“We all met at uni, down at JMC in South Melbourne,” he recites. “We were all part of the audio and the music group, and it sort of stemmed from a requirement to get some music happening for the guys. I was in the audio field, and they were doing the music course, and we had this idea to do a prog-metal band. Starting based around Tool or whatever, but we didn’t end up learning any covers, we just started writing straight away.
“It was crazy how quick it happened,” he continues. “I’ve never had that with a band before, where a guy will bring in some music, and we’ve written a song in the first session. And when we finished uni, we decided to take it further.”
At the tail end of 2014, the band are set to release their debut EP, under the quirkily title of Erth News Bulletin (which originates from an episode of the animated comedy series Futurama), and Price hopes this to be somewhat of a turning point for the band; a time when they step things up a bit.
“This is just the culmination of the last three years of work,” he explains. “We did have a bit more recorded, but we thought that this was the best six that we’ve got, this is what we want to release.
“And it kind of feels like a cut-off point to us, because we’ve been writing songs and bits of songs here and there over the last 12 months, we’ve kinda’ been busy with a lot of big gigs, but we’ve still been getting ideas out there, and now that we’re finally releasing something, we feel like we can finally move on and start writing more…it feels like the next step.”
Before they take that next step however, they are launching the EP this coming Friday night at The Worker’s Club in Fitzroy. With the lineup of excellent local and interstate heavy rock acts that they have put together, and a few surprises that they have planned for the night, it promises to be a gig well worth catching.
“We’re super excited,” he enthuses. “It’s been pretty stressful, trying to get everything organised. Everyone works full time, and trying to work around that. We’re actually trying to get a new song written for it as well, have something new for people, we’ve been playing the same stuff for three years. We’re going to have a few fans there, so we want to make sure we can give them something new.
“But everything’s just going to plan really,” he goes on. “We’re going to have a big stage show set up, we’ve got some video happening, we’ve got some props for the night, so I think it’s going to be pretty massive.”
Not only will there be a strong visual element to their stage production, Price tells us the band themselves, especially frontman Michael Stowers, will bring some serious vibe and a powerful but quirky presence to their live presentation, which should thoroughly entertain old and new fans alike.
“We’ve got a massive energy, I’d say, during our shows,” he describes. “Our vocalist, he will stare into your eyes and sing to you. I love the way he performs. He hates mike stands; he wraps the cord around his arm and sings ballads into people’s faces.
“So we just bring a massive energy to our performances. I know I’m always buggered after our shows, I can’t move, pretty much. And we try to bring some funk into our heavy style of music; we chuck a couple of songs in there that people can really dance to, instead of just the head-banging or whatever.”
The launch will cap off what’s been a huge year for this hard-working and ambitious band, in the sense of heavy touring and expanding their networks across the country. “It’s been our biggest year yet,” he states. “I’d describe it as a year full of aeroplanes. I’ve never been on so many flights in a year. All the tour stuff that happens, and all the sickness that comes with it, there’s always a bit of ‘fluey’ stuff hanging around on planes.
“It’s been an insane year for us. We’ve toured with some really good friends in Voyager, and Toehider. Being on the road with Orphaned Land, we shared a bus, just a 12-seater, with Voyager from Sydney to Canberra, then Canberra to Melbourne. We all share driving, and it’s funny how quickly in-jokes will happen. It’s been a year of friendships and branching out to other bands, bigger names in the industry, and our first interstate tours.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
