INTERVIEW: JAMES (BASSY) KARAGIOZIS - BETWEEN YOU AND ME
With over two million streams in the first week and picked for triple j spotlight album of the week, BYAM are on a rollercoaster that only goes up my friend.
For those of you living under a rock, there is a not so new band taking over - Between You and Me (BYAM). The pop punkers signed to Hopeless Records and recently released their second album ‘Armageddon’. With over two million streams in the first week and picked for triple j spotlight album of the week, BYAM are on a rollercoaster that only goes up my friend.
There may be some bias in my affection for the band as I happen to be friends with bass player and all around legend, James Karagiozis aka mister bass or bassy. I convinced him to sit down for a chat and tell me more about the band.
Image: Travis Suttie
Who are BYAM?
A five piece rock and roll band originally from Melbourne, but now we live in Victoria and NSW.
How did you meet?
I was the final piece of the puzzle, Chris and Jamie obviously met when they were born. The twins moved down to Melbourne. Me and Jai played in a band prior to Between You and Me. They needed a bass player somewhere down the line….Jai called me to fill in for a tour and then me and Jake became best friends.
And that's it.
What's your favourite song on the new album and why?
My favourite is Real World. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I said to do one thing, and it was the break before the first chorus. That's all I did in Real World. I remember sitting in the studio a month or two after we'd finished with Sam [‘Armageddon’ producer, Sam Guiana] and Jake was flying down to Melbourne to finish the rest of the vocals. When he laid down that chorus, they had just made it and because it was newer, we hadn't heard that song, that's why I liked it.
It also has a vibe of living carefree. So that's why I like that song, it's basically how me and Jake live our lives. He told it in a song, we get money and spend it because we want to have a good time.
“And we’ll worry about real life tomorrow. ”
Where did the name ‘Bass’ come from?
This is the most random story. It was one of my friends, the first time I jammed with him to join the band. I was joining to play bass. At the end of the practice, Stu [Stu Watts of Marshall Street Studios] was saving my number in his phone so he could call me if they wanted me to be in the band. He saved my name as James Bass [like the instrument bass]. But then he said James Bass instead [like the fish]. And then from that point on, they called me Bassy and that's how I had Bassy until this day.
What would your dream venue be to play?
Both in Melbourne and internationally?
Melbourne - obviously it's The Forum. Absolute dream. I saw Jet play there two years ago and it was sick. They're one of my favourite bands. Playing in there is such a cool vibe, that venue with the blue roof and everything. It feels like you're playing outside. I saw Temper Trap there and it was amazing. If you can play The Forum and sell out The Forum, you have made it.
International - probably Madison Square Garden if that ever happens. That would be the ultimate, headlining Madison Square Garden.
Attainable? I don't know. But we'll see what happens.
Bieber did it in a year.
Well……it's taken us five years to play The Corner! [laughs].
Who are your biggest band influences?
Number one, Blink 182. Everything I learned is from them. I remember in high school, jamming with one of my mates. We didn't really know how the songs went, but it was so easy to figure out, we taught ourselves how to play music by listening and playing blink. That would be the ultimate influence.
If we're talking influential for me as a musician, it'd be a lot of early pop punk bands. Pretending to be Deryck Whibley from Sum 41 in my mirror with my Les Paul, singing ‘Fat Lip’ over and over again after school. New Found Glory. In pop punk I like those jokey characters in bands, the bassist from New Found Glory. But anyone that told jokes, I felt jokes and being funny on stage came before actually being good. The instrument kind of came secondary at the start. Then I started to try and write songs after that. I could get on stage and joke around, and then we'll play songs in between our jokes. That's it to me.
UNIFY 2020
Bass riding an inflatable boat across the crowd
After a show, what is the best post gig food?
I enjoy playing in Philly because we always get Philly cheese steaks after the show at like 2am That's always fun. It's meat and cheese and onions in bread. Whenever we finished playing, it's always late, so it's something disgusting. I do enjoy waffle house late at night in the US. In Australia we go Maccas or something. Any junk food really. I don't like eating before a show so I'm super hungry when we finish because if we're onstage on stage and I feel full I feel disgusting. I'll starve myself before show. And then after we'll pick out whatever is available.
