A week before they launched their mini-Australian tour alongside the 2010 Splendour in the Grass Festival, I sat down in Sydney with Luke B and James of Brisbane’s Violent Soho. Signed to Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label, the band has been setting North America alight with an extensive tour over the last year or so. We chatted about touring in the States, playing SXSW, coming back home and why Ben Weinman from Dillinger Escape Plan can’t get enough of Australian rock and roll…
So you guys have been overseas for a while now and you’ve just arrived back to Australia. Have you had a chance to spend some time back home in Brisbane yet?
Luke: We’ve had a good week off. James not so much because he had food poisoning, but I had a good week off! We got to go straight to Brisbane and spend a week living with Mum and Dad again. Felt like I was 16, it was great!
The parents must have loved having you back.
Luke: Yeah, no, parents love it! It’s good for both parents and us, because then we get properly home fed, rather than junk food of America! So yeah, it’s been really good to be back home. We were really homesick.
James: So homesick!
How long had you guys been away for?
James: 10 months, yeah.
Luke: Desperate to get back.
What do you miss most about home when you’re overseas? Other than home cooked meals of course?
Luke: I think because there’s such a gap between America and Australia – I mean it’s not like Turkey and Australia or anything, but there is a gap there. It’s just more of a relaxed culture here, the foods much better as I already mentioned, just the general vibe of Australia. As soon as we landed you could feel it. Just the fresh air. It’s such a beautiful country.
James: Sunshine State kid, you know?
Luke: New York was so fast paced, and America can be really intense. And Australia’s the opposite. I think we’re more laid back than we realise. And you need a year away from home to really appreciate that. I’ve grown a whole new appreciation for Australia which I didn’t have before.
And you did SXSW this year – how was that Experience?
James: Austin’s great. We actually went back a second time on tour and got to play it when it wasn’t SXSW.
Is it a different place?
James: Not too different! … it’s just empty. Less people. No bands playing. But definitely still as alternative.
It’s a pretty amazing festival, South by, just walking down sixth street and getting bombarded by all that music. What were some of your highlights?
James: We saw a set Thurston Moore with J Mascis playing together, like a (Washington DC) Hardcore covers band. And the guy from Fucked up as well.
Luke: Yeah, that was awesome.
How many shows did you guys do? Cause I know some bands have to do 5 or 6 shows in a 3 day period…
James: Yeah that was us! But we didn’t think that that was that many.
Luke: Compared to the other bands.
James: We thought we were taking it pretty easy. We did one day with was 3 shows, but other than that…
Luke: How many did Trash Talk do?
James: Trash Talk were the best band I saw at SXSW, and they were doing 7 shows a day. So that was ridiculous. I think they did it for 4 days as well.
Luke: And that’s an energetic set, too, from what I heard.
James: Yeah, at the start of the set, he just smashes the microphone into his forehead, so it’s bleeding, and then he goes straight into it. They’re not mucking around those guys!
Luke: So yeah, our three shows in one day thing didn’t seem that good at all! The bands that we take a bit of an ethic from are those bands, less of the standard rock bands of Australia, and more of those punk bands of America. Over there they just tour like crazy.
James: It’s the old school Black Flag ethic of touring. And the Bronx who we toured with over there. Cancer Bats and stuff. But in Australia it’s the same thing – all those punk rock bands. And so although we seem to land in the genre of bands that you’d expect to do less shows – anyone from Parkway Drive, who actually toured for years, playing more than just Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne. Unfortunately this time we’re here that’s all we can do. But people just expect us to be more like the bands that would do five shows. But oh man, it’s crazy! Those punk bands, they exist without being played on the radio, and they’re doing 7 shows 4 days in a row. Now that is a lot of shows!
So you are back in town to play a few shows. Are you looking forward to Splendour? I know it’s your first time playing there…
James: Yeah I’ve never been able to go full stop. Never been able to get onto the internet at that time of the morning to buy tickets straight away. Always grew up in Brisbane, so know all about it. Everyone you know goes and says it’s the best thing. That it’s the best time. And now it’s been extended by a day, and my favourite band is playing. Can’t wait.
Who’s your favourite band?
James: The Pixies!
I thought you might say that! So now you mentioned Thurston Moore before, and I know you must get asked about this a lot – but you’re signed to his label. Does he have much involvement in the process?
James: He was definitely around a lot when we were picking producers, and when we got signed, giving us direction straight up. He’s the one who called Gil Norton to record with us. And he’s the one who organised all the team around us. But there’s definitely involvement for a lot of other people too, he’s a busy guy! But he definitely keeps his head in the loop and says stuff when he has to!
Does Thurston carry a bit more “cred” in the US than his name would here?
Luke: I don’t think so. I think it’s the same. I think that people know of him on a different level. Some people only know him from the Simpsons. Everyone judges it differently. He has more involvement than what you’d expect. Certainly more than we ever thought. He’s been to more than one show in New York, and comes and hangs out beforehand. Always offers advice.
James: But it’s not he’s like walking around Brooklyn putting posters up. *laughs*
Luke: And we don’t have his phone number or anything. He’s just a guy at a label. It’s just like any relationship between a band and their A&R person to some degree, it’s nothing more than that.
I’d like to talk about the new (self-titled) album now. You recorded it in Wales with Gil – I understand that while it’s your second album, it’s an extension of your first? Having not heard the original, could you explain what that’s all about?
