

For those reading this who haven't yet had the pleasure, how would you describe 45 minutes spent at a Ten Thousand live show?
A real, live, hot, sweaty, fun, sexy, good-time, rock n’ roll affair!! A big sound served red-hot! Its definately a show....I think you just need to come check it out!

You hail from Melbourne rock city, for those reading this in galaxies far, far away, what do you have to say about the rock scene from which you originate?
Melbourne is such an eclectic, vibrant city, right down the bottom of the world, beating with a massive heart. Cold outside for most of the year, the indoor night-life is electric! So easy to meet people who are hot for a good time, so many bars with young bands playing of exceptional quality…its great looking around at our peers thinking “All of these guys ROCK! Who’s gunna explode first?”.

Of the gigs you have played so far, is there one that stands out from amongst the rest?
I’d honestly have to say we look back on each gig thinking the last one was the best. Its just so much fun at the moment. We’re just a new, gigging band. We don’t have a long list of big names that we’ve supported. However, our first gig at Cherry Bar last year, September 11 of all dates, felt incredible. We had a huge turn out and we pulled out a few new songs that we’d been working on. There was just a magic in the air that night. I think maybe it was the first time we each felt, at the same time, that anything was possible for us.

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, Ten Thousand will have:
1. Our first clip!
2. A song all over the radio!
3. YOU in the palm of our hands! lol

ME

Sun, 6 Mar 2011 20:51:53 +1100

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

“Jesus f*** they're cool as shit" Beat Magazine”

Following the launch of their new EP NAKED at the Raval, Surry Hills on Wednesday March 9, [ME] are proud to announce that they will hit the road with Brisbane rock outfit, Dead Letter Circus, on the band’s national tour this March and April.

March 18, 2011 marks the official Australian release of NAKED via MGM distribution. The 4-track EP brings together the bands’ spectacular blend of symphonic pop and stadium rock sounds and will feature sound art, pulsating synths, and a Californian pool party of guitar tracks. Mixed in the UK by Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian), NAKED effortlessly combines the sublime aesthetics of timeless career artists with youthful enthusiasm to make this quality neo-rock genre an art form of their own design.

We caught up with Mikey Godde to chat about the bands upcoming EP Naked, EP launch, national tour and delve deeper into why the band’s reputation as a live act to be reckoned with keeps growing and growing.

Thanks Mikey for taking the time to chat. So you have your new EP Naked coming out in a few weeks, with the album launch in Sydney next Wednesday. Stating the obvious, you must be looking forward to getting the EP out there…
Yes definitely. It's the first time where we have released something that rivals our live show in terms of quality and all that. We've never really had the time or money previously to record something properly. Now that we have Barny on board, our producer over in the UK, it's great as he just makes everything sound banging!

Let's start with the basics first – what brought the band together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
We all moved to Melbourne, except for Spike who already lived here, for the purpose of looking for a band. That's why we rehearse 4 or 5 times a week as that's all we want to do. I go to a lot different music festivals and actually met our guitarist at a nudist festival haha! We hit it off and started jamming a lot and then found the other guys. We typed in our influences into a website called Melband and that's how we found Luke who was a freaking legend and then we found Spike.

As for our band name, well I would love to tell you it was some magical story but it's not. We had like over 1,000 band names, it was retarded, way too big and we had no idea what we were going to call ourselves. We had our first gig coming up and had no name, then someone as a joke said let's call it ME. Everyone laughed and we just stuck with that as it made us laugh! The only problem is that all these record label douchebags were trying to get us to change the name because it was "ungoogleable" and telling us they would be interested in the band only if we changed our name. But we werent interested in that, we like the name and think it's hilarious! So we are going to keep it and the label we have signed with haven't even mentioned it!

For the benefit of those who haven't yet heard your music, how would you describe your sound?
It's kind of over the top rock I guess. Everything we do is over the top, even our shows are pretty theatrical. Not like spandex suits and face paint, when we play big shows and stages for our own gigs we will have a 10 piece brass orchestra and a 10 piece drum troupe and a choir! So sometimes there will be up to 30 people on stage. The live show is what we all really care about and that's why we are looking forward to getting out there to the world. Playing in front of big audiences is what we like and we put all our energy into making sure the live show is something memorable. So far that's been working really well for us!

As mentioned earlier, you are soon releasing your EP “Naked”. How long did the process of writing and recording the songs for this take?
Well one of the songs was a brand new one which we thought was a really strong song and we took a dive with it and recorded it, even though we hadnt played that song live before as we normally workshop our stuff live for ages before we even think about recording a song. We were originally just going to release that one song, but then we got signed and shit started happening so we recorded three more songs.

