Both bands will touch down in Australia next week to play five huge shows down the east coast. They will fly directly from Tokyo, arriving just in time for the first of two shows in Melbourne (a second show was added after the first one sold out). “We have just enough time to do some laundry and pack up again,” Barrett says. “There’s no rest for the wicked, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.”
After almost 25 years of skankin’ around the world and watching other Orange County contemporaries either sell out or fall apart, Reel Big Fish have stood the test of time. “Every night of the week in Orange County, California, you could go to see a ska show and there were so many bands,” Barrett says. “That was really what inspired the forming of Reel Big Fish. Although it’s not like that anymore – we’re not going anywhere.”
Barrett is the band’s only remaining founding member, but even with with long time drummer Ryland ‘the Rabbit’ Steen recently joining legendary UK rock band America, he has never thought about packing it in. “We’ve been lucky we had a great community of musicians to call on and say, ‘Hey do you wanna come join the band?’ So for this tour we have Ed Larson from Suburban Legends on drums and he’s doing a great job.
“I think our longevity stems from the fact that we’ve never been concerned with how tight our jeans are or how good our hair looks – it’s all about how great we can sound and if we can make the audience laugh,” Barrett continues. “We aren’t one of those bands that are doing it for money – we actually care about the show that we put on, and we do the best we can do and work on improving every time. A lot of bands just get up on stage and are like, ‘Ahh whatever, we’ll just get through it’, but we just love performing and playing music so much that we can’t help but find ways to put on a better show.”
Reel Big Fish have released eight studio albums, four EPs, four 7” vinyl records and appeared on numerous movie soundtracks. “We have so many albums and so many songs to choose from that we try to mix it up all the time. We have some unexpected songs on the setlist too, so you get what you came for and then you get a little surprise.
“After 25 years, I’m a setlist master, and I think that’s another reason why people love coming to see us play, because we do play the favourites that everyone wants to hear, and I’m just a people-pleaser, so it works out well,” he laughs. “I love it when we start playing one of our favourite songs like Beer or Sell Out because the crowd goes crazy. The house explodes with people cheering, yelling and dancing. Watching people go crazy to one of our songs – I’ll never get enough.”
Before the release of Happy Skalidays (a Christmas themed EP in December last year), Reel Big Fish hadn’t worked on any new music since 2012’s Candy Coated Fury, but Barrett hints we might be hearing new Reel Big Fish sooner, rather than later. “We don’t have any plans to go into the studio just now, but I can feel new songs forming in my head – they’re in there already, I’m just waiting for them to pop out.”
Reel Big Fish’s brothers in ska, Less Than Jake, will be playing their latest album See the Light (2013) in its entirety at these upcoming shows. “We met those guys in 1995 and instantly they were one of my favourite bands – I loved them right away,” says Barrett. “They’re really nice guys – we played a few shows together in the late ’90s and then again in the mid-2000s and they went really well. We always got along well and it was obvious that the two bands playing together was really exciting for fans.”
In a stroke of genius, our very own psychedelic ska punk party band The Bennies have been picked to open the show, and Barrett can’t wait to meet them. “I’ve been hearing really good things and everybody’s really excited about having them on the tour, so I’m really looking forward to seeing them play. I love discovering new bands – music has helped me in so many ways through my life. I love being up on stage – it’s where I’m the most comfortable and when everything feels right with the world. It never gets old.”
BY NATALIE ROGERS
