Gearing up for their first ever appearance in Melbourne this coming weekend, Perth’s brave and bold indie-rock quintet Sons Of Rico are looking to make their mark.
Gearing up for their first ever appearance in Melbourne this coming weekend, Perth’s brave and bold indie-rock quintet Sons Of Rico are looking to make their mark. The prospect of a new show in a new city is enough to ensure nerves, however, as their fresh-faced front man confesses in his boyish excitement.
“I’ve never played in Melbourne before, I think the rest of the guys all have!” Alex MacRae says of his band, its drummer Adam Weston of Birds Of Tokyo fame. “We all have a little bit of nerves about it, with the band’s first time there. But we’re all confident that we know what we’re doing. We can play our instruments, we can play the songs. All we can do is hope that there are bodies in the room!”
The opportunity to wow and amaze indie-enthusiasts outside of Perth has been a culmination of MacRae’s on-again, off-again affair with music, eventuating as Sons Of Rico. Although musical pursuits were encouraged of throughout his schooling, MacRae would soon grapple with its education. “t got to a certain point where I didn’t enjoy music anymore – well, getting lessons,” he explains. “I didn’t enjoy being taught piano. I really liked just sitting at the piano to tinker away and learn Beatles songs by ear, but I was reading music, which I didn’t like doing. So early in high school, I stopped lessons and lost interest in music and went for art.”
However, years passed and the allure of the music – aided again by paternal influence – proved too great to ignore. When I was about fifteen, I started listening to more rock and roll and started thinking I’d like to play guitar. My Dad’s record collection, just like for a lot of people, was influential. You get all these rock and roll revival bands coming out of kids who have been listening to their Dad’s records – I’m no exception to that. I grew up with a whole lot of 60s and 70s bands – Elton John, The Beatles, Bowie. Ziggy Stardust – it wasn’t the album – it was just that song that I heard for the first time when I was fifteen and that really changed my perspective of what a rock band and rock music means.
“Up until that point I thought ‘I’m not a very good singer,’ – I had this weird voice, I’ve had sinus problems, I’ve been that dorky kid who really shouldn’t be at the front of the band… I should be playing the piano at the back,” he muses. “Then I heard Bowie sing Ziggy Stardust and I thought ‘Whoa, is this a guy? Is this a girl? Is he putting it on? It sounds so weird, but it sounds awesome. That was a definite changing point for me.”
It would ultimately inspire MacRae to participate in numerous bands before assembling a two-piece with current Sons Of Rico member Glenn Saragapany – a projected now referred to as Sons Of Rico Classic. The moniker’s amusing origins are rooted within a pop-culture zeitgeist circa 2004. “The name itself comes from Napoleon Dynamite, from when it had that cult status, before it got into the mainstream.” MacRae reveals, lamenting its explosion of popularity and those inescapable tees. Nevertheless, the name stuck, MacRae dissecting with affection the character that inspired it all. “Uncle Rico’s this ex-college football player. He seems like he’s quite aimless in life and yet he sort of has this aura of accomplishment – with women. He seems to be quite well versed there. So I guess the idea is we’re his illegitimate children from all around the place.”
SONS OF RICO’s new album Reactions is out now and they’ll be launching it at the Ding Dong Lounge this Friday March 25.
