It seems like only yesterday that Peabody strummed through small venues like The Hopetoun Hotel with over-distorted guitars that rush through the eardrums like a steam train. They intend to be as energetic all again this month in celebration of twenty years in existence. The only difference now is there’s more a chance to develop creaky bones from all that strumming. Bruno & Ben from the band answered some questions for us ahead of their gigs in Sydney and Melbourne.
You intend to have a few special guests on stage during this tour, any possible cryptic hints as to who they may be?
Let’s just say that if you are familiar with who has appeared on the credits for the first two Peabody albums, then that is a good guess. The full bill for the Sydney should also provide a big hint.
The band took some extensive time off in 2012 and into 2013, what benefit did that time off have for the band?
The benefit of not wanting to kill each other. Seriously though, we’ve never got on each other’s nerves too much, but it’s nice to miss something for a while. Playing these gigs has got us very excited and it keeps things fun. Remember when Warnie got done for a banned substance that his mum gave him and it allowed him to take a year off and get all his injuries right and then he came back and was like, f**ken awesome? Yeah, think about it.
Any special antics planned as well like confetti, or a birthday cake?
Man, organising these couple of gigs has been an administrative nightmare (the joys of self-management) and it did cross my mind that we hadn’t organised any sort of party paraphernalia. Maybe someone will take it upon themselves to arrange some festivities for us (let’s keep it legal please – we are one of the most law-abiding bands around). Anyone reading this, come along and bring cake… and cheese… and a small bag of pink trucker-speed… and a joint.
In all seriousness, if you, in 2014 had any advice to say to a young Bruno or Ben in 1994, what advice would you give for a musical career?
More time singy-strummy, less time drinky-drinky. Actually, to be fair, I think we got the work/party balance pretty spot on, so maybe, if you’ll allow me to be ernest for a moment, to be a little more ambitious. We never really pushed anything but rather tended to glide along, content to just be there (which we still are).
Over the years, what would you say were the most fun ‘experience’ on a tour that the band encountered (experiences that are publishable at least)?
Fun times! Oh the stories we could tell. One of the better experiences was playing the first Hanoi Rocks Festival in a former army base in Hanoi, Vietnam. On the night before the show, all the bands from all over the world got together for a big party in this restaurant/bar owned by one of the festival organisers. It was pretty cool, but the day of the gig we regretted doing so many shots of snake wine the night before. Dunno how he managed it but the keyboardist from a Thai psych-rock instrumental band played a great show after being carried out of the party in a comatose state the night before. What a little trooper!
To cap it off there was a big festival after party on a boat on the Red River in Hanoi and Jared (drums) and Trix (guitar) got to fire AK-47s into the river. Weird.
One downer on that tour was getting detained at Guangzhou airport by some very f**king serious Chinese customs officers for no apparent reason on the way to playing some shows in Hong Kong. Something about dudes in army uniform taking your passport without explanation and locking you in a small room that’s lit up like a convenience store for a couple of hours to get your attention.
What have been the most interesting/exciting developments within the music industry for you over the twenty years of Peabody?
I don’t think any aspects of the ‘music industry’ have ever excited us. It’s always been the music itself, or particular artists that have been exciting.
For us the most exciting thing is watching the rise of a band or artist that we’ve liked.
For example, we remember watching Gareth Liddiard playing in one of the first line-ups of The Alpha Males which was one of Dan Kelly’s earlier backing bands. Then The Drones had some success and just got better and better and then put out Wait Long By The River… and the rest is history. But it was great as fans watching them enjoy some success and make some great records and play some mind blowing shows.
The same goes for bands like Eddy Current Suppression Ring which we saw play to a handful of punters at the Hoey and at The Pitz, before emerging as the frontrunners of a Melbourne garage-punk renaissance and spawning a bunch of other great bands like Total Control and others.
Are there any disappointing developments in the industry over those twenty years that you’d like to vent your spleen over?
Hunter S Thompson once said ‘The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side’.
I think we learnt this pretty early on. So once you stop worrying about it, it’s fine. And we got into playing in a band because we loved it anyway, as fans and musicians.
So it’s a position of anti-privilege where we have ridden the waves of venues, festivals, indie-labels, hack-promoters and shysters as they’ve come and gone. All the while feasting on the entrails of the dead that settle on the bottom, with us, where we dwell.
Has Peabody been working on new material over the break by any chance? Should we expect to hear the next Kid A with ambient soundscapes, backwards vocals with secret messages in them and highly-compressed electronic drums?
How did you know? We have recorded a double album of electro-vignettes. But we’ve held off on its release, because if these 20 year shows go well it will only confirm what we’ve suspected all along – that our adoring numb-skull fans fear change above all and they only wanna hear the old stuff. In which case that double album will never see the light of day and we will play an endless tour of farewell / reunion / 25 year celebration / farewell etc. shows until you wish we were dead.
But if these shows are a flop you will be able to download it, stream it, buy it at the truckstop on the freeway on a quaint ol’ CD, or we’ll hum a few bars for food in the subway tunnel under Sydney’s Central station.
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Peabody play Yah Yah’s in Melbourne on the 6th of June with special guests The Barebones and Motel Love. They will also play in Sydney on June 13th at The Roller Den (Imperial Hotel) with special guests Further and Spod. They will also play The Workers Club in Fitzroy, Melbourne on Saturday 7 June, supporting The Fauves.
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