The bands' motto "is 'the world is rubbish" - why did you adopt this to Royal Chant?
Wow....I can't believe anyone has actually read that. Truthfully, that's not the band motto, per se, but merely the first line of a bio that I whipped up one evening. I got bored of reading the same bio that we'd had for many months , so I got it into my head to come up with the something new. Band bios are generally tedious and vapid, so at least with that kicker I felt like we were staking some ground of sorts, and really, I should have made the line "The world is rubbish.....BUT" and then gone blah blah blah. It was a call to look inward rather than at the external façade, to reject the myth that lures us into thinking we are really any better or different than at any other point in history, and that the "world" is somehow going to change. It won't, but people can.
If the band had to have a motto, it would probably be....[shrug].
2. Your EP 'Raise Your Glass and Collapse' focuses around the human condition - do you feel these emotions allow you to connect with your audience better?
I'm not sure that I have a satisfactory answer for that, but it's a good question. I don't know if we're really trying to "connect" with our audience so much as present ourselves as plainly and as truthfully as possible: disheveled & furious & resigned & howling. Anyone who can connect with that, I guess those are the people who would be our audience. It sounds like I just twisted things around a bit, hey?
The EP has elements of American style melodies - how much of an influence did your American upbringing have on the sound of Royal Chant? Was this intentional or did it just happen that way etc?
When I first arrived here and started listening to Aussie music, one of the first things I noticed was that there is a distinct sense of Aussie melody and harmony. I'm not sure how or why that is, but maybe it has a bit to do with the particulars of the language and accent, including it's inherent melodic characteristics. I guess I don't have that, or not much of it anyways, so the songs and melodies just sound the way they sound. It just happens.
Are there any other styles/bands/genres that influenced the band?
Instead of the typical endless list of bands that we like and that may or may not have had anything to do with our sound, I'll try and be as specific as possible.
From a writer's perspective, I would say that Shane MacGowan and the Pogues had a lot to do with my trying to achieve that collision of romance and realism. Same for Garreth Liddiard and the Drones. I will probably never lose those hyper-verbal tics that I developed while standing in the shadows of Bod Dylan, Loud Reed, & Michael Stipe, and the way they all deal with the conscious and unconscious elements of being human. I kept trying to get the guitars to sound like the noise is my head, which would probably sound like typical lo-fi US college rock to anyone else. Pretty much the howl of Sonic Youth, along with any old forgotten b-sides on college radio.
You've no doubt been touring on the back of the EP's release - have there been any plans to work on a new album/EP?
Yeah, that's what we're working on right now in fact. We've got a stack of new songs that we've been banging away on since the last record came out, and we're about to head into the studio to record a pair of singles for Spring & Summer. We get rather restless.
What's your favourite part about touring?
I'm somewhat fond of the banal minutiae of it all. The packing of our sad duffle bags, the worksheets, the accommodations (or lack thereof). Even the quiet boredom of riding in the van and watching the forgotten parts of Australia roll by, waiting in the empty lounges of the airport, or killing time during the dead afternoon hours of a pub or at the venue. It's certainly very humbling, and always fills me with an odd sense of history or of walking well-worn paths. Then we take the stage and it's a riot.
Any advice for other musicians out there?
Unfortunately, there's no way to say this without sounding like I'm trying to sell Amway products, but here goes: Try hard. Then try harder. Believe in yourself every step of the way, practice and write as much as you can, surround yourself with people who have ideas, and don't quit. And don't be a dick.
For someone that hasn't seen you live before, how would you describe your live set?
Like a tsunami wrapped in a hurricane...times triplicate.
It's probably going to be pretty noisy and frantic. We're doing our best.