You have had the EP mixed by Barny Barnicott in the UK, was he someone you had speficially sought out based on prior work of his? What was the soundscape you were searching for?
Well we got signed in the UK to Lizard King Records and because of that we were given a list of what was effectively our dream producers. Its kind of funny as most of the producers we have worked with so far have been mates down the road haha! Then we had a list in front of us of all these wicked producers and he was one of them. We went through and listened to the work of all these guys and we just chose him based on the stuff he has been doing which is pretty rocking and hi-fi and we like to go down that hi-fi road.

Whilst on the UK, you have been signed to a UK label correct…what are the details surrounding that?
To be honest we don't even really know haha, well I guess we have a fair idea. I think they had been watching us for ages. We did some big showcases and got heaps of interest from all over. We did Big Sound and One Movement which are like a few big industry showcases here in Australia. From there, everytime we would play live there would always be lots of interest, but nobody really snapped us up and we kept going about our business. Then as soon as we got this offer from someone else, Lizard King jumped on us that day. It's funny how everyone seems to know what's going in within the music industry! I mean literally the day the other offer happened these guys got in contact with us and had a really, really good offer. So I guess they were just watching us from a distance!

So is the intention to head over and record in the UK also?
We are probably going to find out today actually when the dates are. But yeah, we have a big tour coming up first around Australia with Dead Letter Circus. So we were initially going to be heading over earlier bit we got offered that tour, but that's a really sweet tour to get! So it's looking like April/May.

And whilst you mention the Dead Letter Circus tour, tell us a bit about what’s coming up with that?
That's all selling great, the Corner Hotel show all sold out yesterday and theres been another one added. It's a good tour covering Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. It's really good over in Perth, it's got a whole different vibe entirely. The ocean looks much nicer and the people tend to be better looking over there too!

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that must be included?
We usually come up with ideas independently and then bring it to other people and then they will usually finish it off. It usually starts with an idea and then gets worked on in the rehearsal room. Our singer and piano player has heaps of cool ideas, so he usually is the one to start something and then we mess it up a lot and make it crazy, because that's what we like to do! We like bands such as The Mars Volta and Radiohead and stuff like that.

Just further on the musical influences within the band, are they vastly differen’t between band members?
No, not vastly, we tend to meet in the middle really. Luke and Damian really like classical music and myself and our drummer, we like The Mars Volta and Tool a lot and more of that crazy stuff. But we all meet in the middle with things like 60's rock and we all love The Beatles. I would challenge anyone to try and beat us in Beatles trivia!

Just back to the EP specifically, what can you share about the artwork you have chosen that graces it’s cover?
We have this guy called Ken Taylor, who our drummer is lucky enough to have worked in the same office as this guy. Ken has been doing artwork for us since we have been playing at The Evelyn, the early days. He's been featured in Rolling Stone and currently doing work for Queens Of The Stone Age, The Mars Volta, Nine Inch Nails. He's got stuff going on that guy, he's amazing!

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, ME will have:
1. Well we are certainly hoping to survive all the disasters that seem to be heading our way. But we are all ninjas so I am sure that will happen!
2. One thing we will be doing is recording an album. That's all we have ever talked about, we turn into like kids in a candy store whenever we talk about it. We want to make like a really really. wicked debut album!
3. Travel and explore the world and play to big audiences!

Catch [ME] at the Raval, Surry HIlls on Wednesday March 9 and with Dead Letter Circus around the country this March and April.

"A live show like no other" Inpress Magazine
“... the kids are simply more than alright; they are on fire.” Rave Magazine
"...totally rocking!" Triple J
"They left most punters with their jaws on the floor" Timeoff Magazine

Listen to the NAKED EP here:
http://www.meband.com/stream/

‘NAKED’ EP LAUNCH
43 Wentworth Street, Surry Hills
Wednesday March 9. The Raval. Macquarie Hotel, Surry Hills.
Tickets $12 + booking Fee on sale now from: Moshtix , Oztix and http://meband.com/

Supporting DEAD LETTER CIRCUS
Fri March 25. The Tivoli. Brisbane
Sat March 26. Metro Theatre. Sydney
Sat April 2. Corner Hotel. Melbourne
Fri April 8. Metropolis. Fremantle

Tickets from http://me.oztix.com.au/

The Treatment

Thu, 3 Mar 2011 12:58:51 +1100

OFFICIAL BAND BIO:
“The Treatment were formed in 2008, when founder member drummer Dhani Mansworth was still at school in Cambridge . Although only 15 at the time he already had a clear vision of the kind of band he wanted to form. Having grown up on a diet of ACDC, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith he began to put the band together under the watchful eye of his father guitarist and manager Laurie Mansworth (More, Airrace, Roadstar).

