The Disappointed

The Disappointed are good Aussie band doing things. I liked what I heard and thought an interview was a must. So read on and find out more from the band.

http://thedisappointedband.com/

1. Are you happy how things have gone for the band so far?

For sure. Where the band is at now, for me, is the beginning of the peak of my life’s work, like the culmination of a long slow build. There’s a little bit of buzz around us at the moment, so I’m hoping we can capitalize on that, because of course that can dissipate quickly. We’re still at the beginning I think, and I’m super excited about the next couple of years, because we only just started creating stuff that matches our potential. If we can keep it together I think we have 5 years to create music at our creative peak. Our commercial peak, whatever level it ends up being, will happen in this period too. I have no doubt that The Disappointed is the best and will be the most successful band that any of us will ever play in, so I plan to live it hard.

2. What inspires the band when writing music?

It’s the band dynamic that’s at the centre of everything we do. It’s about the overall dynamic and all of the mini dynamics that have grown between pairs and triplets within the group. The Perth and the national band scene is off the fucking chain now too, it takes everything just to keep up. That’s an inspiration to us, I’m so proud of and competitive with everyone.

3. What is your latest song about?

I don’t really like to talk about what a song is about, mostly because there is no explanation more appropriate than the lyrics themselves. Any definition I put on it now, in post and in the somewhat restrictive form of full sentence answers, will only limit what the song is about and how someone else will interpret it. The last thing I want is for someone to read an interview and discover that their interpretation of the song is a little different to what I had in my head when I wrote it, and to lose that connection they had to it. It means exactly what the person hearing it thinks it means.

4. What do you like about touring?

Touring is awesome. It’s your job to bring the party, it’s your job to be as wild and as fucked up as possible. Of course you’ve got to work within the boundaries of putting in good performances – but I can push it pretty far. I love meeting all those bands and all those people, I love how close the band gets when we’re on tour. We’re inseparable and we’re a unit. We’re not one of those bands that have all those tour pranks that they play on each other or whatever. We have each others’ backs, we look out for and after each other.

5. How important you is touring regional alongside touring the cities?

Regional has been super important to us right from the start, we’ve done more regional shows than we have interstate. Several members of the band grew up in the country, so we get that stuff. And they totally look after you better at regional shows. More money, more free booze, and they feed you too. We’re looking at hitting some interstate regional this year.

6. What has been your favorite show to date?

Two shows come to mind – launching this single at Amplifier last month, which was our biggest crowd to date and our best supporting lineup to date. I also think of this show we did in Melbourne at the Espy Basement last tour, where it was pretty much just the other bands watching, and it was amazing! We just had this bullshit vibe going between the bands, we were all strangers at the start of the night and besties by the end. That sort of thing makes touring incredible, because that doesn’t really happen, at least not to that extent, at home shows.

7. How does social media help you as a band?

It’s central to connecting to our audience and important in industry matters also. I see our relationship with fans as friendship, and these days I want as many friends as I can squeeze in. It’s also an extension of our expression, I try to be as honest and as human as I can through those outlets.

8. How important is connecting with your fans?

It’s everything as far as I’m concerned. I’m still learning how to effectively do it, I come from a natural shyness, but I love it. It’s part of the current climate, all of this access that fans have now means that they expect way more from you. Hell, it was easy to be enigmatic back in the days when you had labels protecting you from your fans. Now, it’s this big, awesome challenge to cultivate an image for the band that’s convincing, yet still connecting on a human and real level. Because the image you cultivate from a point of protection is all bullshit anyway, it’s a narrow caricature. Now the walls are down, any image you project really has to come from the truth, because people smell bullshit on social medial a mile away.

9. If you could have any body in a video clip who would it be?

Philip Seymour Hoffman. I would have said that before he died too.

10. What’s your favorite venue to play at?

You can’t really go past Amplifier Bar for great sound and big crowds.

11. What does 2014 have in store for the band?

The new EP is dropping in Autumn (with a new single and film clip) followed by a couple of national tours. A split vinyl with Adelaide’s Dexter Jones with a tour is on the cards for the back half of the year.