Actually got it!! Peanut butter jelly sandwich! When we were doing the US and we didn't really have any money I'd make sure we always had peanut butter jelly and bread
When you are touring, what's on your rider?
On our actual rider is a bottle of vodka, a slab of beer, slab of Coke Zero and then a meal each. Dream rider would be a masseuse or someone to feed me grapes…..maybe someone to paint my nails a different colour every night.
I think you will have people volunteering to do that.
Actually, on our first US tour, I'd said that I would paint a fans nails at merch and then they bought a sign that said “Sassy Bassy Nail Salon”. I would have to set it up every night….it only lasted two nights. That's pretty fun. I made six bucks. That's pretty good. In Australia, someone paid me $20 to paint their nails.
Between You and Me are embarking on a headline national tour in February 2022, they are not to be missed! Buy tickets here
BYAM are my top pick for Hottest 100, don’t forget to vote!!
INTERVIEW: REINS TALKS WHAT KEEPS HIM HERE
Since first listening to Chris Pearce’s solo project last year I have been waiting for more to be released. What Keeps Me Here is what Reins have blessed us with. I reviewed it recently and that just left me with more questions than answers, so I asked Chris if he was keen to have a chat about the EP
Since first listening to Chris Pearce’s solo project last year I have been waiting for more to be released. What Keeps Me Here is what Reins have blessed us with. I reviewed it recently and that just left me with more questions than answers, so I asked Chris if he was keen to have a chat about the EP
So this is a little bit different to Saviour!
Yeah it is, big time. I’ve always done stuff like this, but I’ve always loved metal as well. It wasn’t a big change for me. If anything I was probably way less metal by the time I joined Saviour. Joining Saviour made me get back into metal again.
I’ve been following Reins for a while and I have a feeling that it was Nick Deveril that put me onto you.
He’s the most supportive dude.
Yeah we met through our common love for Saviour.
What Keeps Me Here is so good, I couldn’t believe that nobody had done a write up about it.
I didn’t really send it around. I probably should have. I had one review in the works but never followed up on it.
I had it on loop for about 3 or 4 hours when I wrote the review. There are so many messages in the songs
It’s an awesome review. Thanks for that.
The more I listened to it the more I got out of it. Then I realised that it loops from Losing Your Mind back around to Storm Clouds. Just like the pattern of depression can repeat itself. Did you know you had done that?
Nope not at all. I just wrote all the tracks and chucked them together on the EP the best I could kind of thing. Its even interesting hearing people see it as like this release around the one thing. When I was writing the songs they were all so separate. Every track was separate, and I pieced them together. I guess it’s worked out because they all flow well into each other.
I actually thought you were telling a story because when you listen to it from start to finish you start with that depressive state, you hit rock bottom and then you start to come good only to fall into that state again.
Some songs are obviously specifically dark and angry like Storm Clouds. I get weird sleep paralysis and start doing weird stuff in my sleep which my girlfriend has to put up with. So Losing My Mind is about that.
See I took a totally different meaning
I always try and write lyrics that are not super obvious, they are more that you can take it on however you want.
Which is what I did because that’s not how I interpreted it. I took it as when you are in that depressive state it paralyses you.
I write a lot of songs that are specific and others that aren’t. Temporary Fix is about when you have a problem with something, or you are unhappy, and you turn to alcohol or anything to try and numb the pain and forget about it. It doesn’t work, it always comes back in full force. It’s just that temporary fix.
I took Temporary Fix as being in that dark spot and self-medicating.
It’s all along those lines
When I published the review I was like OMG I hope I got this right!!!
I really found it an interesting read. It was almost more in depth than what I’d kind of processed my own songs. I just write them I don’t really think about them.
Grey and Old to me was someone at that suicidal point of depression looking forward into the future at what they might miss if they were to take their life. I’ve got this whole story from this EP!
That’s cool. Way more in depth than I went. Grey and Old for me is just every lyric is a specific memory that I have, something that has happened. It’s all good memories, yeah it’s more just memories to take when I am old really.