Having had little success with local musicians he decided to go further afield. First to join the line up was 18 year old Ben Brookland from Tadley, he shared the same passion for classic bands as Dhani. Ben's unique guitar style suited the bill perfectly. Soon after came bass player Rick Newman (aka Swoggle) also 15. Rick's enthusiasm and solid bass sound fitted perfectly. Rick suggested that the band audition Tagore Grey his school friend and guitarist from Petersfield. Rick's recommendation was spot on as Tag's guitar style was exactly what they had been looking for. The boys passion for the band was proved when they all packed bags and moved to Cambridge were they shared a home with The Mansworths so they could focus completely on the band and rehearse on a daily basis.

After a 6 month search they found the final piece of the jigsaw. Matt Jones a 17 year old wonder kid hailing from Norwich . His high energy rock vocals was exactly what the guys were looking for. Matt moved to Cambridge within 1 week of joining the band and after locking themselves away to refine their sound, they emerged one year later, they were ready to showcase.

On March 2nd at The Borderline supporting Voodoo Six, Powerage A&R guru Derek Oliver came down to check out the bands set. He was very impressed and immediately signed the band. They have just finished recording their first album ‘This Might Hurt’ (at Iron Maiden Steve Harris's Barnyard studios). The album was produced by Laurie Mansworth and mixed by Tony Newton of Voodoo Six.”

Let's start with the basics first – what brought the band been together and what is the inspiration behind the band name?
The band was formed by our drummer Dhani. He wanted to find a group of musicians around the same age who love the same type of music. As for the name, we all love Doctor Feelgood and we kind of liked the medical theme, so The Treatment fitted us perfectly.

For the benefit of those who haven't yet heard your music, how would you describe your sound?
High energy guitar rock with a touch of Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Sex Pistols.

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us a rock "n" roll fact about each of them?
Singer- Matt Jones - loves tea and biscuits but we believe he has a truly great rock voice.
Ben Brookland Lead Guitar - Lead guitarist and band clown
Tagore Grey - rythmn guitar A direct descendent of Lady Jane Grey (British royalty)
Rick Newman aka Swoggle - bass guitar - He is not much over 5 ft but has great stage presence
Dhani Mansworth (founder member of the band) 6ft 5 inch and a powerhouse drummer. (nicknamed Dan the Dentist, after re arranging the school bullies teeth).

You have recorded your debut album 'This Might Hurt'. How long did the process of writing and recording the songs for this album take?
On and off the album took just over a year to record.

A little bit of trivia with the recording of this album is that it was recorded at Steve Harris from Iron Maiden's "Barnyard" studio's. How did recording there come about...and was there any signs of "Eddie" hanging around haha?
Our Manager.producer Laurie Mansworth is friends with Tony Newton who mixed our album. He works from Steve Harris's studio. Steve popped in one day and gave the album the thumbs up. He was a really nice guy. We didn't see Eddie but Laurie and Tony did see a ghost one day - Fact! The building is very very old.

In terms of your songwriting, what do you consider to be the most important ingredients that make up a 'The Treatment' song?
Big chorus's and big riffs!

Is the process of songwriting a whole of band affair, or are there a few key contributors
It’s a band affair, we started with about 30 songs and condensed these down to our 12 favourites.

What or who inspires/influences your music the most?
We have various influences, we love rock but with the energy of punk.

What bands did you grow up listening to and how did they help create the style of music that can now be heard throughout 'This Might Hurt'?
We listen to everything from ACDC, to The Sex Pistols.

What kind of movie do you think your music would be best suited to and why?
Action / thriller or nudy film - lol

As I write these questions, you are in the midst of a run of dates in the UK. How are the shows going and here's your chance to tell the rest of the world what we are missing out on by not seeing your live show!
The shows have been brilliant for us. We played London last night and it was chaos. You are missing out big time.

With 2011 already a few months down, here's a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. In 2011, The Treatment will have:
1. Played most of the major festivals this year
2. Have our music recognised worldwide
3. Have a major label in America

Miss Behaviour

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:20:14 +1100

At the risk of repetition and for favouring nations, once again, here I am reviewing another exceptional high quality melodic rock/AOR release hailing from yep you guessed it...Sweden! Hot on the trail of fellow Swedes such as H.E.A.T, Work Of Art, Eclipse, Treat and Houston, Miss Behaviour will undoubtedly be the latest band to set the melodic rock/AOR scene alight.

Having previously released their debut album Heart Of Midwinter back in 2006, lineup changes have resulted in vocalist Sebastian Roos and drummer Anders Berlin joining founding members guitarist Erik Heinke and Henrik Sproge on keyboards to create this magical sound. Allowing themselves plenty of time to perfect their sound, the songs and the production on this album, Last Woman Standing features 11 songs of keyboard drenched melodic rock composed of such a quality that it will no doubt catapult Miss Behaviour to the forefront of the new generation of bands reigniting this genre worldwide.

