Melbourne stoner rock band Don Fernando’s members are three records and 9 years into their legitimate rock’n’roll lifestyle. Having previously released albums Dia De Los Muertos and The Banquet Of… they’re just about to drop their third and most accomplished album to date Haunted By Humans (‘Most accomplished album’ is normally one those music journalism wanks that writers use to sound informed when they have no fucking idea, but in this case it’s most valid).
Since starting the band in 2006, Don Fernando’s vocalist Andy Simpson has worked hard to make rock’n’roll his only objective. These days, when he’s not performing with Don Fernando, this rugged, bearded dude is operating Singing Bird Studios in Oakleigh South and on the weekends, he’s sound engineering for rock and metal bands at various venues around Melbourne. Simpson hasn’t always been fully qualified and able to produce Don Fernando albums, with the previous two records Dia De Los Muertos (2011) and The Banquet Of… (2008) being recorded by Brent Punish at Head Gap Studio in Preston.
“With my personal career, I was just getting into it when made Dia De Los Muertos five years ago,” explains Simpson. “Since then, I am now working in a studio and I have heaps more experience because it is my day job.”
Interestingly for Simpson, producing his own band’s album from a studio that he’s supremely familiar with actually brought out a bit of OCD in him. “By the end of the whole process, even sitting back and listening to the mixes, I still couldn’t stop finding problems. I pre-empted this to a certain degree, so I knew a deadline had to be put in place so we booked a European tour in April 2015… I thought, ‘I’ll have this finished well before then’.”
Simpson admits sheepishly, “I only finished mixing it a week and half ago.”
On listening to Haunted By Humans, it’s evident Simpson’s OCD has paid off: The album is slick yet organic: a crushing stoner rock sound where all instruments can be isolated and enjoyed. Opening track Haunted By Humans straddles the expanse of a face-melting, stoner rocker’s wet dream and something almost pop.
“I wrote it as a bit of a throw-away tune thinking, ‘I can write a pop song if I want to’,” states Simpson, then he chuckles, “but a heavy pop song.
“It took some convincing because of its origins, but with so much positive feedback, I came around and it became the title and first track of the album,” he concludes.
Another song that immediately grabs the listener is Why?.A feature of this tune is the 56-second intro.
“I was listening to a lot of Isis, so that was in my mind at the time. It’s a heavier riff than I would usually write for Don Fernando,” states Simpson.
Don Fernando’s well-constructed rock songs and tight live shows have resulted in the outfit becoming the go-to band of choice for international stoner rock support slots. The experience of sharing a stage with Clutch, Truckfighters, and Helmet, on separate occasions, imparted relative wisdom in Simpson, James Innes (drums), Ryan Kemp (bass) and Jonny Driver (Uptown Ace). At the Helmet show, the headliner’s frontman Page Hamilton was incredibly respectful of Don Fernando in support, with Hamilton watching their entire set. Swedish stoner rock band Truckfighters spruiked Don Fernando to a promoter in Brazil, from which the promoter contacted Simpson and arranged for them to do a bunch of festivals and club shows in South America. It was a life changing experience for the band and, as Simpson explains, particularly so for Jonny Driver: “Jonny’s catch phrase, I think he said it every single night of the trip at about four in the morning, was, ‘This is the best night of my life’.”
BY DAN WATT
