The band’s vocalist Christopher Bowes, in true tongue-in-cheek style, says that he and the band have some mixed feelings about their upcoming Australian voyage (me hearties!).
“Partly excited, partly terrified,” he reveals. “Being the Northern European barbarians that we are, any temperature above about 15 degrees kills us and makes our skin turn bright red. I don’t plan on going outside at all, what with this ridiculous heatwave you’ve got on.”
Of course, if you press hard enough, the truth comes out: “(coughs mock awkwardly) Oh yes, L.A. That’s where we’re from. We all live in pimp mansions in the Hollywood hills. We can cope with anything,” he laughs.
This will not be the band’s first appearance in Australia, and he also has some fairly mixed memories of previous jaunts Down Under.
“Extreme tiredness, extreme drunkenness – basically non stop partying for the entire week,” he recalls. “I don’t think we’ll be drunkenly racing baggage trolleys down the hills of Brisbane at 3am this time round; our drummer Pete suffered a broken foot after doing that the last time we came. But it was all worth it!”
It has been around two years since Alestorm plundered our shores, and so for the punters who have never had the pleasure of catching these high seas bandits in concert before, you can apparently expect a rollicking, barnstorming good time, but one that could possibly be injurious to your person.
“Sexually transmitted diseases, liver failure, broken limbs,” he says, when asked what we can expect from an Alestorm show, “and a damn good time! It’s just a big stupid party pretending to be a metal gig.”
The other surprise that the band have in store for the scurvy dogs from Down Under is that they are bringing a film crew and shooting their first ever live DVD in this country. It seems strange to drag a crew all the way out here when they could more easily and cheaply do it in the States, but Chris tells us that this is the very reason they chose to do it here.
“Because it is stupidly far away!” he states emphatically. “Most bands film their live DVDs really close to home, but we thought, ‘Fuck it, lets do it somewhere different’. Expect lots of footage of us vomiting inside aeroplanes, vomiting in hotel lobbies, vomiting on stage, and falling asleep.”
So Aussie Alestorm fans had better have plenty of ale and mead, and go off their nuts for the camera, of the band will hang you from the ‘yard arm’.
It’s a frenetic tour, with virtually no days off, and the band are unlikely to be able to relax or drink in the summer sights, sounds and smells of Australia while they are here. And the rest of the year looks very busy for them as well. They head straight to Germany for another big tour, and another first for them, and then to even further flung places.
“I’d love to have a few more days off, but time is money unfortunately,” he laments. “We couldn’t really afford to do nothing for a day in the middle of the tour, what with the cost of crew and gear and hotels. But hopefully we’ll get a couple of hours to sit on the beach.
“Aye, it’s gonna be great!” he enthuses regarding the German tour. “First headlining tour of Europe, and about time too. Germany ain’t gonna know what hit it. After that, we’ve just announced a tour of Latin America for early April, which is rad because it’s a part of the world we’ve barely touched on. After that, it’s the usual summer festivals, then maybe we’ll head back to the USA. Depends if they still want us!”
At some stage, the band even plan to squeeze in beginning work on their next album. Chris believes there’s plenty of juice left in the band’s pirate metal tank.
“I think when the stress of this DVD is out of the way, I’m gonna start writing album number four. Expect surf rock anthems and blastbeats. I’ve got enough crappy pirate music left in my head for this to go on for ever!” he laughs.
BY ROD WHITFIELD