For those people who may be familiar with you from your debut release Heart Of Midwinter, here's your chance to tell us what has changed between now and then? We've gained some weight and a few more beers have passed through the system since the last time! On a more serious note, almost everything has changed actually, everything but the passion for melodic rock and AOR! Me (Erik) and Henrik founded the band and we're still in it. We reinforced the band with the talented singer Sebastian Roos and great drummer Anders Berlin, this is the first time in our career that we feel 100% sure on the potential of Miss Behaviour. All guys are motivated and want to make it big and we have great back up from Gregor at our record label, Avenue of Allies.

Can you introduce each member of your band and give an interesting rock n roll "fact" about each!
I’m Erik, guitarist and co-founder of the band. Rock n roll fact…hmm I don’t miss behave that much at all actually, but I am pretty good at crashing Alfa Romeos…unfortunately. 3 so far haha.

Henrik, keyboards, co-founder and main songwriter can drink almost everyone under the table, he just doesn’t brag about it!

Sebastian Roos is our singer. He’s an experienced musician and has toured a lot during the years so there are a lot of stories… He always sleeps with his boots on.

Anders, our drummer once was on tour with a christian band in Japan, but he could not avoid ending up in the bar. He’s not touring with them anymore…

Last Woman Standing features 11 songs of awesome melodic rock/AOR with a monster sound courtesy of obviously a great production team!. Did you go into the studio with a clear vision of exactly the sound you were after or did it evolve as the recording progressed?
Thanks a lot! We definitely had a clear vision from the beginning. We wanted to make a top class album to build a career upon and that needed good musicians and a great production. We have spent a load of money on this album but now I think it's worth every penny, definitely. You have to stand out somehow and nowadays, to be honest, a lot of productions sound like crap. It's absolutely crucial in this genre, to make a great production.

Your music features big hooks and choruses and has an upbeat vibe. What are the key things that absolutely must feature in a Miss Behaviour song...or did I already steal your answer haha?
You stole it! Actually you’re kind of spot on there. We’re trying to create music with a joyful feeling added to it. I f you wanna sit in a dark room, thinking about life and death and heavy subjects..well maybe you should buy a Depeche Mode album. If you wanna have a good time, a beer and a moment of joy, buy our album!

When it comes to songwriting, does the whole band get involved or is it primarily a couple of you who share the main songwriting duties? Henrik is our main songwriter, but me and Seb are also very involved. We know what sound we want and we are all focused on writing songs that will fit that picture. When people buy our albums they shall know what they’ll get. I hate bands that change their sound totally on every album. We’re not made of stone of course we wanna develop in some way, but we kind of stick to our guns if you know what I mean.

You have released a video for the single for Till We Meet Again. What was the concept behind the video and song? Any plans yet for the next single, Emergency perhaps haha?
If there’s any Miss Behaviour song you shall listen to alone in a dark room, it’s Till We Meet Again. It’s written in the loving memory of a dear friend of me and Henrik, who tragically ended his life a time ago. The lyrics are fragments of our memories of the time we spent together. A lot of people seem to love Emergency, that was not our favourite from the beginning but it’s a grower!

What or who inspires/influences your music the most?
I'd like to say the passion for this music inspire us. The good spirit of 80s positivism and of course great rock bands such as Journey, Toto, Foreigner, Europe, Magnum, Def Leppard and so on. I hate the fact that many bands nowadays are so angry and make everything they can to been looked at as tough guys. I mean, music is fun, why don't just share some happiness and some feel good-spirit?! You don't have to tune down the guitar 3 steps and scream "kill, fuck, die"!! Come on..seriously. There are also a lot of new bands that I love. Houston, Eclipse, H.E.A.T, Degreed, Hell In The Club to mention a few.

What kind of movie do you think your music would be best suited to and why?
A remake of Back To The Future maybe? That would be cool!

The epic Perfect War features some guest guitar playing from Masterplan and ex-Helloween guitarist Roland Grapow, what led you to getting Roland to appear on specifically this song?
This song is the heaviest track on the album and it somehow fits Roland’s way of playing the guitar. He is an awesome musician, it's an honour to have him on the album! I mean, in his genre, he's a legend. Been a fan of Helloween and Masterplan for a long time. Roland is a great guy.

This comment might be getting old for our readers...but sitting here in Australia, for a country of its size, there just seems to be a never-ending supply of killer bands coming out of Sweden. Does the competition inspire you all to greatness...or was it your musical upbringing?
Thanks a lot, that's flattering! In Sweden we have a great tradition of melodic rock with a musical heritage from bands like Europe, Treat and later H.E.A.T, Houston, W.E.T etc. The competition definitely drives, but the scene is not big in Sweden so we're really grateful of the response we get from abroad! In Sweden they never play AOR on radio stations, only heavier rock and metal, but we're working on changing that! :-)

With your album now released, what are your touring plans during 2011?
We're actually working on that, so I can't tell you so much now, but it looks good. We definitely want to hit the road with Last Woman Standing! Our music is made for live shows and we love to perform live.

