Three such students of a RATM musical education are David Milner, Alex Brooks and Neil Maguire; these three bay-side bred dudes are also the vocals, guitar, bass and drums of jammin’ neo-grunge outfit Citizen who are launching their debut album Enemies this Friday May 16 at Prince Of Wales public bar. Two weeks out from this show, Beat caught up Brooks and Milner to discuss Kool Skools, Prize Pigs and political platforms.
“We like music that isn’t exactly popular at the moment like Rage Against The Machine, Alice In Chains…” begins Milner with Brooks finishing off the list, “Metallica, Soundgarden and other guitar-driven music.”
Throughout the interview the pair communicates almost as one with each finishing the other’s sentences, a symbiosis that alludes to a lifelong friendship. Brooks and Milner met at primary school then going to high school together, bonding over many years through a love of bands like Rage Against Machine, System of A Down, Alice In Chains, Kyuss and Metallica. However, the formation of Citizen came out of the blue – they had a gig before they had a full lineup.
“We’d finished school and I had been off snowboarding for six months, Brooksy called me when I had just got back and said he’d entered us in a band comp called Kool Skools. I wrote a song called Redneck With A Bong and we won the award for Best Hard Rock Bandin 2004 and got to play at the awards night at the then Telstra Dome now Etihad Stadium in front of like two thousand people,” explains Milner.
If you own a copy of Kools Skools 2004 compilation you find Citizen on there because back then they were known as Prize Pig.
“We decided we didn’t like the name Prize Pig,” begins Brooks. “It sounded too much like a punk band from the Mornington Peninsula,” completes Milner. And there isn’t actually a band from the Mornington Peninsula called Prize Pig or anything similar it’s just the ‘vibe’ of the name believes Brooks and Milner – the explanation of this situation was bizarre and hilarious.
The origin of the name Citizen lies deeply embedded within the ethos of the band and its inspirations.
“We were floating a few ideas around and David had come across a blog where it talked about how Audioslave they chose their name and it came down to Audioslave or Civilian. And we kind of liked Citizen.” Now Milner, the band’s lyric writer and a full-time journalist, intellectualises the band’s name, “It’s a name that has a political connotation because this is our voice to say something, to be heard.”
Finally, the band focuses on the album launch.
“Opening the night are The Black Alleys who are rad; sort of like Queens Of The Stone Age mixed with Sublime. In the middle of the lineup is Drifter who are a grunge rock band who write really good songs and then we’ll be doing our thing and we have a couple of guest musicians joining us – my brother James Milner and a guy from stoner band Borrachero called Daniel Griffin.”
BY DENVER MAXX
