Gay Paris are Slim Pickins Podmore (Bass), WH Monks (Vocals), Ol’ Blacktooth Marks (Guitars) and Smokin’ D Wain (drums). We talked to singer W.H. Monks.
Who are you and where might we know you from?
My name is a secret, to keep me safe from sorcerers, but you may call me WH Monks and I roll with the fabulous (and powerfully scented) men of Gay Paris – the dudes who got all of your swamp stompin’, shack rockin’, roof raisin’ and witch burnin’ needs sorted in one extremely arousing package.
A story you’ve probably told far too often… but where do you come from?
Long ago, Slim Pickins, Blacktooth Marks and me were in New Zealand, probably drunk and definitely under-slept and cruel. Whilst passing the jug around, we realized that the sound we had was played out – there was no more party to be had. If there is no party, why bother? So we finished the jug and several others, returned to Australia and worked on creating the last good party that the world will ever know. Along the way, we picked up Six Guns Simpson, who strangely enough toured with us through fire and flood with another band long before our old drummer left for reasons that remain mysterious to me even now (and of course, you know that I am possessed of great and arcane wisdom, not to mention excellent mic skills, for any emcees out there who wanna test).
Changing Lanes Festival is all about supporting FBi. What does FBi Radio mean to you?
When I eat my meagre evening meal of shame, rice and four ninety nine cabernet merlot, I listen to The Bridge, because I like to keep up with what all the other bands in Sydney are doing. Staying on top of the game, so to speak. Dead Air gives my old bones a new school kick of heavy riffage (which Blacktooth says is essential for my diet, to supplement all the Def Jux and Parliament records) and In The Pines helps me get real mellow and keep up with The Decemberists. Fbi has niche down and that suits me just fine. I know when and where to find what I need.
What can we expect from your performance at the festival?
How the hell am I meant to know? We’ll definitely play some songs and people be all ‘play more!’
And Slim will congratulate himself gratuitously, I may wear a cape. If something goes wrong technically with the bass or guitar, I’ll get Guns to drop a beat for some freestyle action. The only certain thing is that we’ll finish our rider and whoever else’s we can steal well before we play the most engaging, sexual (read horrifying and debasing) and possibly eardrum destroying rock show you’re going to see until you come and see us again.
What are YOU expecting from us / the audiences?
When I say ‘cannibal’ you say ‘cakes’, when I say ‘tastes’, you say ‘great’. Dance, you idiots. This is a goddamn party.
Choose a band who’s also on the lineup that you like, and tell us why you like them.
Tough one. Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders are my favourite centaur fronted band of all time and Kira Puru & The Bruise are our sister band. I would just say that these guys/gal enjoy Afro-American culture as much as we do and feature front-people that are at least as sexually deranged as I am. Want Soul? Want stomp? The blues? Yeah, they got it. But we got more.
Have you played a festival before or is this the first time? If not the first time, what have your festival experiences been like in the past?
We’ve played mini-festivals, things where you put two stages in a pub and way too many bands. It’s fucking fantastic. You load in early, start drinking, watch people get changed after they play and by the time you get to go on, you’ve seduced about five times as many people as you would have at a regular gig. I can’t stress strongly enough that we’ve brought ugly back and made it sexy (or maybe sexist, sometimes I get confused).
What would be your #1 festival tip for a punter?
Pre-game. Always pre-game. Then, buy my drinks and don’t talk to me about my beard unless you also have a beard or are trying to sleep with me.
Your year highlight so far, as a musician?
So far, we’ve sold out pretty much every show we’ve played in capital cities this year – this makes venues happy and that keeps the rider expanding.
What’s next for you/your band? (opportunity to plug shit!)
We’re just about to hit up some regional dates on the North Coast Stomp Romp before we do another east coast tour with the greatest bands in the Magical Animal Hardcore and P-(punk) Funk scenes, Totally Unicorn and God God Dammit Dammit. There will be a three-way (and a three-way split EP) released to coincide with this unholy monstrosity of a tour. After that, we’re back to the studio to argue and drink and record the follow up to our debut album, The Skeleton’s Problematic Granddaughter.