If you could choose two bands to support Miss Behaviour on your own headline world tour, who would you choose?
Houston and Foreigner! But it’s maybe more likely that we end up as support act for them haha.

Now here's your chance to gaze into the future, by the end of 2011, Miss Behaviour will have..... 1. A world tour in the making 2. A lot of fans, a great selling album and a new record in the making. 3. Lost the extra weight we gained since Heart of Midwinter *laughs*

* Check out the review for Last Woman Standing right here (read)

Hell In The Club

Wed, 9 Feb 2011 19:22:57 +1100

Being no strangers to the Italian scene with the heavier bands with which they are also involved, Hell In The Club was spawned from an idea of bass player Andy Buratto to create a band that delivered kick ass rock songs in the tradition of the classics from the 80's. Of course in 2011 that concept is nothing new, but some execute such visions better than others. In Hell In The Club’s case the vision is very nicely executed!

One thing that can't be denied about their debut album Let The Games Begin is that it is indeed a 12 song wild ride through everything that lovers of 80's hard rock get off on! Kick ass riffs, some massive chorus's, goodtime lyrics, it’s all there! If first single the ultra catchy anthem On The Road doesn't stay stuck in your head on first listen and beg you to check them out more, then you obviously aren't 80's enough in the first place!

With the help of vocalist Dave and bass player Andy, may we let the games begin and find out more about Hell In The Club....

Generally speaking, joining up power metal and progressive backgrounds, you wouldn't expect to create a great mix of glam/sleaze rock. What was the burning desire to create such a band?
DAVE: The burning flame was to play anything that wasn’t power or progressive anymore. Hehe I'm kidding! Actually we all grew up with this music and it was our main influence throughout all these years. We have listened to bands like Kiss, Motley Crue, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Queen, AC/DC etc since we were kids and we still follow the modern scene with bands like Hardcore Superstar, Crashdiet, Wig Wam, Hinder, Nickelback, Papa Roach, Buckcherry and many many others. Finally we had the chance to put up this band, everything was in place, the right people, the right songs… so it’s kind of a big dream come true for all of us!

What was the inspiration behind the band name 'Hell In The Club'?
ANDY: I took the inspiration from the Wrestling show called "Hell In The Cell" where the wrestlers fight in a ring inside a big cage! Like them, here the musicians create a show on stage! It's just a funny idea :-) It's a way to say : "ok guys. let's get the party started"!

Can you introduce each member of your band and give us an interesting rock n roll "fact" about each!
DAVE: Well….let’s start with Andy. He is the bass player and he is the one who started it all. He is always sober and he is an extremely serious guy. Then we have Picco, the guitar player. He is extremely good with his instrument…the most patient and gentle one in the band. Then we have Fede, the drum player. He doesn’t like to eat much but still he’s so powerful on the drums. Then there’s me… I like to have a healthy life, I don’t drink, don’t smoke. I am a strict catholic guy. This is Hell In The Club!

ANDY: the real name of my singer is Pinocchio:-))) right now his nose is so long....:-)
We are a good team, there is a great feeling in this band, we are just crazy rock n roll Italian guys:-))

How did you find the recording experience for 'Let The Games Begin', given you also produced your album and as a band you were relatively new in terms of playing and recording together?
ANDY: We were lucky to record the album in Fede's studio. He is also our drummer so we had the chance to take all the time we needed. The recordings took place in a fantastic atmosphere full of enthusiasm and without any tension! It's awesome because we understand each other perfectly and no one comes out with ideas the others don't like...it's great to work this way!

With bass player Andy having already written the songs for Hell In The Club, how much influence did the rest of the band have further developing the songs as we hear them on the album?
ANDY: All Hell In The Club guys listen to rock n roll / hard rock music, but we are all open-minded. We like every kind of music that lights up emotions inside of us, we take inspiration from all the magical world called music. Obviously we prefer hard rock, rock n roll, or metal music but for us it's important to not create limits about inspirations and influences because all different kind of sounds can be a little gift that help evolving our musical abilities!

What or who inspires or influences your music the most, both lyrically and musically?
DAVE: As I said in the first answer all those bands were the main influence, since we grew up with them. But that’s not the only thing that influences us. We also love the good old rock’n’roll from the 50’s - artists like Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc, even punk or pop music…it just has to be cool! :) Lyrically we are influenced by our life, our feelings, the things we love and we live every day.

