Could you imagine living at a time when the sound of brass wasn’t welcome on the airwaves? Whimper not at this dystopian vision and instead bow down to a band that helped repeal this former injustice. That band is Area-7 and their corrective weaponry, a stack of damn catchy ska/punk tunes.

“Triple j refused to play our first record,” says Area-7 frontman John ‘Stevo’ Stevens. “They flatly refused to play Road Rage when it first came out because it had horns in it. Then all of a sudden, within 12 to 18 months, they had all of our records on high rotation.”

Area-7 formed in Melbourne in 1994, but it wasn’t until the 1999 single ‘Second Class Citizen’– and the subsequent album Bitter & Twisted – that the impact of the seven-piece was felt nationwide. The tremors of this breakthrough still haven’t subsided.

“We can play something like ‘Second Class Citizen’to a bunch of 15-year-olds now and they get it,” Stevo says. “The difficulties with youth and growing up, they don’t really change from generation to generation. So in some ways, the anthemy kind of songs are a little bit timeless, which is great.”

Yes, your arithmetic is correct; it’s now 20 years since Area-7’s inception. In the spirit of all things loud and sweaty, right now they’re in the middle of an Australia-wide anniversary tour. Following this run of dates, the band is locked in for Soundwave 2015, which will likely be the last time Area-7 play live.

“I think this will be it for us,” says Stevo. “We’re really honoured that AJ [Maddah] and Chris O’Brien sought us out to play on this [Soundwave] tour. We can quite happily walk away from it and say, ‘That was a great time for the last 20-odd years, thank you very much, but time to give some of the new guys a crack.’”

Area-7’s 20th birthday has inspired plenty of reflection for Stevo. And believe it or not, he’s largely pleased by what he’s found.

“We were lucky enough to have a moment in the sun and a lot of bands don’t get to do that. I can quite easily hold my head up high and think Area-7’s done some fantastic things. We put ska into the mainstream. We’re really proud of that and we’re still proud of the records.

The moment in the sun Stevo mentions involved Bitter & Twisted hitting number three on the ARIA charts and reaching gold sales status. 2001’s Say It To My Face perpetuated this success, with its sardonic anthem ‘Nobody Likes A Bogan’making the ARIA top 30. However, scanning across the Area-7 timeline, it’s hard to ignore that they haven’t released anything since 2005’s Torn Apart. So what went wrong?

“We were tied to an American record label that closed up shop in Australia,” Stevo explains. “We were ready to go on our next step and our record company closed their operation here in Melbourne in one day. So we were left languishing for a couple of years, not really knowing who to talk to.”

Of course, bands don’t have to keep releasing music to qualify as a band. Performing in front of adoring audiences is equally as important and Area-7 never stopped playing live. Meanwhile, there is a chance they’ll leave fans with a parting gift.

“We wrote new songs that we actually played live but aren’t on any records,” Stevo says. “So there’s still an opportunity for us to record something as an EP or a digital release that we might do just before we call it quits.”

Catch Area-7 atSoundwave Festival 2015 alongsideSlipknot, Faith No More, Soundgarden, Slash, Marilyn Manson, Incubus, Lamb Of God, Fall Out Boy, Ministry, Judas Priest and many more atSydney Olympic Park fromSaturday February 28 and Sunday March 1, tickets online.

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