Portland, Oregon four-piece White Fang play caustic, rambunctious and in your face garage rock. The band’s four members – Erik Gage (AKA Rikky, guitar/vocals), Izak Arida (guitar), Jimmy Leslie (drums) and Chris Uehlein (bass) – are huddled around a Skype connection in their Portland studio trying to work out a grandparents-friendly description for what they do.
“If I was going to describe it to my grandparents I would probably just say rock’n’roll, and I wouldn’t want to go too much further into the sex and the drugs and the penis on the album cover,” laughs Uehlein.
“I told my grandma about it. I mean, she smokes weed with me,” says Gage. Leslie cheekily answers the question in flawless Spanish before interpreting, “What I said was: ‘I play in a band called White Fang and it is a lot of fun and I play with my friends and it is exciting’.”
White Fang are signed to Californian punk label Burger Records, but they also run their own label, Gnar Tapes. Gage started the label in 2008 when he was just 18-years old, and he couldn’t have done it without assistance from one of his grandparents.
“I only bought a box of cassettes because my stepdad’s mum, my grandma Sharon, gave me a $100 gift card for Christmas and I didn’t know what to buy with it,” he says. “So I bought the tapes. They were all five minutes each side and pink. I made them all unique individual cassettes with me either fucking with the radio, rap stuff or whatever – they were all unique and I only have a couple left.”
Along with label mates FIDLAR, The Garden and Natural Child, White Fang are part of a booming scene that is admired all around the world. But considering they’re still struggling to pay their phone bills, do they feel like members of a super cool scene?
“I would say yes and no,” says Gage. “We are creating a lot of coverage because of the scene, and no because I don’t think anyone quite knows how to categorise us and where to put us. The whole Gnar scene is just us four running the label, but there’s all the other bands on the East Coast of America, we got Gnar Tapes in Russia, Ukraine, Japan, South Africa, Belgium, UK… We haven’t got any Australian bands though, because they usually all get scooped up because they are all so good.”
White Fang will hit Australia next month, less than one month out from the release of their eighth LP Chunks. The band’s ever-growing catalogue spans multiple genres, and one song that’s resonated strongly with fans is Chill Yourself, from their 2012 release Positive Feedback. Featuring a woozy organ riff and Gage’s shouted surf rock vocals, the sharp tune features lyrics such as, “Don’t wanna sound funny, but I need some money/ I don’t need drugs/ I don’t need drugs/ But I like ‘em.”
“First time I heard it I was pretty sold on it,” says Uehlein. “Rikky wrote that and he made the video. I like that song a lot, but we don’t play it very often because we don’t have an organ.” Well let’s make sure there’s one waiting for them when they hit the Curtin Bandroom next weekend.
BY DAN WATT
