“Mammal broke up, and after that I just wanted to do something new, something a bit different, something I hadn’t tried before,” he explains, “and Hugo (singer Hugo Tremayne), K-Oscillate were kind of winding down about the same time and he was looking to do something else, so we sort of serendipitously hooked up and then, obviously we needed a drummer. The kind of stuff we wanted to do, the really hard hitting, really upbeat electronic sort of stuff, the only guy I knew that would fit the bill perfectly was Ben (former MM9 drummer Ben Ellingworth). And it just so happened that I rang him just to touch base and just to see if he’d be interested in having a look at something, and he told me that MM9 had pretty much broken up the week before!
“So basically the band coming together was very serendipitous, all the stars aligned at the right time, and that was kind of it, we were kind of in a band together all of a sudden!”
However, he is a little uncomfortable with the tag ‘local supergroup’ and laughs it off, putting it all down to the breadth of experience of the individual members in the local scene. “The good thing is, when you’re playing in bands and doing so much touring you get to know the bands you’re touring with, and it’s great, they become your mates,” he states, “and also, musically if you do want to do a little side project, you’ve already got mates who are of a calibre at that level, so you can ring them up and do projects with them. So our previous bands have helped us to form this band if you know what I mean. It’s very fortunate, and I’m very lucky to get Hugo and Ben in on it. It was my idea originally, and to be able to get those two in on it was just awesome. We all get along, and we all write really well together, so it’s exciting.”
Nick sees the band’s sound as a crossover, not only between the electronica and rock styles, but also of the member’s previous bands. “I would definitely say this new band is a cross between MM9 and Mammal, it’s got that electronic element, but it’s probably a bit more high energy and smashy like Mammal was. It is definitely sonically a hybrid, of those two bands.”
The band are set to release their self titled debut EP. The recording was mixed by local production genius Forrester Savell, but outside this aspect of the process it was completely self-produced, and one listen reveals what a sensational job the band have done. Clear and extremely punchy, it’s a release that could really start to put Sub Atari Knives on the map in the alternative music scene in Australia and beyond.
It is in the live arena where the band really shine however, and the band launch the EP this coming Friday at The Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy. Having been holed up in the studio for so long, the band members plan to unleash their blistering electro-rock show once again, and showcase the EP in all its glory in a live setting. They have some surprises in store for punters as well.
“Very excited,” he says, “we’ve been in the studio for quite a long time, the last six months we’ve been off the live front. So we’re all really excited to get out and play. That’s kinda the point of the band, we want it to be a live band, we want it to be a festival band, we want it to be that band that you go and see and say, ‘holy shit! That was huge!’ Doing shows is where we live and breathe, and especially being our EP launch, and especially since we’ve been hibernating in the studio for six months, we just can’t wait to get out and destroy stages.
“We’re bringing in our flashy show,” he continues. “We’ve got a projectionist who does a lot of our Melbourne and Sydney shows. We put a lot of time and effort in to putting on a show, so we’re bringing him in. It’ll be a spectacle, that’s for sure.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