You have released a video for the first single for On The Road, which is an anthem to end all anthems. Can you share with us the concept behind the song and what you were aiming for with the video?
ANDY: We have chosen On The Road for the first videoclip because we think it's a very catchy song and it may draw people's attention pretty well. There are more potential singles inside Let The Games Begin' but at the moment we picked On The Road, but there will be some more surprises soon! :-)
The song is dedicated to the fascination of travelling seen from the eyes of a musician on tour, a thing that can be adapted to every kind of traveller, the magical sensation of being free on the road and facing all the emotional things that can happen, meeting new people, visiting new cities..it's a tribute to freedom!

Your album has been released by the label Avenue Of Allies, which is fast becoming known worldwide for it's awesome hard rock/melodic rock/AOR releases....how did the association with Avenue Of Allies come about?
DAVE: It was pretty simple. We sent the album and they liked it :) We trusted Avenue because we thought that a small label would concentrate on our band and give us all the attention we needed since we are a new act, with a first album, and so on. So far I see they’re doing a good job, people are starting to know us, so we are achieving the first goal, step by step!

What kind of movie do you think your music would be best suited to and why?
DAVE: Actually I think that a big American rock’n’roll road movie would be a good choice for our music (On The Road). I am a big horror fan too, so I would love to add a bit of violence here and there (No Appreciation)– without forgetting the sex of course (Rock Down This Place). Tarantino would be great for this!

ANDY: Apart from the age of the band:-) I think the perfect movie is Still Crazy...because it's about the passion and the madness in the rock n roll world!!!

You hail from Italy, can you tell us what the music scene is like in Italy, are there many rock/metal bands like yourself?
ANDY: There are many very good bands here in Italy! But in our country it's not very easy to get out of the underground rock scene, there's not a big support from the media and this genre isn't supported that much from the masses either. We don't have a strong rock culture, there are a lot of rockers, but not as in other countries where the rock'n'roll style is more popular and well seen.

In creating Hell In The Club, what did you think that Hell In The Club could offer that is missing from the music scene currently?
DAVE: There are so many bands around…I just hope people will realize we have some good melodies, some great hooks and that we play with the heart. These are the main features. We are willing to play some great music but we don’t have any big ambition to be the most original band, the best band…we just play the music we love and we do it with passion.

If you could play your music to any one of your musical heroes, who would it be and why?
DAVE: I love and respect a lot of artists. But one of the biggest songwriters in rock for me is Paul Stanley, so I’ll probably go to him and ask HIM to play for ME! :)

ANDY: There are a lot of great musical heroes but now I choose two great singers that we won't see anymore on stage...Freddie Mercury and Steve Lee...R.I.P.

DAVE: Good choice buddy... I really miss them..especially Freddie.

Now here's your chance to gaze into the future, by the end of 2011, Hell In The Club will have.....
DAVE: a new bass player..hopefully….!

ANDY: :-))) Fuck you Dave!!!:-) if you want another bass player I want a female singer with an incredible body!!!:-))) Anyway..seriously...we hope to have a big success and a pool full of girlssssssss!!;-)))

Nat Col & The Kings

Sat, 5 Feb 2011 10:36:05 +1100

Nat Col & The Kings is not who your brain might be trying to tell you it is, instead it is the Australian blues roots rock pairing of guitarist/vocalist Nathan Cavaleri and former Screaming Jets drummer Col Hatchman. Not to be confused with the blues/roots that has been most familiar here in Australia in recent years such as the likes of Jon Butler Trio and Xavier Rudd, Nat Col & The Kings perfectly channels Nathan’s background in the blues and Col’s background with Aussie rockers Screaming Jets. It’s raw, it’s real, it’s full of energy and it rocks!

Armed with a stomping five track EP, with a revolving door of ‘Kings’ rounding out the band, the guys have already been stamping their presence on the live stage from Melbourne to Sydney to Queensland. From the swagger of Count On Me with it’s seductive mix of blues licks and female backing singers, the harder edged rock of first single Kicking & Screaming or the rollicking good time romp of Breakin‘ Out, Nat Col & The Kings seem set to introduce their take on the ‘blues‘ to a whole new generation of Aussie music fans.

Chatting to Nathan Cavaleri, his enthusiasm for where he is at musically with Nat Col & The Kings radiated throughout the conversation. As one of Australia’s most talented guitarists and now adding vocalist, songwriter and producer to his credentials, his journey of musical discovery seems like it has found an environment where his talents can truly shine.

Nat Col & The Kings...be sure to check out the bands YouTube channel and hear/watch for yourself!

So Nathan, thanks for taking the time to chat about Nat Col & The Kings. You have now played a bunch of shows around the country since the EP was released, what has the reception been like thus far?
Yes, we have our EP out, which has been out for a few months now and I have been blown away with how people are responding, it's been fantastic. We have done Melbourne and some up in Sydney and Queensland. People have been picking up on it really quickly. My past crowd have been digging it, but I probably haven't fully connected with them yet. I want to try and establish a good fundamental base first as Nat Col & The Kings as it is, rather than as my past. But being blues/roots, I'm loving it. It's definitely home for me, we have been developing this now under the radar for about a year and it feels real.