I’m still over here following this story that I have got happening.
I like that though, that’s cool. I like that your getting that vibe from it. I think it’s very upbeat and happy music wise, but a lot of people reckon there is still a darker tinge to it which is surprising. Because I listen to heavier music and emo music I see that song as a super happy boppy song, but other people are like no its still not that boppy.
The first few weeks I played it I was bopping around, and I was singing but not actually listening to what I was singing. It wasn’t till I sat down to review it and I’d already written this big blurb about what a happy boppy EP it was, I had to scrub it and start again haha.
Some of the songs have that emo vibe, like Storm Clouds. It probably makes the rest seem like they are emo, and they are probably not. Brightness is a happy song, that’s about family. But also acknowledging that you should put more effort into seeing your loved ones.
And I took a different take on that one as well
Whatever you wrote was almost that kind of vibe but more in depth. I think it was more feeling bad that you’re not being present for your loved ones.
I think my favourite is What Keeps Me Here but choosing one is hard. And I took that as, going back into that cycle again, and there’s that one person that is holding you here.
I don’t really know what I meant with that song, but it makes sense at the same time. It’s like a sad love song but its not at the same time. It’s for the people that put up with you through the bad times. They’re what keep you around when you could obviously be anywhere else. They are the reasons that you are where you are.
I think I wrote that it’s not the physical space of home it’s the people that you surround yourself with.
For sure.
Do you have more songs piled up?
I’ve got so many honestly. It’s hard to get through them there is such a big pile of songs to finish. I’ve got another EP, hopefully I finish it this year and release it early next year. It’s a follow up to ‘What Keeps Me Here’, like a part two.
Do you do a lot of the writing for Saviour?
No not a lot. I think I did three songs on A Lunar Rose. We all throw in our little 2 cents worth, but Bryant does most of it. He’ll send stuff over and get me to have a listen. I’m not as good a metal guitarist these days.
You do alright playing stripped back guitar. Like I said WKMH is an EP that you can throw on Sunday mornings and get that chill vibe.
Yeah it’s definitely that kind of vibe. Mellow, chilling kind of vibe. The next one is going to have a bit more of a full sound I think. I’m going to write it as if it’s a band rather than a solo act. I’ve got a band that can play my songs, I’ve got some mates that can jump on board.
You’ve got some older stuff up on Spotify as well that I love.
Yeah the older stuff still sounds like a full band. I’m going to stick with a similar sound to what I’ve done previously but I just want to make it more fine and crisp I think.
This one is definitely different to your older stuff.
Some of the songs on this EP I wrote back when I did that older stuff. It was just finally getting around to them.
Do you do the recording yourself?
Yeah I do all the recording here and then send it off to a guy who does all the mixing and mastering for me. He recorded the drums on the EP as well for my drummer who is really good.
Did you have a band at the EP launch?
Yeah they all played at the launch. They are pretty much band members, but they don’t have to deal with all the other stuff. It was a good night, even though there are restrictions it sold out.
That’s great that it sold out. So they just turn up and play?
Yeah pretty much.
I guess that means that you can probably tour eventually???
Hopefully. Obviously touring is a bit out the window at the moment. Lots of people are touring WA at the moment though. I actually didn’t even record any music during lockdown. I’ve just been gardening, cleaning out the shed. Stuff I normally neglect!
It’s been a productive time. For the normal everyday stuff that you neglect, but also for bands to regroup and write new stuff.
Yeah. The number of albums that are dropping now, that are quarantine albums, is actually crazy.
Anything else you want to tell us about the EP
Not that I can think of. You went pretty far into it (laughs) better than I did. I think I just write these songs and chick them out and don’t think too deeply as to what they are about. Storm Clouds is such an emo song, I wrote that in one session. Wrote and recorded it before I even had a chance to think about what it was about! That happens frequently. I wasn’t even going to put it on the EP but once I wrote it I really liked it and I released it straight away. I got it out there as quickly as I could. That song did way better for me than anything else I have done so far. I was really surprised at how quickly it came together.
Sometimes they are the best ones!
