With Oceans Ate Alaska dropping their brand new album Hiakri Dave Griffiths caught up with the band to chat about their unique sound and the heavily Asian influence on this album.
You can listen to or download our Oceans Ate Alaska interview right here.
Subculture Entertainment caught up with ZacEfron, Alexandra Daddario and Dwayne Johnson at the Baywatch premiere in Melbourne.
You can listen to or download our Baywatch interview right here.
Deatchcore pioneers Despised Icon are back after a four year hiatus. Fans have been excited about the fact that these lords of brutality have been back performing shows but now they cement their comeback with the awesome new release ‘Beast’ (available through Nuclear Blast).
Dave G sat down with Despised Icon vocalist Alex Erian to chat about the band’s comeback and all the ins and outs of ‘Beast’, but Alex also dropped some surprising tour news for Aussie fans during the interview.
You can listen to or download our Despised Icon interview right here.
On the back of the release of the brilliant album The Escape Brisbane band Between Kings have hit the road with Escape The Fate. Dave G caught up with them before they hit the stage in Sydney tonight.
You can hear our full Between Kings interview below.
American hard-rockers Seether return on the 12th May with their brand new album – Poison The Parish. Dave G sat down and had a chat with Dale Stewart about some of the inspirations behind this album and also about the heartfelt Rise Above Fest which Seether will perform at in July this year.
You can listen to or download our Seether interview right here.
Currently on their Young & Dangerous world tour, the band will play shows at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel, Sydney’s Factory Theatre, and Brisbane’s The Triffid.
Recently in Australia as support for Greta Van Fleet, the band won over a whole legion of fans with their spectacular stage show, and they also added their own surprise headline shows in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney that had all cities in a buzz.
Hailed as the next Queen, with singer Luke Spiller drawing favourable comparisons to Freddie Mercury, The Struts have opened for The Rolling Stones, The Who, Guns’n’Roses Foo Fighters and Motley Crue, and are now selling out headline shows in their own right. Released late last year via US label Interscope, sophomore album Young & Dangerous has taken the band to new heights, with Elton John spinning it on his BBC1 show, streams topping 20 million a month, and invitations to play The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, America’s Got Talent and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show rolling in. Foo Fighter Dave Grohl has declared them “the best opening band we’ve ever had”.
With their globally loved songs “Body Talks” (feat. Kesha), “Could Have Been Me” and recent single “In Love With A Camera” fast becoming classic rock anthems, make sure you don’t miss the chance to catch one of the most talked about bands on the planet.
“Unashamedly channelling Queen and Slade, the Derby band are in gleeful form as they stand on the edge of the big time… 5 stars” – Live Review, Dave Simpson, The Guardian
Tickets for all shows go on sale at 11am on Friday 3 May.
My Live Nation members can secure tickets first during the exclusive pre-sale beginning 10am on Wednesday 1 May until 10am Friday 3 May.
The Struts have partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sold will go to Beyond Blue and their work providing information and support to help everyone in Australia achieve their best possible mental health, whatever their age and wherever they live. beyondblue.org.au
For complete tour and ticket information, visit: livenation.com.au.
With Aussie horror Tarnation about to screen at Monster Fest (23-26th November) in Melbourne Dave G caught up with the man behind the film Daniel Armstrong. Daniel tells us what audiences can expect from the film and how he went about creating a film that is destined to become a cult classic.
You can listen to or download our Tarnation interview right here.
Yes that’s right music fans the legends that are Drowning Pool are heading back to Australia after a fourteen year absence… in fact that will be here next week. Seeing they are one of his favourite bands we let Dave G sit down and have a chat with CJ Pierce from Drowning Pool. CJ chats about what Australian fans can look forward to as they bring their new show Down Under and also chats about just how much time he loves being able to spend with rock fans.
You can listen to or download our Drowning Pool interview right here.