Up front Nathan, I have to say that if I happen to say Nat King Col during the interview, it’s not intentional, that’s what my brain keeps wanting to say when I say Nat Col & The Kings haha!
Haha, yeah I have been wondering to myself when people go 'I've heard of you guys before' whether they are thinking of Nat King Cole! Nat Col & The Kings came about as I have a terrible history of naming bands and I won't do it anymore. My last band name was Dirty Skanks! My partner in the band is Col Hatchman who is from The Screaming Jets and we just seemed to have this rotating bunch of guests who would come up on stage and rock out with us and one of my hip hop mates said, ‘why don't you just call it Nat Col & The Kings’ and I loved it from the start. It seems to suit our style, it's a bit of a play on words and it's rootsy and that's getting as far away musically from people thinking we are a Nat King Cole cover band!

You mentioned Col Hatchman a little earlier, how did your association with Col Hatchman first come about?
Well we thought we would fool around with the Dirty Skanks band first for a year or so and get the rebellion out of our systems. It was a bit of an anti industry band that one! We first met through a mutual friend and at the time I was looking for someone to jam with, so they said why don't you hook up with Col who had about 10 years under The Screaming Jets. I fell in love with him from that first jam, right from his vibe, to the way he sets up his kit and not only is he an incredible drummer, but his playing style as well, which reminds me of Animal from The Muppets haha! Not only is he awesome technically, but he is just great to watch with his energy.

What about the Kings, is that a revolving door of musicians or have you got a set bunch of guys in the band?
Well yeah at the moment kind of. We have a bass player, a guy called Kenny who is our rock when it comes to a bass player. But as far as keyboards and backing singers etc, we just invite up whoever wants to have a jam. That's really going well, sometimes it might be whoever has gone on before us or whatever. That's the good thing about being a bluesy roots based rock band, you can just jam out and it's pretty free flowing.

You have some cool gigs coming up, with some support slots with Boom Crash Opera, as well as at Bluesfest at Byron Bay in April...
We also have an awesome gig at The Vanguard in Newtown with a band called Indigo Rising who are an up and coming rock band. We share that similar kind of bluesy sound. It's going around at the moment, it's great! We are playing with another band from Tasmania called The Dirty Love and they were great!! It was a good way to end last year...knowing we are playing Bluesfest, do we can't wait for that one!

Your role in Nat Col & the Kings in addition to guitarist, (not to mention songwriter and producer) is also lead vocalist. When did you first turn to singing, rather than just being the guitarist?
I was kind of bumming around on the mic since I was about 15. When I was touring as just Nathan Cavaleri, we had a vocalist and I would jump on and do a couple of songs and take care of some backing vocals. Then after that, when I backed out of the music industry to have a think about what I really wanted to do musically, I realised that just playing guitar wasn't enough. Ever since then I have always sung in bands and an interesting test for me was last year when I was touring in Electric Mary as a guitarist. Which was great and got me back in touch with my guitar playing in a way that I hadn't had for a while, but I was like no...I have to be behind the microphone I cannot just be the guitarist.

You also produced the EP, have you been producing material prior to Nat Col & The Kings?
I started off producing local bands in a studio I had back when I was living at home. Any bands that wanted recording space or whatever, I would just end up recording them and producing them. I was a bit of a sponge when I was younger as I was always sitting beside the producer, watching everything that they did. So I was bringing that knowledge to the table with the local bands, then I was producing a bit of hip hop which was cool as my love for that came from my blues and funk roots. As far as my choice to produce our EP, it definitely was a choice, it wasn't something we had to do. I suppose I didn't want It to be overproduced.

So you obviously had a very definite sound you were after?
Exactly! We spent a lot of time developing these songs and playing them out in the rehearsal room and laying down demos of the songs and then take a break from them for a few months, then listen to them with fresh ears. So we had a lot of time to get the songs to a point they were ready to record. You know, I just wanted it to be simple, I didn't want it to be overproduced. Whether you play it in your car, or on your iTunes, I just wanted people to feel like they were in the room with us. Some songs maybe down the road, I am definitely open to working with a producer. It was actually great to work with an engineer on these songs. I definitely didn't want to be doing any of that...I just wanted to be an artist and create!

What can you tell us about the album at this stage, when is that likely to be released?
That might be a little later now, but there will be an album or an EP later this year. I am actually really liking the EP concept. I mean I like buying albums, but I like the idea of when you are an indie of injecting a little quicker with an EP. If we do another EP, then after that we will put it together with another 4 or 5 songs to make an album. So no matter what....there will be an album!

