I meet Leigh at CitizenPark in Richmond for a picnic and a chat about his band and their debut album We Are Groovy Boys. With a rug, a couple of ham rolls and a ‘stiff’ drink each (gin & tonic) we settle in under the shade of an Elm tree and start to chat.
“I like cheese on everything,” discloses Leigh as your correspondent is clumsily putting his roll together – silently hoping the mayonnaise will act as the glue to prevent the fillings ending up on the picnic rug.
“All we ever want to do is have a great time all the time; life doesn’t have to be complicated or tricky. We have one key message and that is ‘HAVE A GREAT TIME’,” contends Leigh, forcibly. At this point of the interview Leigh becomes ‘Jason from The Stiffys’ – a swashbuckling fun pusher who, when he’s not downing stubbies, is boogie boarding across a seething mosh pit at an east coast rock haunt, whether it be Old Bar here in Melbourne or Byron Bay’s The Great Northern.
“Since the release of We Are Groovy Boys in April we have been on five east coast tours of Australia. Most weekends we’re away – somewhere. Coz there is only two of us [Leigh vocals and bass guitar, Stagg drums] it is easy for us to travel interstate,” explains Leigh, indirectly disclosing that since the release of We Are Groovy Boys and its hit single Boogie Boarding, The Stiffys have been on an endless tour due to demand for their positively scintillating live show. Leigh now adds, “We’ll play anywhere, we just do it for the drinks.”
Leigh estimates that since forming in mid-2011 that the band has toured about twenty times, but it wasn’t always ‘good times’ when The Stiffys were on tour. “At the start people were extremely confused. Half the room would love it and the other half were just plain confused, but now the people who are into it vastly out number the confounded few.”
The song Boogie Boarding is a track that demands participation, whether you are listening to it at home or standing front and centre at The Stiffys’ show. A desperately tangible drum pattern is overlaid by a visceral bass line and the song only consists of two words: ‘boogie’ plus ‘boarding’.
“We have this practice that during the song someone will get up on stage, we’ll give them a boogie board and then they will boogie board across everyone’s heads and we never clear it with venues ever because it is easier to ask forgiveness,” explains Leigh.
However, at a recent show at ByronBay’s The Great Northern The Stiffys’ $4 K-Mart boogie board all of a sudden became an issue.
“The Great Northern is a pretty serious venue and when this chick got on stage and we got the board out I almost got punched by this security guard – he just kept yelling out ‘PUBLIC LIABILITY INSURANCE’,” explains Leigh, slightly breathless still-in-awe-of-the-situation manner.
“The only reason he stopped screaming at me was that someone else has taken the boogie board and was sailing across the crowd.”
Leigh now turns his attention to The Stiffys’ upcoming show at Prince of Wales for Watt’s On Presents.
“We are really excited about this show because we haven’t been in that area very much and we have a lot of friends down there that we can’t wait to play for. Darts are up and comers who are all babes and a really good band. Can’t wait!”
BY DENVER MAXX
