Revellers Interview

Revellers are a rad band from Aussie. Josh Anderson (singer/guitarist) from the band answers my questions.

https://www.facebook.com/revellersact

1. Are you happy how things have gone so far?
So far things are going pretty sweet and it has picked up quite a bit with our new E.P out and currently touring the country with our great mates Nerdlinger.
This is probably the busiest we have been since we have started and we are loving every minute of it!

2. Do you think it’s all about the songwriting or does timing and the right place at the right time has a key getting your music out there?
I feel it’s about writing good music and getting it heard by people all over the world that are into your flavour and also have them spread it to their mates and via social media. I also reckon you need to play heaps of shows out of your local area and get to know other bands and their fan base, that will bring more people to your show especially if you support the scene!
There is always that chance that someone will pick up your music and you may get some rotation on day time radio, which would be awesome to get. But there are that many awesome Australian Punk and Hardcore bands around that your chances are slim to have this happen – so we don’t expect that to happen to us!

3. How important to you are music blogs in helping get your music out there?
Music blogs are good as anyone can write one and comment on them which gives people a no bull shit idea of what a bands music and live show is like. If anyone is doing a blog on our tour so far I hope they were asleep when we played at Ya-Yas in Perth.. As that shows you what happens with 3 men drink constantly for 14 hours and then try play an exciting energetic show and fail 🙂

4. What inspired you guys in the first place to give music a shot?
Gaffers (bass/vocals) and I have played in other bands in the past and Dave has always been keen to play music. Just before we started Revellers the 3 of us were doing some backing music for some of our hip hop mates and we stayed back afterwards and just started jamming and fuck it felt awesome so we thought we would give it a crack and start a band

5. Having tools like Soundcloud does it make your job easier when trying to gain new listeners to your music?
The Internet in general and how connected everyone is makes it easier to gain new listeners. If I find a new band that I really dig I will check out other bands that they listen to and play shows with and check them out and I have found heaps of awesome bands that way.
Our mates Paper Arms shared our latest film clip for one of our new songs ‘Front and Centre’ on their Facebook page and then we began to receive private messages from people in Europe thanking us for new music. There was also 65 year old man wanting signed posters and CDs sent over… We still not sure if this dude is real or a creepy old man looking for take advantage of us…. but we will send it to him anyway.. Give the fans what they want right…?

6. Do you think releasing EP’s and singles is a good way of keep momentum going before releasing a full length or spending time out of the spotlight writing songs is better?
I see that a lot people listening to music these days usually want constant new material and are more inclined to get it off the net rather than buying a music at a show. So I think E.P’s and singles are the go, unless you’re a massive band! Saying that we still press CD’s as some people still want something physical with the art work and uncompressed better quality music.
It’s cheaper for a band to record singles and E.P’s and tour with that rather than a Album and I think when you go into the studio with fresh ideas not having to record a whole album you usually record better songs.

7. How does a song happen for you?
Usually one of us will come to practice with a basic idea or just a verse and chorus and we jam the shit out of it until it starts to sound like a song. Once we have a semi completed structure we record the song with a phone and send a copy to each other and then come back for our next jam to try and make the structure. Lyrics are just made up on the spot until an idea comes to my head and then proper lyrics get written over time.
We then have a table of 104 people listen to our music in our smelly Jam room and write comments and compare belt sizes while chasing invisible frogs on acid to give a go ahead if we can play the song live

8. Are there moments where your just not in the mood for writing music and need to do something else before you jump back into songwriting mode?
We aren’t always writing new material and there is defiantly times where we are not in the mood or inspired by anything to write new tracks. We usually will write a heap of songs and record them or do pre production and then just concentrate on playing live for a few months and then look at writing new material.
It seems to be around the end of the year coming into summer is a good time for us to write new tunes.

9 Do you think YouTube has help save the music industry?
I think it has made it easy for bands to set up their own channels and expose their music online rather than the old days of hoping that Rage or a music channel might play your video clip at 03:30am.. So it some ways it has helped… but things seem to be done differently these days with bands being more independent and looking after getting their own music out, promoting themselves and selling their merch and cds online. Its really cool how easy it is for a band to do it these days themself and don’t have to rely on labels to do it for them.

10. Do you think being serious with your music has helped you and is it still fun to you guys from when you were starting out?
Personally we don’t take things to serious and we are laid back with our approach and the whole Idea with Revellers was to have fun, play shows and meet heaps of cool people and bands along the way. I mean you gotta have a go in the studio as your paying for time and you want to get a good result of your music… Maybe if you asked Gaffers this question he would give you a different answer as he is the backbone of the band that organise shit and makes things happen… Without him we would be late for every show and have no music or merch!