Shogun and I were friends through school and got into punk around the same time in the mid-90s. When I think about it now, this was our response to the self-deprecating grunge movement that was no longer a fit for us. We were misfits at school, disaffected, but we were excited by punk because it was bold and proud; it didn’t sit around feeling sorry for itself like grunge did. For us, punk was a soundtrack for what we liked doing: skateboarding and ruining gardens and making fun of people. We exchanged cassette tapes, eagerly digesting new inspiration; and it wasn’t long before we decided to form our own band in 1996. We were on a burning mission to impose our outlook on the world. Hardcore punk was the perfect means. It was fast, totally unapologetic and it heralded judgement day for the absurd suburban daydream-world we were living in. But the band was crippled by logistical realities and line-up issues. We just couldn’t find other members who shared our perspective and who could commit to the band like we wanted them to. There were many line-up changes after struggling with parents, bong-head drummers and laughable resources. It was almost like suburban mediocrity was fighting back to keep us down and push us out. “Get out of here!” it yelled at us like so many security guards and McDonald’s supervisors. Despite the constant adversity and procrastination we were eventually able to put out a split demo tape with melodic punk band Fistful called ‘(Don’t) Do The Locomotion’ and later, two tracks on the ‘Violent Hornsby Straightedge’ compilation CD on Snapshot Records. The compilation’s name was a joke after some punks trashed their own gig, blamed it on us and then misrepresented us as straightedge in some shitty zine, and later in a song. It wasn’t until we recorded our first album ‘I Suggest We Don’t Fuck Around’ in 2000 that our line-up became as good as permanent with Rinnaz on drums and Ward on bass guitar. Unfortunately due to inexperience and some bad decisions with the recording process, we were never able to feel that the album did justice to our precious songs. We kinda broke up after that. Rinnaz formed Worse Off then Burning Servant, I played bass in Headless Horsemen and Shogun started fronting for Royal Headache. From time to time we inevitably found ourselves reunited to play the occasional party or gig as a band again; and for some reason every time we jammed it was more fun than we expected. It wasn’t long before the ideas came and we started writing music. Naturally, our approach had evolved: wiser, eclectic and subverted by our bitter humour. We were however, still as self-righteous as ever. In 2010 we released an acoustic version of a song called ‘Artificial Suns’ on a Negative Guest List compilation. It was a totally different sound for us and stood as an example that anything was now possible. Rinnaz played on a kit that was stripped back to a snare, kick-drum and hi-hats. In 2011 we released our new ‘Artificial Suns’ CD on our own labels. It includes re-recordings of some of our old songs along with an interesting batch of new material: some flat-out hardcore punk and some bearing greater resemblance to Bowie and indie inspirations. Get into it! |
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