Smokin’ Mirrors

Smokin’ Mirrors are a great Aussie band who are doing some good things. I have an Interview with Sam Goldie – Drums from the band. Read on and find out about the band.

https://www.facebook.com/SmokinMirrors
1. Are you happy how things have gone for the band so far?

So happy I just peed a little – it feels awesome to finally have our first EP out there! It’s an even bigger deal for us because we gigged for over 2 years without having any tunes recorded, so new fans had nothing to remember us by! And now to finally be able to say “Yeah cochise, we got some music! Want an EP?” is just the maddest feeling.

2. What inspires the band when writing music?

Apart from the regular stuff – like energy drinks, Maccas runs and jamming on kickarse covers – we all sort of inspire each other. Our songwriting’s a real team effort… It’ll usually start off with our guitar man Alex writing a riff that’ll get the rest of us really happy in the pants, then Matt will add a bassline or a new part that’ll pump us up even more, and then when Em finally adds her vocals over the top, it just inspires everyone all over again – we just spur each other on like that until the song gets written!

3. What is your latest song about?

It’s called ‘Dead Walk’ and I originally thought it was about Zombies… but then Em informed me that it’s actually about secrets that come back to haunt you. So in a way, it’s still about zombies.

4. What do you like about touring?

All the usual stuff – exploring new places, having unexpected adventures and meeting new people who share our collective love of music and King of Beers. But personally, I really look forward to sampling the native kebabs. I’m on a mission to discover Australia’s best drunk bab! So far, Sydney is still the winner.

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

I think it’s incredibly important but it’s also a bit of a gamble. There’s this collective feeling of anxiety among Aussie bands that the live scene is drying up like a dam in the drought. Touring regionally is still a big part of the whole experience and sometimes it pays off, but the sad truth is, unless you’re a big name band with a national profile, you could be blowing hundreds of bucks on petto and accommodation to play in front of the sound guy, two drunk punters and a tumbleweed. It’s rare to stumble into a town where people still go out just to watch live bands, so if you’re going to tour regionally (or even in the cities for that matter) you have to make sure you have the time and money to spend on promo!

6. What has been your favorite show to date?

Definitely our Set To Ignite EP Launch at The Bald Faced Stag in Sydney! My kit was flanked by flame throwers, we had the best crowd, the best lineup and we polished off the night with a rendition of AC/DC’s ‘Long Way to the Top’ with Rang Ridgway from THRASHED on the bagpipes and guest vocals by Frank Lakoudis from RATTLESNAKE and Chad Towns a.k.a. Bon Scott from DIRTY DEEDS – NSW’s best Acca Dacca tribute band. The venue described it as “Possibly the best thing that has happened here. Ever” and we had fun times!

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

I understand it helps us a lot but I don’t really have much to do with it! We do use Facey all the time for interacting with our fans, and we also use YouTube for promo. Before our EP Launch, we made this promo clip called ‘Ginger Aid’ to plug the event because 3 out of the 4 bands on the bill contained fiery redheads… You can check it out here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Lh6HdR_l8

And the guys also made me dress up in girl’s undies and twerk badly like Miley Cyrus at last year’s VMA’s to promote some of our new merch… It was a dirty job but someone had to do it!

8. How important is connecting with your fans?

It’s the most important thing of all. Fans make the band, the whole thing would be completely pointless without them. Social media definitely helps with that – but, for me, my favourite thing is still just to have a drink and a chat with people after a show. It feels way more natural to treat fans like mates, because that’s really what they are. People who share your interests, and who support you!

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

I’d get George R. R. Martin (author of the Game of Thrones series) to write a music video starring Jet Li – that would be seven shades of hectic!

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

My Mum & Dad’s backyard was pretty mad… That’s where we filmed our video clip! But The Entrance Leagues club on the Central Coast is probably my favourite venue we’ve played at so far, because the stage is huge and the sound is pure quality and we didn’t have to clean up after ourselves.

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

Lots of touring, plenty of recording, hopefully shooting a new music video, but nothing productive in between the months of April and June because I’ll be busy watching Game of Thrones, season 4. Yeah, yeah!