As Meagher reveals, that polish and aptitude of their live performances has come from playing a lot of shows since their inception. “We’ve played almost every weekend since February last year at The Who Club in Warburton by the river.”
Cash are chatting to Beat at The Prince Public Bar in St Kilda a couple of hours before the first show of their July residency. The personality of each band member fits perfectly with how they present on stage – AcidMeagher, the powerful and hard-hitting drummer has a strong Australian accent with a no holds barred approach to answering questions, interrupting when she thinks it’s appropriate where as HopeMcCauley chooses her words carefully and speaks in a soft measured tone.
The tale of how McCauley and Meagher ended up in a band together started many years ago. “We’d crossed paths twice in three or five years,” Meagher says.
“I think the first time we met I was playing bass in Tantalum, a five all girl rock band that played hair metal/pop rock and I did that for about 7 years but that didn’t really go anywhere,” continues McCauley. Not to allow her bandmate to talk herself down too much Meagher interrupts, “You supported The Angels.”
Tantalum wrapped up in 2013, and over the next couple of years McCauley decided that she wanted to write her own songs and be the front person in her own band, inspired mainly by PJ Harvey. She began looking for a drummer and was immediately drawn to Meagher who had been the drummer for rock’n’roll act DollSquad for five years – a band that supported Stray Cats and Reverend Horton Heat.
“Basically I contacted Ash via Facebook saying, ‘Hey I’d really like to start a band with you,’” McCauley says. At this point in the interview Meagher asks her own question, “Why did you message me out of all the drummers?”
“I think it was because you always popped up on my Facebook feed as playing a lot, it’s like you were in my head. There was something telling me to message you, so I thought ‘I’m going ask her,’” McCauley finishes.
The aforementioned dynamic that exists within the band manifests as a perfect songwriting combination between the two women, with Meagher and McCauley continually throwing ideas at each other, never being afraid to tell the other what they really think.
Meagher explains that from the outset there were standards agreed upon. “I said from the outset that I didn’t want to do another original band unless it’s like this and this and this. If I’m going to do it, I want to go fucking hard because I want to achieve this. So during our first meeting at a bar on Smith St we got to the barebones of what we wanted from the band.”