DROWNING POOL Australian & New Zealand Tour Dates
Sunday 24th July Auckland – Kings Arms
Tuesday 26th July Adelaide – The Gov
Thursday 28th July Brisbane – Max Watts
Friday 29th July Sydney – Manning Bar
Saturday 30th July Melbourne – Max Watts
Sunday 31st July Perth – Capitol
Pre-Sale Tuesday 5th April 9:00am AEST to Wednesday 6th April 5:00pm AEST
General On-Sale Thursday 7th April 9:00am AEST
Tickets available from:
With new horror film Howl making its debut at this year’s Monster Fest I decided to chat to director Paul Hyett about this werewolf film with a difference.
The story came from the writers having actually been on a train, travelling late at night on the last train out of London, also being packed out with a whole bunch of annoying passengers, the teen obnoxious teen, the drunk football fan etc, and they thought, what could happen now to the journey even worse? An attack from werewolves!! So they went with that concept of passengers trapped on a train, and it developed from there.
Funnily enough it wasn’t the creature stuff, but more the characters being trapped on a train and how they all react and deal with the extremely tense situation. I saw it as a throwback to the old 70’s disaster movies (which I’m a big fan of), like Earthquake, the Posiedon adventure, The Towering Inferno. The werewolf aspect was actually secondary to that, but a fun thing nevertheless.
I was very lucky to get such a great cast, Sean Pertwee, Rosie Day, Shauna Macdonald I knew and had worked with before. And they genuinely liked the script. Sean was about to go off Gotham so was just able to squeeze us in. Rosie is great to work with, as soon as I read the script I called Rosie and said I had a part for her and her first question was ‘do I get to speak this time?’ And I said ‘yes, a lot’, and the idea of an annoying teenager appealed to her. And working with her a second time was even better as we know each other so well, and she’s a lovely energy to have on set and at the sand time very professional.
I felt I wanted to bring Howl as a werewolf movie, to a more contemporary feel. Rather then the romanticised fantasy elements, I wanted to strip that out, no silver bullets and instant transformations, just feral hybrid human werewolves, that love in the woods and infect people with a bite, that they slowly transform into werewolves over years via a virus in the blood that will take years to transform.
I think that wasn’t a worry as there was no studio pressure to make it a certain way, the producers certainly didn’t want a tame twilight style werewolf movie, and especially in my head it was just to make a cool retro style 70’s disaster movie with werewolves, I suppose it didn’t occur to me as I didn’t see Howl as a werewolf movie per se.
When I got into make up effects I had an absolute love for horror movies and creatures and I had been painting and sculpting since I was young so at first it was the love of the craft of make up effects that appealed, it was later on that the urge to direct came into play, I had learned over 70+ films, hod to direct, and it came from a frustration on not only wanting to tell my own stories with my own vision but also with seeing a lot of bad directors getting these big breaks and not really having a vision and I spent a lot of time supplementing their vision, so there was a point where I just had to direct!
It was a 5 week shoot in a huge warehouse, mostly on a train set with a greenscreen and we digitally created the sky and background. We originally thought about shooting on a real train, but it quicker turned that it wasn’t logistically possibly so as opted for the green screen, actually ended up giving us a lot of control rather then restriction, and building the interior of the train meant we could design it in a way that have us the space inside the train to have a cast of 9 people and 7 foot werewolves and a camera crew!
I love horror as you really get to take people into emotional and physical emotional places that don’t (thankfully) happen to most of us in real life. We get to see and experience truely terrifying and exciting experiences, and we get to create movies and can thrill people and for me, it’s the buzz of creating a story that hopefully people can really enjoy. There’s nothing better then watching your movie get a good audience reaction.
Oh god, where do I start, I love John Carpenters The Thing, anything by Carpenter, all the 80’s horror movies and anything by Guilkermo del toro, especially Pans Labyrinth. And Martyrs, Frontiers, Inside, all great French horror movies.
I am soo happy for Howl to be playing at Monster Fest, and wish I could be there to greet all the Aussies and hang out and chat with them, and a big thank you for coming to watch Howl.
Paul thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for the fun questions and a pleasure to be playing at Monster Fest.
