“I don’t think anybody expects to tick those things off your list,” says frontman John Floreani. “Things like Warped Tour was a big deal for me, and we did the UK and Europe twice. I couldn’t really believe we got there, to be honest. I remember when we just started out, there was this tiny little venue in Newcastle called The Loft and I was like, ‘Goddamn I want to play The Loft.’ And now I’ve played Warped Tour, so it’s fuckin’ crazy.”
It wouldn’t have been practical to anticipate making it this far three years ago, but as Trophy Eyes have achieved more, their ambitions have shifted to reflect where they’re at, and what they want to happen next.
“We want to play Slam Dunk and some big festivals in Europe like Impericon or something like that,” says Floreani. “We want to tick those off. Asia would be cool. We still haven’t gone to New Zealand – we haven’t even gone to Tasmania yet. I’d like to go to Tasmania. The goals just keep getting bigger as you tick those ones off. There’s always something else to do. I’d say we’ll be busy for a while.”
The band’s committed work ethic counts for a lot, but luck has also played a part in securing such gainful opportunities. Their first big break outside of Newcastle came when they supported Welsh pop punks Neck Deep on their 2014 Australian tour. From there, their stone’s gathered no moss.
“There is a certain element of hard work and a lot of luck,” Floreani says. “The tour with Neck Deep kicked it off, because Hopeless picked us up after that. That was all luck as well – right time, right place, right sound.
“Our producer and good friend Shane Edwards told us, ‘It doesn’t matter how much hard work you do, you need a good song.’ Bands that drive to different cities or states with backline to play a show, that is hard work and you do deserve to have some kind of reward or benefit. But at the end of the day you just need a good song.”
Trophy Eyes’ home city of Newcastle has maintained a solid underbelly of aggressive, anguished rock and punk music for several years. When they were starting out, cultivating their aspirations to play in a band of this nature, there were a number of local acts whose example they respected.
“There was a band called Rivalries, which were a really heavy, kind of djenty band. They had a really solid following. We played our very first show in my lounge room and they came. I think they were friends with our drummer, Cal. I remember seeing them and being like, ‘I want to be like them.’ Other bands like Civil War – I saw them before we really played any shows and they were awesome. The Newcastle scene was going really well then. Lots of people coming out to shows. Safe Hands, they were killing it. That feels like a-whole-nother life ago now, when we were starting out.”
Enduring an entire Warped Tour is enough to make anything that happened previously seem like the distant past. “You don’t really realise when you’re there, but you’re doing 14 hour days in the sun and you start early, handing out your times and CDs in the line, trying to sell CDs, and you do it at the end of the day as well. But you do 40 minutes of your actual job. You crave that all day, because that’s all you’ve got.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
