Jack The Stripper

Though it can be particularly difficult to cope when we’re faced with sudden and unexpected loss, it’s how we adapt and learn from the experience that’s important in the long term. Luke Frizon, vocalist for Melbourne metal outfit Jack The Stripper, knows this all too well. He speaks candidly about a recent experience with loss, and how it’s shaped his drive within the band.

“My best friend, who I learned how to play music with and who was always a massive advocate of the band and everything we’ve done, committed suicide last January,” Frizon says. “And that’s had a profound effect on everything I’ve done since that point. He was my best mate and my first friend in high school. So it’s been a difficult period and it still reverberates emotionally.”

Frizon reflects on the fact he’s no longer able to phone his friend to share the band’s breakthroughs. There’s pain in his voice. He pauses.

“It definitely galvanised me into action, especially the note that he left me, which was pressuring me to work harder. It was a directive to try and achieve more with the time we’ve got and what we’re doing. So I’m spending more time throughout the day working on and developing the band and working on pathways for us to follow over the coming years.”

This drive to achieve is evident in the band’s upcoming touring schedule. Jack The Stripper are currently on a lap around the country in support of the single and music video for ‘Nibiru’, taken from their 2013 debut album, Raw Nerve. Next, they’ll head to Europe in August to play a series of festivals, including Brutal Assault in the Czech Republic and Romania’s Rockstadt festival, after which they’ll continue on to Japan. It will be Jack The Stripper’s first time touring Europe, and while they’ve managed to secure a spot supporting fellow Aussies Parkway Drive in Slovenia, Frizon says they’re still in the process of booking further shows in Germany and Belgium.

“It’s fumbling in the dark, well and truly,” he explains of booking European shows. “I don’t know anyone from those scenes, so it takes a lot of chasing. We have a booking agent for Australia, and that’s Wild Thing Presents, and those guys have been helpful with getting further shows. But yeah, it’s still an independent effort.”

While Jack The Stripper are sharing a couple of new songs on tour, they’re very much still in the process of writing and tracking their second album, which is slated for release early next year. Thematically, the follow-up to Raw Nerve will be a darker affair, with lyrics shaped by harrowing real-life events. Fans can expect the band’s signature groove-laden metallic sludge and frenetic rhythms, mixed with a greater sense of melody this time around. But Jack The Stripper – rounded out by guitarists Julian Renzo and Adam Harris, bassist Tim Anderson and drummer Max Reps – aren’t rushing the process.

“We’re not really a band that can hop into a rehearsal studio and jam it out, like I imagine bands like The Bennies or King Gizzard can achieve,” Frizon says. “Ours has to be a little more precise, and it takes a couple of extra steps of development just because the songs are so frenetic and tend to head in different directions.”

Jack The Stripper have shared stages with the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Fear Factory, King Parrot, Cancer Bats and Northlane, among others, and they’ve refined a live show that’s equal parts performance and controlled chaos. Though it’s always been about the music, there have been occasions when things have gone astray.

“We had a roof collapse during our set at Wake Up Festival in Taiwan,” Frizon says. “Parts of the roof were actually hitting members of the audience and one guy’s head split open. It was a bit traumatic finishing up our set and then looking down and there’s just blood all over the floor and all over people… that’s a little bit extreme.”

But did the band have anything to do with the collapse, or was it just a dodgy building? “It was my fault,” Frizon admits. “I’ll cop that one on the chin. I did go to the hospital to check in on the guy and to make sure he was OK. And the crazy part was that he got his stitches done, got his head sewn back together, then hopped in a taxi and went back to the festival and got in the mosh again. Taiwanese are tough people.”

Despite performing music that addresses some severe subject material, there’s also a light-hearted side to Jack The Stripper that comes out in their online presence. They’re more than prepared to have a laugh at themselves or share the odd meme, because at the end of the day, music is all about enjoying the ride.

“Sometimes we like to take the piss out of ourselves,” says Frizon. “Sometimes have a cheeky poke at other bands that might be getting a little bit up themselves, but at the same time we’re never going to call out a band and start any of that kind of lame soapbox beef kind of shit. That’s just childish and embarrassing. We’re about the good times. We might not always seem like it, but we want people to enjoy themselves and have fun, so we always try and encourage that.”