Pinnies: How’s the release process been going for the EP?
Tristan: Good man. We’ve been getting streams in other countries which is really surreal, but yeah, it’s going all right. We’re happy with it.
Ewan: I’d say it’s been a bit weird. I mean, we’ve tailed off right at the end of lockdown. So I guess it hasn’t been a conventional release. Everything’s been a bit via satellite if you know what I mean. Still sort of waiting for that first gig we’ve got lined up with the Chippo.
Corey: Yeah, it’s been a tricky thing to navigate, especially without playing gigs. But I feel like now that things are starting to open back up and we’ll be playing live again, we’ll be able to get things rolling.
Tristan: I feel like the release was sink in on the 20th. That’s when the energy will be back and we’ll pinch ourselves.
Pinnies: The Chippo will be your first show in a while right?
Corey: Yeah on the 20th.
Ewan: We had a local gig lined up the day before the official lockdown kicked in which got canceled because Covid was starting to kick up again and it looked like the government might bring in a lockdown and then it got canned. And then the next day I remember being told not to bother coming in for work at my hospo gig. So it’s been since the very day before lockdown.
Pinnies: What have you got planned for the show? Anything special or are you just keen to just be playing live to a crowd and feeding off their energy.
Tristan: Yeah, it’ll just be good to really get that sort of energy happening again. The way we kind of wrote this EP was by thinking about how we play live and it’s a big part of our writing process. We want to bring as much energy as we can. So yeah, we’re keen to get back out there and show everyone what the songs are really supposed to sound like, the way that we wrote them.
Pinnies: Do you have any pre-show routines?
Tristan: Knock back a couple of beers and then just hope that we don’t stuff up.
Pinnies: Have you played any sit-down gigs?
Tristan: Throughout the second half of last year, since the big Covid lockdown, everything had to be seated. So we’ve played more sit-down gigs than standup gigs.
Ewan: Yeah we played to a full Factory Theatre on the main stage when it was all seated but it felt like a cabaret show, like two people sitting at each table with a lamp in the middle. It felt like you were there for some burlesque or something.
Pinnies: That could be a new venture for you guys. Do any of you have a dream venue to play?
Tristan: Give us like five years maybe and The Hordern would be good.
Ewan: Yeah, Metro Mainstage. I’ve played The Lair stage, which was actually pretty cool with people on the mezzanine level, like on the balcony looking down at you.
Corey: I’d love to play the Oxford Art Factory mainstage, just being a little bit more modest in my indie rock dreams.
Pinnies: Other than psych rock stuff, what other genres do you listen to?
Corey: Oh, we listen to pretty much everything. We all take influences from so many different genres ranging from heavy metal to jazz.
Tristan: We all have a certain thing we liked the most, like our lead guitarist loves heavy metal, our bassist loves jazz and I love rap. So we try to meet in the middle whenever we write, just so everyone’s happy. And that kind of makes the sound we have at the moment, especially with the new stuff that isn’t out yet.
Pinnies: That’s something that I loved about the EP.
Tristan: Yeah, it’s cool. We don’t want to specify ourselves into one genre. Just however we feel on that day is how we write. It usually starts with Keegan writing a riff and we’re like, “let’s use that.” And Keegan writes 50 riffs a week, all of them different genres, so we just pick and play.
Pinnies: What’s your favorite album release so far this year?
Tristan: GLOW ON by Turnstile. It’s so good man.
Corey: I’m hanging for Dope Lemon’s new album that’s coming out. Did Slowthai’s album come out this year Tristan?
Tristan: Yeah Slowthai’s album, Vince Staples’ album came out this year and I like both of those. I’m hanging for new IDLES.
Pinnies: Do you listen to anything by Shame as well?
Tristan: My friend Mason showed me shame. They’re fucking so good too. I need to go on a music binge soon.
Ewan: I’ve been loving DMA’s run of singles this year.
Pinnies: I heard that the original plans for the “Caffeine & LSD” music video were put on hold becuase of lockdown, are you allowed to say what those ideas were?
Tristan: We were throwing out ideas, just weird trippy stuff and then, yeah lockdown happenend. Then Martin said, how about we just compile footage that we have from people’s phones and Instagram stories and stuff and we’ll just make a little montage. And we actually like that idea better, I thought it was really wholesome. Especially for us, just so we could watch it ourselves and look at how much we’ve done in two years.
Pinnies: What’s 2022 got in store for the band?
Tristan: We’re gonna play some gigs and work on a new EP.
Corey: This EP’s been two years in the making, we’ve just been held down by lockdowns. So we’ve sort of been pushing it back until we decided “ah fuck it, let’s just release it.”
But in that time we’ve really worked on our sound and found what works for us, so all the new music that we’ve been working on, hopefully we’ll be able to get some of that out next year and show some new stuff to people at our live shows.
Ewan: There’s lots of potential opportunities for us to go further afield, try and get on the road a little bit and head down to Melbourne and maybe up to Brisbane too. Try to get out of the old Sydney town for a bit of an adventure and take our songs on the road.
You can grab tickets to see Asteroid Blues at the Chippo this Saturday from https://musicboozeco.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/610d7052-75e1-4e62-8b82-3134621ac567?
Pinnies Mag 