From a songwriting point of view are these songs written in very recent years, or do some date back to ideas you have had kicking around for many years?
A few of the songs have been floating around for a couple of years actually. They were post Skanks. I guess the Skanks were a bit of a Fuck You, I was sick of people telling me to do things like join a boy band and a whole heap of other really bad advice. So I kind of went 'fuck you guys’, I am going to have some fun, get sloshed on the road, write dirty lyrics and release that. So that's where the Skanks was coming from. So when I finished that, I started feeling a little unfulfilled and wanted to do something that was real. So that's when these songs were written, more from a real place, a little bit more connected. I just started thinking, so what is it that I wanted to say to people listening to my music? So these songs have been around, they have never been written for anybody else. They have been written selfishly for us haha! I mean there is a shitload of songs we have, but these were the songs that fitted for this EP. That's always the difficult thing about selecting songs! You are not always selecting based upon awesome songs, we are always trying to create a theme stylistically.

You have written and played with an amazing collection of performers, what have been some of the key learnings you have picked up over the years from a songwriting point of view?
Man, one of the biggest things from a musician point of view that I was always taught was how important it is when creating a song, you have to try and forget about yourself as a player. So it means you have to connect with everybody and play the song. There's a difference between playing a part and playing a song. People who overplay, where the bass player may not be locking in with the drums or the guitar player isn't locking in with both of them, it's about getting rid of that selfish mentally of 'ok, I'm playing my guitar, everyone else has to follow me'. So that's one big thing as in the studio you can really tell when that happens.

This is probably a blues thing more so, but another is just simplicity and knowing how to escape your muso type brain! There are so many artists I have worked with who just can't step out and listen to their song how the Average Joe is going to listen to it and are constantly over evolving and an attitude of nothing is good enough. Also, the importance of your environment, if you are not comfortable in your recording space or with the people you are working with, then you have already lost the battle!

On the subject of recording spaces, where was the EP recorded?
We recorded at a place called Big Jesus Burger where bands like silverchair, Powderfinger, The Presets all recorded. That studio has the environment nutted! If you want to get an old school type sound etc, then that's where you go!

For any of the guitar heads who may be reading this interview, what guitars are you playing these days?
I'm a Gibson man and happy about it to haha!! I've been playing lots of things over the years, I have a 62 Strat, a Tele, but for this stuff, it just wasn't doing it for me. I've never really been a Les Paul Standard person, when you pick it up, it feels a bit cumbersome. But I remember when for Dads 50th, we bought a 355 and when I picked it up I was like 'home'! It's great, such an easy guitar to play and as far as the sound it's got that old rootsy hollow body vibe going on. It's warm, it cuts, yeah so I am playing an early 80s black 355. The other things I play are Les Paul juniors, but they're not my main weapons up on stage, that's the 355 and my SG.

How was playing guitar in Electric Mary last year on their “world tour”!
Yeah that was awesome! We played at the World Cup Soccer and a few festivals too.

One of which was Hellfest wasn't it?
Now that was an experience..but in the best way ever! I like my metal, but I've never been to any festivals like that before. I was just in heaven, Motorhead were killer, I mean a 3 piece, but they just sounded huge! Alice Cooper was great and Slayer! Those festivals are like nothing we really have over here. They are really there for the music...Electric Mary were first band on the main stage and we walked out on stage and we were playing to an empty field, but as soon as we hit that first chord, you should of seen the people just bolting from everywhere!! Within 30 seconds we were playing to a full crowd! It was kind of surreal watching as they were all dressed in black with big boots haha!

So tell me...is Col definitely the loudest drummer you have heard haha?
Haha absolutely he is! That record thing, was back to when I said, ok what are we going to do for genes for jeans day and I said have a look at the record for loudest drummer and we thought that's not really that loud. He's not so loud with Nat Col & The Kings as it doesn't call for it as much, but back in the Skanks days it was all about whacking the shit out of the drums, but I should still be wearing earplugs!

Nathan, thanks for chatting and it looks like It’s shaping up as a great 2011 for you, especially given there is a growing scene here in Australia at the moment for the kind of blues/roots rock you guys are playing...
Thanks man! I'm loving it here too, because for a while there in the late 80's, early 90's kind of era, when you said "blues" people would think of people like Robert Cray etc, where blues got to a place of really polished sounds and flat and daggy...which is not the blues I grew up with at all. When I think of blues I think fire and extreme emotion! When you listen to some of these old blues artists they are talking about going down town to shoot and such and such and it was all about emotion in it's highest. I think that's where Jack White has done an amazing job in bringing it back to the people in a different way. As you said, yeah it's good to see the younger bands out there doing the same kind of thing and people are digging it which is great!