Midway
Chat surf rock, growing up in the Steel City and new single Red P’s.
PINNIES: So how'd you guys meet?
JORDAN: We met through a mutual friend probably like last year. We sort of got introduced through him and started getting together and making music.
PINNIES: What's it like being a musician in Newcastle compared to Sydney?
JORDAN: It's great, like we played a Sydney show at the end of last year I think it was, and there's a lot of variety in Sydney, hahaha we didn't really suit the show that well.
Kade: Yeah there were a lot of goth bands and we rocked up to the venue and they all had like, black eyeliner hahaha.
PINNIES: What are the major venues that you play up there?
KADE: Well, we've got the Newy, The Newcastle hotel, we're playing there this week.
JORDAN: A lot of the places, they have a band on and then it turns into a nightclub later. Like, yeah, we don't have many live music venues and the problem with that is, there's not a lot of all ages shows, so it was pretty tricky to play some shows. But now we're just sort of playing all the nightclubbey places that turn into nightclubs after the bands go.
PINNIES: Do either of you have a particular moment when you felt really compelled to start making music?
KADE: Yeah in about year 7, when I started playing drums. It was just playing in school with other people. And then like, obviously, being inspired from other musicians, such as, like John Bonham, from Led Zeppelin and stuff like that. And then I've kind of learned to love performing as well, and then performed a few times and that's kind of how it started.
JORDAN: I guess for me, I started gigging when I was like 14, just as a solo artist. And I kind of got into the band stuff when I was like 15/16 and really enjoyed not just being by myself on the stage. So yeah, we started doing a few more gigs over the past couple years and got really into writing as well, because we went out and saw heaps of local shows and there’s heaps of really original music in Newcastle. So we're really keen to write some songs that are kind of inspired by our local scene and a lot of Australian music as well.
PINNIES: Who do you reckon are your biggest inspirations as a band as well as personally?
Kade: I'd say our biggest inspiration is hockey dad.
JORDAN: As a band.
KADE: Yeah as a band, not as individuals hahaha. I'd say just those kind of Aussie indie rock bands.
JORDAN: A lot of the surf rock sort of stuff and indie-garage, all that sort of stuff. As a personal one, I guess. I take a lot of inspiration from Daniel Jones from Silverchair and Benny from Skegss.
KADE: I'd say... well for drumming, definitely John Bonham because he started everything, in my opinion, and I'd also say Dave Grohl, they’re probably my personal inspirations.
PINNIES: So you’ve got a new single coming out on the 28th of May, Red P's. What's it about?
JORDAN: It's about a friend who loses himself a bit in their own ego, I guess. It's based at like a party and the friend sort of ditches the persona for popularity and all the things that you know, goes on in teenager’s lives. A lot of our music is influenced by our perspective on growing up, because we're both pretty young, like I'm 18 and Kade's 19. You know, we're still young and have a lot to learn, but we like to sort of have a look around and think about what we value, what other people value and how that affects relationships between everyone growing up as a teenager into adulthood and all that sort of stuff. So I guess that's what a lot of our songs and Red P's is about, sort of our perspective on growing up and you know, the people around you and how you treat them.
PINNIES: What plans do you have as a band for the rest of the year?
JORDAN: Yeah we've got heaps of songs and an EP planned. So we've got a few more songs coming out this year. We've got Red P's out this month and then Control which is another old one that we've got coming out in a few months time and yeah, we've got probably like four more singles coming out before an EP, late this year or early next year. And yeah, I guess the plan is to play more venues as we release the new songs. So for this single we're only playing Newcastle but as the next singles coming out, we'll venture down to the Central Coast, Sydney, Wollongong then up, sort of out North a bit more. Yeah, we're keen to move around New South Wales a bit.
