What is your name and role within the band?
Justin. Lead Guitarist.
How did the band start?
It was always a dream of my brothers and mine to start a band. Once we were confident enough we started jamming together. The rest is history.
Where are you based?
Campbelltown in Sydney’s South West.
Please give an example of your music writing process?
Johnny writes the lyrics and the basic chords and then he puts them to the rest of the band. We jam it out and see where that takes the song. We keep jamming it out until we’re happy with what we’ve come up with. Some songs can take only 10 minutes to get right and then others may take months.
What are you working on right now?
Johnny is always writing. He tells us that he has enough tunes for another album. After this current album tour ends we’re taking a few months off to travel, but after that we’ll be hitting the ground running and begin planning out our second album.
How did you find the recording process?
Challenging, gruelling, but really rewarding!
How you wanted the EP/album/single to sound at first, how that changed during recording?
I really feel that the album turned out almost exactly how we imagined and wanted it to. And in regards to the songs that sounded different, they sounded better than we imagined. It was a real win win situation for us.
Stories from recording/writing?
I put on about 10kg during the recording process. Lunch and dinner would always consist of a pub meal and a few cold ones. Plus the studio was right near a bakery so fresh apple turnovers were usually on the cards as well. I went on a bit of a diet after we finished the main bulk of recording and got back to my normal weight pretty quick though.
What is your gear setup?
I like to keep things really simple. I have a tuner pedal, a distortion pedal and a fuzz pedal. I play a Fender Telecaster and run that through a Vox AC30VR Amp.
What do you like to do outside of music and does it affect your music?
I like the outdoors. Four wheel driving, spear fishing and snow boarding. They do sometimes distract me from practising every day but on those days when I’m at home I’ll always manage to fit in a few hours of practise to make up for it.
How would you describe your music genre?
Alternative rock.
Do you know any music theory?
I learnt some in music class at school, but that was a little while ago now.
What are your plans for the future?
Make more albums, keep touring and keep on improving as musicians.
How did you get into music?
I come from a very musical family and they really promoted learning musical instruments.
What are you listening to at the moment?
The latest Catfish and the Bottlemen album ‘The Ride’.
Who are your top 5 influences and icons?
Chris Cheney
Mark Knopfler
Eric Clapton
Andy McKee
My Dad