Luke: What happened was in 2008 we had an album “We Don’t Belong Here”, which was actually a collection of demos that we scraped together, because were funding it ourselves and touring ourselves, and so we printed a thousand copies, and then they sold out. It was meant to be the form of a band’s EP. And then we went overseas and ended up recording with Gil, so we didn’t have to time to write a whole new album, so the material was pulled from “We Don’t Belong Here” and some new songs. So there were 6 or 7 existing songs, that people would have heard. And then a good 5 songs that they wouldn’t have.
James: It wasn’t like we were thinking about it like that though. It was just that Thurston Moore came to one of our shows and wanted to sign us. And this was after us not signing a record deal in Australia and just putting out our own stuff. So instantly it was just “awesome!” and now here’s a list of producers you can choose from, and “Gil Norton! Holy Shit! Let’s do that.” And then it was like, “and now you need songs!” Well, we’ve only written five new songs, and they’re like “sweet! We’ll re-record these old ones,” and then the album was out. So there was no real thought to it. It was definitely a collection of the best songs that we had though, and as many new ones as we could get on there. But it wasn’t an album in the way that a band normally sets out to write.
Luke: A collection of songs from that particular time. That reflects where the band is at. I mean the best thing about a bands debut album is that they get to pull together their material from five years of touring and being a band, usually.
James: And our first album was only a pressing of 1500 copies anyway. So no one even had it. On the scale that the self-titled album was pushed, it’s just incomparable. It’s a lot different to selling it personally to 1500 people!
Luke: It’s just funny. I mean we only ever had a mentality of playing in Brisbane on mini tours, and trying to get some supports and stuff. And then within a few months you had to change your whole mentality about being an Australian band, and thinking outside of Brisbane. And that’s what we’re learning about when meeting people like you, because we get to do interviews to get our band out there, where as before there was none of that.
Busking on the street!
Luke: Pretty much!
Speaking of the Australian scene, I read the other day that Ben Weinman from Dillinger Escape Plan has remixed “Jesus Stole My Girlfriend”. And there was a great quote from him about it. He said, “for some reason, Australia seems to pump out good fashioned rock and roll like no other.” – Why do you think that is?
James: I didn’t know he said that! I didn’t know it came with a quote!
Luke: Well he contacted us to do it, it was a surprise, awesome.
James: Awesome band. Over there (in America) it’s so different. The Bronx take us out on tour, or Against Me! – Over there it’s just been really welcoming by those sorts of bands. We just never expected DEP or whatever to have any form of interest in a band like us. You know what I mean? We’re very normal, we have no delusions about our music, for what it is. So to have people like that contact you and do a remix that’s absolutely rad. That’s not even the question you asked though?
Luke: I think Australia pumps out good rock music because we have convict blood *laughs* and because our live music scenes in towns and cities, across Australia, have a certain mentality, and a certain roughness to them. I think when you start gigging locally as a band, it kind of becomes part of your band. Live gigging at small venues, and playing with other punk bands. Definitely for us.
James: It’s also because we’re also naturally quite an unpretentious nation.
Luke: Hmm, that’s true.
James: It really allows us to do what we want. Places like London and New York, they have so much pressure by the hipster crowds, and fashionable people to do that sort of music. There’s just a lot less of it in Brisbane, where we come from, than even here in Sydney. But over there it’s full on. So over here it allows kids like us, when we were growing up in the suburbs, we didn’t have any influence of what was trendy or cool or anything.
Luke: It was more like, if it has distortion, it’s good.
James: We didn’t really think about it past that. So I think that’s why Australia has awesome rock bands. Always has, always will. It’s the best country in the world!
Luke: We’re still getting over our home sickness if you haven’t realised! We’re still kind of like, we’re so in love with this place.
James: While we were on tour in America, I only listened to Australian music.
Who made the cut?
James: Midnight Oil, to the max. Cosmic Psychos. Midgets. Screamfeeder, who are possibly my second favourite band of all time. Tonnes of Screamfeeder. Nonstop. Obviously tonnes of Saints.
Luke: Some Died Pretty.
James: The Numbers, this Sydney band, love them. You know, just tonnes. Literally anything I could get my hands on.
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Don’t miss Violent Soho later this week at their Splendour Sideshows! After their American tour, they’ll return to Australia to write some new material, and they hope to tour locally more extensively during the Australian Summer! I smell Big Day Out…
Thursday 22nd July, 2010 – with Scul Hazzards, Butcher Birds and Daddy Long Legs
Northcote Social Club
Tickets available via:
www.northcotesocialclub.com
03 94861677
In person at Corner Box Office; 57 Swan Street, Richmond
Friday 23rd July, 2010 – with Scul Hazzards, Butcher Birds and Little Lovers
Annandale Hotel
Tickets available via:
www.annandalehotel.com.au
02 95501078
In person at Annandale Hotel; 17 Parramatta Rd, Annandale
Saturday 24th July, 2010 – with Scul Hazzards, Butcher Birds and The Seizures
The Zoo
Tickets available via:
www.thezoo.com.au
Oztix: 1300 762 545
In person at usual Oztix outlets
Violent Soho are also appearing at SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS
Header Photo from: http://www.myspace.com/violentsoho