No conversation about Australia greatest songwriters is complete with the name Don Walker. Able to draw inspiration from suburban life to notorious hangouts and everything in between, any LP that has the name Walker in the writing credits is sure to feature some gems. Blacktop, a boxset featuring Dons solo work and Catfish is due to be released soon. As well as gigs with Tex Don and Charlie and the other band hes in, Mr Walker is certainly been busy. We spoke via telephone, me in Melbourne him in Brisbane.
Munster: A box set is about to come out called Blacktop, featuring four of your solo LPs for the first time on vinyl. Why did you decide to do a career retrospective at this stage of the game?
Don: It wasn/t so much motivated by doing a career retrospective its more motivated by the fact people these days like listening to music on vinyl and they cant listen to my albums on vinyl so we fixed that.
Munster: What do you make of the Vinyl resurgence during the digital age?
Don: I avent listened to a vinyl record for 25 years at least, so I cant tell. People who love vinyl tell me it sounds a lot better and i/ll take their word, bit I avent had a turn table in that time.
Munster: Do you use Spotify and other streaming sites?
Don: No I don/t use streaming sites. I listen to CDs in my car and look up YouTube thats how I find and listen to music these days.
Munster: Cassettes?
Don: no I avent use a cassette for a long time, since they put CD players in cars.
Munster: You ave this box set coming out and some shows to promote the release and you/ve been busy with Tex Don and Charlie and Chisel ave played a few gigs recently, you feel like your in more demand then ever?
Don: Uh I don/t think its a demand driven thing, its just those are the main three things I ave going, three of them rarely happen, but they just happen to all fall together, especially in the first few months of this year I don/t think that has ever happened before. in six weeks id done a few cold chisel shows six Tex Don and Charlie shows and a month of my own shows.
Munster: You played Clipsal 500 with Chisel and you/re playing arenas with them but also playing Theatres and clubs with your solo and Tex Don and Charlie gigs, do you prefer bogger or smaller venues?
Don: they ave there pluses and minuses. I love playing in small places because its like playing in a pressure cooker and you get a lot of energy in a confined space which disappears when you/re playing in a big outdoor crowd. But the benefit with the big outdoor crowd is better backstage facilities, theres no toft in the change room, and more money.
Munster: I remember seeing you at the Caravan Club a few years back, the first song you did wasKhe Sanh, was that your way of saying lets get this out the way?
Don: No. No I never get a request for a Cold Chisel song, the kind of request that every covers band gets and every band attempting to be original in the country gets to play Khe Sanh, im not dogged by that, and In fact I don/t feel sorry for them at all, but for some reason that doesn/t come at me. Sometime a few years ago I found I could do a creditable version of Khe Sanh with just me and a piano which is rare for a cold chisel song, I usually cant do a creditable version. I avent done it that often, and id say the crowd at the Caravan would ave been quite surprised for me to kick off with that.
Munster: When Chisel ending and you started your own projects were you comfortable being uo front and singing?
Don: no its something I had to figure out. I used to sing when I was a teenager and in my early 20s when I played in bands. Then when I got in a band with Ian and Jim I stopped doing that and they did that. They had better voices then me and spent the next ten years developing what they do and I didn/t sing at all. So when I can and tried to do it again in my mid 30s what came out was a bit of a squeak compared to what I thought I could do in my head. It took a awhile not only how to open up and do it, but also how to write songs that were suitable for what I could do as opposed to what Jim and Ian can do.
Munster: Shots your autobiography for me is an amazing book, and I loved how you focused on a certain period of your life and not a typical start to finish of your life, and you focused on places then people. I also loved how Louis Tillett was the only person you mentioned his last name, nad everyone was just a first name basis and Barnsey was just Jim, what gave you the idea to write the book like that?
Don: a lot of the book was written before there was any idea of it being a book. A lot of it was written for my own private amusement. I called a data entry guy to type it up. When I had a lot of this stuff I was approached by Chris Feik, an editor at Black Inc publishing. He asked me if I had a book in me. I said I don/t think so but I ave this writing, but I don/t think it’s a book. And if you see the writing in Shots you/ll know what I mean, especially at that stage the writing had no punctuation. I enjoyed the writing as a sort of flowing surfing music kind of thing. I didn/t know if anyone else could read it. I gave it to Chris and he said yes it is readable writing but you know can we try a bit of punctuation. And he said you can always take out later (laughs)
Munster: what influences more Places or people?
