“We love Queens of the Stone Age,” Knixx begins, a hometown Kiwi accent hanging in there. “Bands like Ministry, Masters of Reality, Black Sabbath…a lot of Led Zeppelin. More recently, Unknown Mortal Orchestra. We didn’t consciously try and sound like that, but it’s definitely things that have influenced me and the band.”
Sexy and heavy? Heavy metal isn’t a fertile field for sexy. Sleazy and heavy, sure. Glam overlords Motley Crue’s sleaze metal was subtle like a bus crash. Girls, Girls, Girls? No tension, no electricity. No raw and passionate sex burning deep within one’s loins. Naming a metal song that pumps blood beyond one’s fists ain’t easy.
“We love metal,” Knave clears up, “but we wanted to experiment with grooves that were heavy. Not necessarily heavy in the traditional sense. That’s how the band got its name. We wanted to be heavy, but not quite metal either. We wanted to be heavy and kind of sexy.”
Knixx founded Sexy/Heavy back in Wellington with bassist Ross Walker around 2009. “We didn’t know what we were gonna do, but we knew we wanted to be heavy and debaucherous,” Knixx remembers. “We had a jam and it ended up as industrial, almost electronic stuff.” A complete change of code from Knixx’ glam rock origins. “I used to play in a band called The Lipstick Fixx,” Knave offers. “We kind of pre-dated Steel Panther, I’d grown up on that glammy type stuff.”
The three-piece moved to Melbourne and set to record their self-titled debut. It was as far from a cut-and-dry process as a band could get. “We moved here and we’d been through a few drummers,’ Knixx says on the process. “We laid down drums for the album with our drummer at the time and then he fired us, basically,” Knixx laughs.
“We had recorded the whole album and changed everything completely. We recorded everything in Ross’ back shed. The songs you hear now? They’re wholly different from what they originally were. A few songs, like The Task at Hand, that was an instrumental originally. That was just us in the studio up late at night, drinking wine. We were taking things apart and putting them back together.”
With their drummer walking out, Sexy/Heavy found themselves in a bind. The tracks he’d laid were worthy of a cutting room floor. “We knew Tom Larkin from Shihad through the Wellington connection,” Knixx says on salvaging the sessions. “We asked him to mix the album, and he said, ‘Sure…[but] I can’t really use the drums.’ We were like, ‘Shit, what are we gonna do!’ He said, ‘I like the songs…I’ll play the drums.’ That was a pretty wicked moment for us.”
Recording worked up a sweat in all senses of the word. Filming an odd and compelling clip for single Battlesushi was a literally dirty affair. “It’s very messy,” Knixx laughs, describing the video. “I get slimed in green goop while singing. Our guitarist basically gets tarred and feathered. Ross our bassist gets covered in spaghetti. There’s jelly, and an extremely beautiful woman gets covered in it. There was soapy water thrown on which would’ve stung like hell. The poor girl got it in her face. Blood as well. Our drummer managed to get out of the whole deal. He couldn’t make it for the shoot, but I think he had an agenda to not get covered in all of it.” He probably pulled a sickie. “It’s inconclusive,” Knixx notes with suspicion.
Is Battlesushi literally inspired by weaponised tuna on rice? “Oh no,” Knixx laughs. “We were drinking and misinterpreted what Ross said, but we stuck with it.” Well, one can dream.
BY TOM VALCANIS
