We chat to the seminal rockers before they drop Down Under.
Buckcherry are rock’n’roll’s bad boys; the straight up, shoot ‘em up, devil-may-care outfit who have never really given a rat’s arse about what people think of them. It’s that bad boy attitude and raw realness that draw many fans to their sound, with many a Catholic schoolgirl getting into trouble (ahem) for listening to the bolstering cries of vocalist Josh Todd singing Buckcherry’s seminal classic, ‘Crazy Bitch’. “Yeah, that’s what you want to do!” says the frontman, laughing.
Perhaps the longevity of Buckcherry is down to the band’s dedication to what they love and being true to themselves. For vocalist Todd, he’s always anticipating another instance of someone telling him rock is dead, or that Buckcherry are has-beens. “It’s weird,” he begins. “If you look back at Buckcherry’s career, we were never a mainstream rock band from the beginning. The first record we put out was rap-rock among the shoegaze type bands and the Buddy Holly types wearing glasses and looking down at their shoes – nerd rock, that’s what was going on at the time.
“All the 2000s were the real tuned down to C, drop D, active rock bands that were muddy sounding, and we never fit into that mould. We stayed true to our sound, toured extensively, and built our reputation on our live shows.”
Todd admits he feels Buckcherry has been on an island all of their own. “We’ve been told so many things over the years and have always persevered. I think people just know that if they wanna be in the Buckcherry business, what you see is what you get.”
And of course, many people do expect that and want to holiday on that Buckcherry island with them. The response to the band’s announcement that they were in fact including Australia in their 2019 Warpaint World Tour, the venture in support of their latest album of the same name, went down a storm – an expedition for which Todd must be thanked. “You’re welcome!” he says brightly. “And yeah, you know, we’re touring with Hardcore Superstar, they’re really great live too.”
Hardcore Superstar, the Swedish kings of thrashy, trashy sleazy rock, were only here touring themselves last year on a near-sold-out tour, so the hype still remains. The combination of both Buckcherry and Hardcore Superstar out here on tour means a killer party beckons.
Some of the behind the scenes videos Buckcherry have been posting on their social media show fans’ wild responses to the tour. Of course, had you asked Todd some nearly 20 years ago if he saw himself being where he is today, he’d tell you most assertively, that yes, this is what he was dreaming about. “I always wanted to be in a rock band, make my mark, one day at a time.
“It’s really worked out – 20-odd years in the game – I’m always focused on the next step and I don’t look back too much. I mean, I’ve been having to look back because we’re at this mark, but yeah, it’s been a great ride.”
In that kind of time, Todd says he can’t pinpoint any one moment that made him say to himself, ‘Yes, I’ve done it, I’ve made it’, there have just been too many. “I think when we had our first radio hit on ‘Lit Up’, I thought ‘Wow, this is amazing, we’ve arrived’.
“There are so many peaks and valleys in the Buckcherry story – the next climax was 15 and ‘Crazy Bitch’ took on a life of its own. That success was more exciting because no one would play that song, everyone told us we were has-beens – 1.5 million records later, we’ve proved everyone wrong.”
Buckcherry come Max Watt’s on Friday October 11. Grab your tickets via Silverback Touring.