For sure. Other songs like Grey and Old, I wrote the first half of it 4 years ago. I’d kind of forgotten about the track. My partner kept telling me it was a really good song and I needed to finish it. I was like yeah one day! Eventually I decided that I should try and finish it so the last half of the song I wrote 6 months ago. It’s kind of like a different track the bridge onwards but it works. I’m really happy with that song.
When you posted about which one was our favourite I couldn’t even really pick one because they are all good in their own way.
There doesn’t seem to be a clear favourite that I have seen. I thought Temporary Fix would be the least liked, but a few people have said that was their favourite. Heaps of people are liking the title track too. All my favourite songs I haven’t even released yet, that’s the funny thing.
That’s good then! Are they coming on the next EP?
Yeah. I have to get a move on I guess and get it finished. It always takes longer than you expect though.
Hopefully it doesn’t take too long! What Keeps Me Here is one of my favourite EP releases this year and one you should definitely throw on Sunday morning while you’re having your morning coffee.
READ THE ‘WHAT KEEPS ME HERE’ REVIEW HERE
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INTERVIEW: SPKEZY TALK THEIR UPCOMING EP ‘MIDNIGHT CLUB’
It seems it is Tasmania’s turn for new music! Dark Alt Pop band SPKEZY (pronounced Speakeasy) have just released a new single ‘Dopesick’ and announced their debut EP “Midnight Club. Having already released two standalone singles earlier this year, ‘Dopesick’ is the first single off the forthcoming EP ‘Midnight Club’. I spoke to vocalist Luke Vaessen to find who SPKEZY are and what we can expect from them.
It seems it is Tasmania’s turn for new music! Dark Alt Pop band SPKEZY (pronounced Speakeasy) have just released a new single ‘Dopesick’ and announced their debut EP “Midnight Club. Having already released two standalone singles earlier this year, ‘Dopesick’ is the first single off the forthcoming EP ‘Midnight Club’. I spoke to vocalist Luke Vaessen to find who SPKEZY are and what we can expect from them.
So this song is a little different to your other songs?
I would probably say a lot different. When we first started the band we essentially wanted to try and incorporate rock music, because we were all brought up on rock, with today’s modern type of RNB/Rap music. With this EP, more so with ‘Dopesick’ than the rest of the EP, we tried to incorporate more of our 80’s influences. I think that the main thing for us was to have each band members influences more prevalent than what we have before. The EP is a more cohesive of us as a band than the two stand alone singles we previously released.
You said that your influences are from the 80’s?
Yes. So our guitarist, who is also our producer, is very influenced by 80’s sounding music. It’s more so him that has brought that influence to the band. Especially Huey Lewis and the News, he said he just really wanted to write something that has that sound. We’ve all played in rock and metal bands over the years. Tyson our bass player leans to more that sort of stuff. Our drummer has a very broad range of influences, but he is more dance music orientated whereas I am a lot more hip hop and rap.
You’ve definitely got a lot of genres covered!
I just think that for myself I was finding it hard to write music in a band when I wasn’t listening to that particular genre of music. So for us it was just being able to write music that we enjoy and that we hope other people enjoy. People obviously listen to a lot of different stuff. And I guess when I first started playing metal I was listening to lots of metal. Over the course of when you are touring you are listening to metal bands night in and out and you get to the point where you need to listen to something else. I guess that is where it got to for me, and probably the other guys too. We just needed to do something else.
I have a broad range of musical taste even though I mostly listen to metalcore.
It’s good to have that broad range of musical taste because you get to experience all these different emotions listening to all types of music.
Is the writing process a group thing?
It’s definitely a group thing. We get together at least once a week at our guitarists house and that’s where we will record and write all our stuff because that’s where his studio is. He has taken a much bigger role on in the band this time around. When we had our lockdown he spent a bunch of time relearning all this stuff so we can do everything in-house. It’s made it a lot easier I guess because we know what we want the music to sound like, it’s a little bit harder when you are sending it to someone else and they don’t fully grasp what you are trying to do. It has been good just to be there with each other and just write and if it sucks it suck and if its good its good.
