The Strums
The Strums are an awesome Aussie rock’n’roll band. Dug what I heard and thought these boys needed the Parx-e treatment with my usual style of interview. So read on.
https://www.facebook.com/thestrums
1. Are you happy with how things have gone for the band so far?
Great first question, always happy when I’m with THE STRUMS. We’ve definitely learnt a lot since the last release but I think as a general rule and I dare say I speak for the rest of gang when I say this, as long as we are all together and having the time of our lives everything else is just a bonus. So in answer to your question, yes we’re fucking stoked!
2. What inspires the band when writing music?
We are all best mates so it’s fair to say we inspire each other just by hanging out. We all listen to a tonne of different music but at the heart of it all is a love for Australian Rock N Roll music. To be honest we want to be one of the most important artists in Australian Rock N Roll history and that in itself is inspiring enough.
3. What is your latest song about?
To us it’s about the idea of getting to a point where you can chuck in everything else you’re doing and just play Rock N Roll music. It’s the romantic idea of someone on the other side of the world, a complete stranger buying into what you are doing and building a career for you. But I think as a listener it’s about just saying ‘fuck it I’m going to grab onto my life with both hands and do whatever the hell I want with it cause it belongs to me and I’m free’. Sometimes people need that firm boot up the backside to make some of the best decisions of their life. To me that’s really want I wanted to give people when I wrote these lyrics.
4. What do you like about touring?
At this stage everything! It’s the most fun you can ever have and it’s where we really shine as a band. The four of us were really built for it, it’s been killing us not being out there causing absolute ruckus!
5. How important to you is touring regionally alongside touring the cities?
For a band like us touring regionally is a really big deal, that’s where our audience is and that’s where we feel the most at home. All the bands we love and look up to have relentlessly hit that circuit. The cap cities are important for sure but regional Australia is where the real music lovers live.
6. What has been your favourite show to date?
Mine personally was in The Great Northern in Newcastle about a year or so ago. It was a room we’d played 3 times over 6-8 months and watched it grow in size each time. We headlined to a packed house and I was busting to use the loo. So immediately after one of the best gigs to date I ran to the toilet while being followed by the boys. Just as I was about to get down to business a sound guy rushed in and said ‘you gotta do an encore people are going nuts!’ It was our first ever encore and to be honest we were all a bit shocked and really fucking drunk haha (particularly our lead guitarist Eric who had just finished skulling 4 beers in row on stage after about 8 prior). We raced back on and ended up playing a kinks cover because we’d run out of songs. I stood up on this massive strange foldback and looked back at the boys with a big grin on my face and about to shit my dacks and here is Eric blowing chunks over the back of his amp while still playing his heart out, Enrico (bass) had this white bass guitar covered in blood as he’d cut his finger open playing it so bloody hard and DB (drummer) looked like he was going to implode from smiling so much. With that the speaker I was on fell into the crowd and a couple of big fellas shoved me and the speaker back on stage. That to me was one of my favourite gigs because it was real, raw and totally unpredictable.
7. How does social media help you as a band?
If you would of asked me this question a few years ago I would of probably told you social media is not my favourite thing because it’s made everybody somebody and it’s really tough to work out who and what to actually take seriously. Now though I feel completely differently, it’s the fucking shit! You can literally connect directly with your audience and find out exactly what’s going on out there. If you play a great show or release a shredding song you’ll know exactly what people think of it almost immediately. It’s every artists dream to be able to talk straight to their fans without any kind of filter. Go internet!
8. How important is connecting with your fans?
If you’re in a live band there is nothing more important than this. It’s 80% audience (at least) and 20% band when you step on a stage. Every band I’ve ever loved has this way of making you feel like you’re a part of what they’re doing because you are. Without that connection you’re just a bunch of muso’s in a room.
9. If you could have anybody in a video clip who would it be?
Have ever seen the drummer in that Bill Withers ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ clip? Even stone cold sober I wet my pants laughing watching that clip. I want a film clip with that guy on loop just so everyone smiles every time they watch it. Do yourself a favour go have a look at it- http://youtu.be/tIdIqbv7SPo
10. What’s your favourite venue to play at?
We do these Rock N Roll party boats a couple of times a year on the Brisbane river. That’s probably my favourite alongside both Great Northern’s (Newy and Byron) and The Hideaway in the Valley, Brisbane.
11. What does 2014 have in store for the band?
Aside from gallons of beer fueled Rock N Roll parties we are releasing some music that we are all really pumped about. We have a 7 inch coming out on the 14th of March titled ‘Rock N Roll / Fuck Yeah’. This co-insides with a support tour with one of our favourite Aussy bands Baby Animals. Will be releasing an EP in June titled ‘We Are A Fucking Rock N Roll Band’ along with an east coast and likely NZ tour. A bunch of regional and suburban touring and maybe even a quick jaunt over to the US to pedal our four to the floor, hip shakin blend of Rock N Roll music.
