Just before they took to the stage at The Court as part of the WAMi Festival in Perth, I enjoyed a beer with and chatted to local up and comers Boom! Bap! Pow! – about their upcoming album, secret agents, robots, Steven Malkmus and breakfast cereals… read on!
From left to right, above: Paul,
Novac, David, Clint, Jack.
So I have to start off with the name – where did it come from? Or should I ask, who’s the comic book geek in the group?
Paul: Yeah it’s a bit Batman styling. Kind of punchy, snappy. I think Clint had the name somewhere at the back of his head. It was one of those names that was so good that you just had to start a band to go along with it.
Clint: I wanted Snap! Crackle! Pop!
Jack: Dude, that’s already a cereal.
Novac: Yeah rice bubbles, right? The little lingo…
David: Kellogs might have beaten the shit out of us, basically.
And what about the band itself? What are the origins of Boom! Bap! Pow!?
Paul: Clint and I used to play gigs together in a dingy little pub when we were about 19. Then he went to Japan for a few years, and when he rocked up back into the country, we were backstage at another gig we were both filling in for, and we said why don’t we finally get a band started? Then all the planets aligned.-
And this guy (David) I was playing with in some other bands for a while, and we were both ready to start our own thing, so we stole him. Then we did one gig as a three piece, then we realised we needed something a bit better to look at on the stage, and a much better voice – so we got Novac out the front singing, and then Jack’s on the saxophone.
Novac: I don’t know about the better voice bit – but yeah, a chick!
You all do sing in the band though don’t you? You’ve become quite well known for your harmonies!
Novac: Yeah, the boys do a grand job.
Paul: I mostly just mouth the harmonies and try to look cool with the microphone *band laughs* – but this is the first band that I’ve been allowed to have a microphone in. I generally talk too much.
Novac: It’s dangerous!
And what led to the decision to go for that? The harmonies I mean, rather than Novac solo…
Novac: It’s that doo wop / soul thing.
David: With the style of music that we play, I think it’s kind of imperative to have that kind of background. I mean it was pretty nerve wracking at first. I mean me and Paul had never really sung before, so it was kind of weird to put your face over a mic.
Clint: When I sing along to songs in the car, I always sing the group backing vocal, rather than the lead vocal – you know what I mean? So that in itself becomes a hook.
Novac: And I think backing vocals adds texture to the song.
David: A bit of substance!
Paul: There were a few other bands doing that that we liked, so we thought why don’t we? The Basics were one. So when we said what sort of sound do we want to make? We thought, well The Basics, they just all get up there and sing. Everyone gets a crack, everyone gets to sing a lead and do backing vocals.
Jack: It’s cool to be in the crowd and look at that, too. Just like when bands change instruments around and all that, it’s cool when a crowd watches while everyone’s singing.
Clint: Gets everyone involved!
I imagine you encourage singalongs at your shows?
David: I think that’s what’s most flattering, being a WA band, having gigs every week, when you finally get some people singing along to songs.
Novac: That’s so nice!
David: It’s when you can smile to yourself.
Jack: Well we actually kid ourselves there, because we actually write choruses that you’d hear the first time and then every single person would be able to sing along to the second time. *laughs*
Talking about the Perth music scene a bit, what are some of your favourite venues to play?
Jack and Novac: Mojos!
Novac: It’s a little home away from home.
Clint: Mojos… Amplifier… I like Deville’s Pad.
Paul: Yeah, Deville’s (Pad) is pretty happening.
Clint: If you’re too drunk on the dancefloor you can lean on the volcano. It’s a strategy I’ve employed too many times.
Just a sidenote here to readers – yes, there is a faux volcano on the dancefloor. It doubles as the smoke machine. Genius… but moving on…
I understand you’ve just released the first single, “Science”, off your upcoming second album?
Novac: Yeah, can you believe it? We’ve been together for 18 months!
And your first album, that was “You’ve got it so bad for Boom! Bap! Pow!”?
Clint: The distributor just asked for a working title and they used it.
David: I think we were taking the piss out of ourselves on that one.
Novac: Sooooo cheesy!
David: Yeah we’ve got it as “Self-Titled” the first album now.
And it’s now been a year since that album was released, how have things changed recording the second album?
Clint: I think they were both done really really quickly.
David: All done in the space of about 3 or 4 days.
Novac: But then you think about the nights where specifically you guys were adding layers to it.
Jack: Yeah Matt and I spent a few lonely nights in the studio, laying down saxophone until 4am.
Novac: I think all up it wasn’t too shy of a week.
Paul: Matty G is the producer that we’ve always worked with. But we brought another friend over from Melbourne for the second one, (ARIA-nominated producer) Forrester Savell and he did some work with us in one weekend and then he flew back there with all the bits, and then put it together. We just got it back on Sunday, so we’re going to have a listen to it together tonight. Hopefully we’ll get it out there soon.
Novac: We’re thinking Mid to late July?
Clint: Well it’s a summer album.
David: Think Grease, the summer romance.
Novac: It’s not even winter yet! How depressing!
Clint: Well we’ve got management now, so it’s up to them what we do. But we’re going to put out another single soon, with a video clip, that they’ve just finished editing. It uses ariel robot computer technology.
And what is that exactly?
David: They’re remote controlled robots basically. It’s a surveillance technique that they use in war zones.
Clint: This is one of the first times it’s been used for any sort of commercial purpose, because the producer has some sort of arrangement with the military…
Jack: … not dodgy at all …
You’re all secret agents aren’t you?
David: If you print this we’ll have to kill you…
So it sounds like it’s going to be quite an exciting couple of months for you guys! Are we going to see you over on the east coast at all?
Novac: We want to! That’s the plan!
Paul: We’ve just come back from the top end of this state, doing a bunch of shows with the WAMi tour, and that was amazing. We found that we could spend a week in a bus together and not kill each other…
Novac: … almost.
Paul: Almost. So hopefully we can get in a plane and get over there soon!
I read that you played just before Steven Malkmus at a show last year? That’s gotta be a highlight.
Clint: Yeah!
Novac: That was amazing…
Paul: I was a big fan of his when I was younger, and had seen him
live a couple of times. And he was backstage with a hoodie on and he
brushed past me and I didn’t even recognise him!
Novac: I think I drank some of his wine, too.
David: And I think I stole a drum stick? We all pilfered off Malkmus basically.
And so we are at the WAMis right now – how is the 2010 festival shaping up?
Novac: Great. It’s always such a good time of year. I love this time of year.
Jack: It’s such a good vibe. Especially between all the bands, just hanging out. And you get to meet lots of people, it’s all really fun.
David: It’s a good chance to network too, and just check out some really awesome bands. Like at the WAMi awards the other night, Sugar Army, their performance was awesome, Will Stoker of course was great.
Paul: I think it’s the favourite time of year for a lot of Perth bands, because we generally do a gig every week and then have a week in between where we do our day jobs. But WAMi week feels like all band all the time.
Novac: Spotlight on the WA music scene is so well deserved, there’s such good music here.
Jack: On the WAMi tour we were listening to that 3 CD WAMi set they’ve been giving out – and we were just sitting there saying “Oh my god… there are so many insanely good musicians here…” Pretty much every tune was spot on. Awesome.
Clint: Another thing about the WAMis is that they provide the support for things that would never be possible otherwise. Like this Northwest tour we just did – it would be easy to get a 2 or a 3 piece up there, but we would have been the biggest band with the biggest PA those venues would have seen in quite a while.
David: Doing workshops and performances with the kids was really helpful too.
Jack: I played “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with 15 girls on recorder. Awesome!