There are more songs floating around than?
Like I said we get together once a week. This EP, while it is probably not the most optimal time to release because we can’t tour with it, we are really proud of the way that it sounds. We want other people to hear it and we hope people enjoy it. For us just to get it out there is the main priority so that we can move on to whatever it is that we are going to do next.
I don’t know that not being able to tour has been really detrimental because most people are in lockdown or some form of quarantine at the moment. Bands releasing stuff are probably getting more attention during this time. There are no gigs, so people are looking to the online content.
I guess I hadn’t thought about it like that. That people can actually connect to it more and spend more time with the product because at the moment they don’t have a lot else to do.
Even though you can’t gig you’re actually building an audience for when gigs return. Laying those foundations for when the world returns to some normality. Bands are interacting with fans more too on social media and making those connections which is awesome. And Australia has such amazing talent.
We really do. It’s become more evident to me over the last couple of years. Obviously there is always good stuff from overseas, but I’ve noticed more really good bands coming out of Australia lately. It’s a very good thing.
I think Australia are leading the way at the moment.
100%. I feel like a lot of the bands that are coming through, and they are all really young which is really good, are really putting Australia on the map.
‘Dopesick’ has obviously gotten some traction because you’ve already had over 6k streams on Spotify in a week?
We’ve received really good feedback on the song. How it’s written, how its been recorded and all that. But also just on the song itself. People seem to be really enjoying it which is always nice.
What’s the story behind the song?
Essentially it is a conversation between two people, one of which has had substance abuse problems all through their relationship. It’s that person promising to try and get better for the sake of their relationship but realising how hard it is especially with all the outside influences.
Is there a common theme in the EP?
It’s not about substance abuse or anything like that it’s more so a collection of love songs really. However way you want to look at how that love is being portrayed. Essentially they are all love songs but from different views.
How long have you guys been together?
We’ve been together as SPKEZY for about 18 months or so. But we have all played in bands together or in other bands for the better part of 15 years.
Have you played any gigs as SPKEZY yet?
We’ve only played two as SPKEZY and both were in Tasmania. In our previous band we toured around Australia.
Which band was that?
Save the Clocktower.
So is it basically all you guys but with a new name?
Yes essentially, there is one less member. Our bass player joined Save the Clocktower just before we broke up.
I guess you are keen for Covid to end then so you can tour again?
It would be very nice.
Have you got gigs happening over in Tassie?
They have just started up again, but you have to be seated and no dancing
Seems to be the same in every state that has gigs.
Anything you want to tell us?
Just that as a band we really hope that people enjoy the EP. That’s our main aim is for people to enjoy what we do and can find some form of connection to it.
‘Dopesick’ is a dope track with it’s cruisy vibe and made my Sunday morning coffee just that little bit better.
‘Midnight Club’ will be released on 13th November via all platforms.
‘DOPESICK’ IS OUT NOW.
‘MIDNIGHT CLUB’ EP IS OUT NOVEMBER 13TH. PRE-ORDER IT HERE.
GROOVY LOCAL GALS - THE SPAGHETTI STAINS
The Spaghetti Stains, who describe themselves as ‘three Gippsland gumnuts slapping strings and hitting buckets’ have JUST released two brand new tracks and we can’t help but love ‘em for it.
The Spaghetti Stains, who describe themselves as ‘three Gippsland gumnuts slapping strings and hitting buckets’ have JUST released two brand new tracks and we can’t help but love ‘em for it.
“2018 saw the fruition of The Spaghetti Stains, an all-female three piece band with a sound derived from alternative/indie and surf rock origins, comprising of members Pantjiti Lawrence, Emmah Hellings and Rosie Verey. Their upbeat vibe blends with soulful, and at times hauntingly captivating, harmonies.”
’Route 16’ and ‘Lolly' Boys’ are both amazing alt-indie-rock vibes, along with their previous debut release ‘Toast to the Coast’, that will help you get through the social isolation of this COVID-19 season.
Check it all out on their Bandcamp HERE or their Spotify HERE
Check em out in our all-locals playlist HERE, and go give em some love on our behalf!