Don: (pauses) Both. Im trying to think of a bar graph and see if places or people would be longer but I don/t think I can do that.
Munster: Are you the kind of person that can write anywhere like waiting for a bus you get the pen and paper out, or do you need to be at home or an office to do that?
Don: I can do that anywhere if I ave a space and I don/t need a notebook. I can just do it in my head. The problem with modern times its easier to pull out your phone and read the news.
Munster: Mark E Smith in his book mentioned every year he would try and write a song for England to enter in Eurovision but said he cant as it takes a special skill to write a hit or a radio friendly song. Im in Melbourne your in Brisbane im sure we could turn on the radio and we/d find a song you/ve written being played. Do you agree, it’s a special skill to write hits?
Don: Absolutely! That the ultimate skill. I was gonna say anyone can write a Mark E Smith song but thats not the case only Mark E Smith can do that. Writing a Hard Days night is really difficult, the best writers in the world ave been trying to do that for 50 years. Writing a radio song is a very difficult skill. Its good too, and I think I know what hes talking about because even if you don/t achieve that it makes you a much better writer for trying. It really cleans up you more literally writing.
Munster: You/re often mentioned in lists of great Australian songwriters, which other songwriters deserve to be in that list in your opinion?
Don: well that would be a long list. For my personal taste Harry Vander and George Young are head and shoulders above everyone else. The guy from Little River Band that did Reminiscing. Theres a guy that wrote a song that was namechecked by John Lennon and sang up Frank Sinatra. You can sleep well. Also Lewis Tillett. The usually people, Paul, sorry Paul Kelly, I gotta put in full names. I think Nick Caves a great writer, Ian Rilen is a favourite, Tex Perkins and all the guys from Chisel. So all my friends. Slim Dusty had great writers allround the country that worked with him from the 40s onwards. This is an endless list that when I look at later i/ll be like damn I let out such and such.
Munster: My favourite passage of Shots is when you talk about playing with Chisel in St Kilda. Last year you played at Memo with Tex and Charlie and you/re playing solo very soon there, does St Kilda ave a special place in the Don Walker story?
Don: for all my life Melbourne has been St Kilda. First time we drove into Melbourne, you know Cold Chisel in a car we drove to St Kilda. And we always stayed in St Kilda. Rose Tattoo stayed in South Yarra which is nearby. All the musicians in Victoria I later worked late in life with ave always been St Kilda musicians. I always stayed there and I didn/t know any other part of Melbourne other than St Kilda and that little strip up St Kilda Rd to the city. My daughter has been at Melbourne Uni for the last four years and she has opened my eyes to the North of the city. So in the last four years im learning more parts of Melbourne thanks to my daughter, but before than it was just St Kilda.
Munster: You lived in Kings Cross for a long period, are there many similarities between the Cross and St Kilda?
Don: there are some obvious comparisons but not really. Culturally very very different. Kings Cross is different in many ways, especially the decade or two I lived there. Its a bleaker place culturally. Theres the importance of aving the Naval base at the bottom of Kings Cross which is an element thats not in St Kilda. There are similarities but big differences. One of Paul Kellys songs which is one of my favourite songs is of course From St Kilda to Kings Cross. He took a bus to Sydney got off at Oxford Street walked to my place with his guitar over to my place and said he has a new song. It was wonderful for a first hearing.
Munster: Do you ave a favourite Fall LP?
Don: not by name but in the late 70s and early 80s I listened to the Fall a lot. i thought what he was doing was really free and interesting. There was no one like him, that I know of, maybe hes part of a genre I don’t know about and I don/t remember how I discovered them but I really liked it.
Don Walker plays MEMO in St Kilda Friday April 13. Blacktop boxset out now.