“You know what? We always say it’s more than a band because it’s got a message. We try and convey within our music the fact that thoughts become things. Whatever you think, you can do,” says frontman Riki. Originally from Christchurch NZ, it’s been just over four years since Riki moved to Australia. Within the first year of arriving he’d met his bandmates Ian (lead guitar), Sam (bass) and Tim (drums) through various matches of fate. “It’s funny that you reference the Spice Girls and friendship and stuff,” he says. “Every friend that I have, and everyone that has come into my life, has given something to my band. Have you read [Paulo Coehlo’s] The Alchemist? It’s like [that]: if you’re doing what you should be doing, everything, the universe, will just fall into place.”
Riki is irrepressible and articulate in his excitement about the band and the music he and his cohort are making, explaining that he’ll write the melody and lyrics but chord progressions and other track details are a very collaborative process. Themes come from a variety of places but particularly conflicts and personal efforts.
“The references I’d use are Tupac, and even the Rolling Stones and Guns N’ Roses as well. They all go through this struggle and their music comes out of this struggle; their message becomes about what they’re going through. It’s definitely Girl Power: Geri Halliwell, man, she was fearless,” he laughs broadly. “That whole… ‘let’s just rip it up and have a legend time’, it really needs to come back because we’ve forgotten how to dance.”
The ebullience and freedom of Ricki and the Rants is communicated through the group’s wonderfully eclectic aesthetic, headed by Riki’s obvious interest in apparel and fashion, particularly the glam punk styles of Vivienne Westwood or Zandra Rhodes. “I used to make all my own jumpsuits to start off with,” explains Riki. “It’s taking it to that next level, and gaining inspiration from now, and everything that’s going on. I actually have a friend who makes my jumpsuits now, his name’s Vlad Kanevsky. I’ll draw a picture and he’ll just make it,” he says, in awe of the RMIT fashion graduate. “I’ll tell you what, it makes my job just so much easier. This dude is incredible.”
The clip for Fire! also features a parade of the band’s great friends, and Riki waxes lyrical about the benefits of having motivated individuals around you.
“It’s about being the undercurrent,” he says. “The undercurrent is when you spend a lot of time getting really good at what you want to do, and then you have planted these really solid roots under the ground. And then you burst. And you can just rock it. If you become the undercurrent, it takes away the point of judgement, or feeling like you’re not good enough; it makes you work harder on what it is that you want to do, because when you come out, you’ll be amazing. Because do you know what the undercurrent equals? Passion. Passion and drive and motivation.”
BY ZOË RADAS
