1.Growing Up
My dad was a guitarist in a cover band when I was a young’un, so I picked the instrument up pretty early. My parents were also quite young, which meant I grew up around some pretty awesome music. My fondest musical memory as a child was seeing my dad play ‘Hey Joe’ for the first time… Blew my mind. I was hooked from that moment on.
2.Inspirations
My favourite musicians would be Roland S. Howard, for the wild use of his tremolo bar and the way he makes his Jag scream; Wes Montgomery, for being such a smooth boss; Lead Belly for his 12-string flickin’, finger pickin’ goodness; and Kurt Cobain for old times’ sake. I grew up on Nirvana, so they have been an influence by default.
3.Your Band
We all met in high school so we’ve been good friends since we were 15. We’ve been playing music together for a long time now so we have a pretty good understanding of how each other ticks in the jam room. Lately we’ve been producing our own records, which I think is an approach we’ll stick with for a while. The new EP we’re releasing, as well as the album we intend to have out mid-year, will be all produced and recorded ourselves. Some of our favourite bands to play shows with in Perth are Punk and Foam. Those guys are the boss tits.
4.The Music You Make
The music we make I think is quite versatile. It moves around a lot, which means you can get a lot from one song. We love working with melody and falsetto which I think is a reference to bands like Radiohead and Broken Social Scene. Yet we love our heavy music. Bands like Refused and other punk/hardcore acts have left an impression on us. We love having a good scream and a big drop. I guess we just try and smash everything we love together. Our live shows are energetic and raw. They’re fun. We like to sweat it out and have a party onstage.
5.Music, Right Here,Right Now
I think the scene is booming with heaps of raw talent. I’m a Perth-ian, and what I’ve seen over the past three years is a very original and new wave of musicians moving fast, evolving quickly and just being fucking awesome. The hardest part for any band or solo musician is trying to get your voice heard, even on a national basis. There are so many acts that are deserving of everyone’s recognition but haven’t quite found the platform to be in said position. Also, coming from Perth, it’s a pretty costly trip over to the east coast.
The Love Junkies play at Frankie’s Pizza on Thursday February 13 and World Bar on Friday February 14.
