“We could have ended up living in the UK, things could have taken a hundred different turns,” says Yeoward. “I don’t know what the success of the band would have been like depending on the territory we ended up in, but I just know that either way we would have given it 110%. I’m happy about the way that it’s worked out so far, though, and we know that we’ve ended up in Melbourne because everything is supposed to happen for a reason. Plus, the weather is probably better in Melbourne than the UK! The people are great here too, and I am so stoked to be here and I have absolutely no regrets – it’s all awesome!”
Originally from New Zealand, Yeoward recalls how the six-piece came to realise their chances of making any kind of impact was not likely to happen as long as they stayed put back at home. According to the singer, it was nothing personal against their home country, but the reality of the situation meant that if the band was going to reach any kind of success they had two choices – move to the UK or to Australia. Sure, the UK may have been King Cannons’ first choice, as Yeoward admits, but it was Australia that fate had planned for them in the end.
“But first we had to go on this rollercoaster which just messed us around so much,” Yeoward recalls. “We all grew up in New Zealand, which is a very small place obviously, and the music market is even smaller. There is a lot of great talent in the country but there are certain factors that make it difficult for bands. When you’re playing music on a DIY level you end up playing heaps of the same places and the same people keep coming to your shows, so it becomes boring very quickly for everyone. After 10 years, you realise you’ve got to either give it up or get out of there. We knew there was a big world out there and we really pushed ourselves to reach new people and make a career out of music. The UK was our first choice but that didn’t work only because half of the band got denied visas right in the middle of the moving process. We were like, ‘fuck, what are we going to do’, so we decided to come back home with our tail between our legs and just try a different approach.”
At that point, as Yeoward explains, the band had already spent thousands of dollars on making their dream come true, and even though things didn’t seem to be going their way so far, there was no way in hell they were going to give up. Melbourne, Australia was the destination King Cannons set their sights on next.
“We’d spent so much money on new gear and we were all blue-collar so we had no money anyway,” Yeoward laughs. “When we moved to Melbourne we still stuck to our DIY approach – we all got a share house in Brunswick and lived together and we booked our own shows and built our own name. I think in a situation like what happened to us, a lot of people would just cave in and go, ‘oh well, let’s just call it a day, it’s not really working is it?’ I mean, we were spending multiple thousands of dollars and some people would see it as a waste of time to carry on. This wasn’t money that we had, it felt like a huge gamble, but we believed in our cause. I think a big reason why we kept going was because we’re all really close friends and we all knew we had something special between us which none of us wanted to give up It’s the persistence that counts, if you just keep on keeping on, eventually you’ll get what you want.”
And although King Cannons now call Melbourne home, the band’s ties to their native New Zealand are still quite evident, with Yeoward announcing Tom Larking of kiwi rockers Shihad taking on production duties on debut album ‘Cock Rockin’.
“This year has been one of the fastest, craziest years of my life in general!” enthusesYeoward. “We spent the first quarter of the year writing for the album which we recorded in winter. We’ve just finished up in the studio with Tom Larkin, the drummer from Shihad, and we’ve done 13 tracks, of which 11 will make it on the record. They’re songs which, to me, seem to feel so right at this point in my life. I’m mainly retelling stories about growing up and teenage life. There’s lots of nostalgia and memories in the lyrics, a lot of it has to do with moving to Melbourne and our world changing quite a bit. All the big changes have caused me to remember the way things used to be, and it’s made me so thankful for how it’s all turned out.”
