“I’d heard of them before I moved across here,” Trevor recalls. “But I hadn’t heard them play. And when I saw them at The Punters, it was awesome – they absolutely killed ‘em.”
Little did Trevor know at the time, but he would soon find himself on stage as the band’s second guitarist. Guitarist Ben Watkins and drummer Cris Wilson had formed Warped originally in 1991 as teenagers in the pair’s hometown of Geelong; a decade later, and Warped’s incendiary rock’n’roll attack had made an indelible impression on Melbourne’s music scene.
Trevor was working with Wilson behind the bar at The Town Hall Hotel in North Melbourne when Wilson mentioned Warped was contemplating getting in a second guitarist. “I’d actually learnt the songs on the second Warped record, On the Make, so when Cris said they were looking for another guitarist, I said, ‘Well, I already know the songs’,” Trevor says.
Shortly after, Trevor was drafted in to Warped, joining the band on its now legendary Seven Days in Sin, a seven-day straight festival of Warped gigs at The Town Hall Hotel. 13 years later, and Trevor can still remember – just – the excitement, energy and intensity of those gigs. “I remember having a lot of vodka in pineapple because we were responsible drinkers,” Trevor laughs. “Every night was absolutely packed, which was amazing because it’s usually pretty hard to pull a crowd on a Wednesday night. And because we did a different set every night, I had to learn a lot of songs.”
At the time, Warped had established a reputation as one of Melbourne’s hardest working rock’n’roll bands. Eventually, however, the strain took its toll on the members of the band. Trevor is diplomatic about the tensions within the band, choosing to put the matter down to the pressure associated with the band’s workload. “I’d walked into a pretty big workload,” Trevor says. “We were working and playing all the time, and because we worked so hard we were getting offered a lot of shows. And then triple j got behind our record, Quicker Ways to Blacker Eyes, which was great. But eventually we cracked, and we couldn’t go on.”
By the band’s last few gigs in 2004, the internal tensions had begun to creep into Warped’s live show. After a particularly fractious gig at The Hi-Fi Bar, the band members agreed to take a break; at Warped’s next gig, a few months later supporting The Bronx at Ding Dong lounge, it was clear time had not healed all of the group’s internal wounds. “Shit was still there when we played that gig,” Trevor says. “I still have a video of that show, and it’s pretty painful to watch, remembering what it was like. But watching it again helped us get over stuff when we decided to start playing again.”
After announcing Warped’s breakup, the members went their separate ways and pursued different musical projects. Even while Warped was officially retired, the offers for the band to play had continued to dribble in, until in 2008, Warped decided to take to the stage again. “We’d already started talking again, and it was Cris who organised it all for us to play again,” Trevor says. “The first show we played was at Cherry, and we had an absolute ball.”
The reformed lineup now included a new bass player, Sam Crawford, who’d been playing in a country band with Cris Wilson. “I think by the time we started playing again we were a bit more experienced, a bit older, and I think we’re better players,” Trevor says. “And I think having Sam come along, because he’s a bit younger he’s put so much energy into the band.”
Trevor’s decision to move to Western Australia shortly after Warped returned to the stage presented obvious challenges for the band (“I remember flying back to Melbourne for a gig and being her for less than 24 hours,” he laughs). But such logistical impediments only made the band’s resolve to make every gig fun even stronger. “Since we’ve got back together, it’s got to be fun, first and foremost,” Trevor says. “We make sure every gig is fun, and that we play well.”
In May, Warped will play its first Cherry Rock Festival, an appearance Trevor says the band has been looking forward to ever since it reformed. “This festival is awesome – we’ve been trying to play Cherry for years, and it’s only now that the planets have lined up so we can get on the bill,” Trevor says.
After its Cherry Rock show, Trevor says Warped will play one more show before taking a break to write and practice some new material, which it hopes to record eventually. “We’ve already got one new song in the set, and we have some other songs that we’re working on. But we want to get them right before we play them,” Trevor says. The realities of domestic and employment existence mean that Warped has to take advantage of every logistical opportunity that comes the band’s way. “We’ve got families and jobs to balance,” Trevor says. “But we’re still young at heart – we’re not old.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
