Suze Blacketer 29/10/20 Suze Blacketer 29/10/20

INTERVIEW SERIES: TEENAGE DADS & X PROMOTIONS

Teenage Dad’s released a new single a few weeks back ‘Thank You For The Honey, Honey’ and are playing their first live show for a while via a live stream on Thursday night along with 3 other acts from the Frankston/Mornington Peninsula area brought to you by X Promotions and The Frankston Art Centre.

Teenage Dad’s released a new single a few weeks back ‘Thank You For The Honey, Honey’ and are playing their first live show for a while via a live stream on Thursday night along with 3 other acts from the Frankston/Mornington Peninsula area brought to you by X Promotions and The Frankston Art Centre.

I caught up with Vincent and Connor this morning to talk about the single, the live stream and I may have caught a few funny stories from the boys!!

Tell me about Teenage Dads and how you got your name?

Vincent: We’ve been playing gigs since 2017 but we started in 2016 just playing at everybody’s 18th birthday parties. Early on in the band we had a second guitarist, and he suggested the name. It was turned down from another band he was in. We all thought it was funny at the time, so we just held onto it since we didn't really know what we were doing haha. It’s been a good ride so far.

How did you guys get involved with Ryan and Andrew from X Promotions?

Connor: That was through 2016, towards the start of 2017. Andrew had put on a couple of gigs at The Rockstar Bar in Frankston on Sunday afternoons just for young bands, all age events. Some of my friends at the time played in a band and had done a couple of gigs with Andrew. They put in a good word for us and I think that’s how the relationship started with him. We did one of the Sunday afternoons there and have been in contact with Andrew ever since.

Vincent: Yeah he has always thrown opportunities at us the whole way, whether or not we have been able to do them. He’s never forgetting about the local bands that are coming from the area which is really cool. When they came up with this idea I think he said us and the rest of the line up were the first artists him and Ryan thought of and reached out to. Obviously everyone is really keen.

Yeah they said everyone jumped on board really quickly! And they have discovered a really cool AA venue with the Frankston Arts Centre. It sounds like a really great space, having the three to four different areas to play.

Vincent: I’ve only been in the main theatre section which I never thought they would end up using for something like this. The other space we are using Cube 37 we have played in before during a Battle of the Bands. So again there’s the all ages aspect. But I haven’t seen the other spaces. Have you Connor?

Connor: Yeah I did a couple of primary school productions there, but I can’t really recall what it is like inside because it has been over 10 years.

You have a new single out ‘Thankyou for the honey, Honey’

Vincent: Yes we do. We’ve had it for ages, but I think when we once we had recorded it we had a couple of other songs that were ready as well. I guess we kind of planned to release them in this order Pocket Money, Adrenaline Rush and then Thank you for the honey, Honey. We did the first two and that was awesome. Then getting ready to get Honey out around May and Corona happened. We just had to delay it all. I think in some ways it may have been for the better. We are really impressed with how it is doing so far. If we had of put it out earlier in the year we might not have had anything to do all throughout lockdown. I think we have done really well at staying active.

Connor: At the start of lockdown when we were scheduled to put it out we discussed staying on schedule, but it was so unclear. What if we threw this song out there and it just feel on the ground. I think waiting was good in the end. Getting to the point where we knew that it was safe to put a song out and people would hear it. I think at the start of lockdown at lot of stuff could have gotten lost.

There’s been some great stuff come out during Covid

Vincent: And what is still to come that has been written during lockdown.

I saw that guys you had played a few of the bigger festivals like NYE on the Hill and St Kilda Festival.

Connor: Yeah I think NYE on the Hill and St Kilda Festival are probably our two biggest ones. NYE on the Hill was really fun because we played the day before NYE and it was 40 degrees plus. We were so scared with all the bushfires starting to pop up around whether we were actually going to get to play. Our whole area was pretty sweet in regard to that. On stage the wind gusting in at 40 degrees…. They had sandbags on Vince’s cymbals, but they got blown right over half way through the set. Shit was flying around everywhere! We were in the shade of the stage but everyone in the crowd was getting absolutely char grilled. We had to have lie down after that set, it was pretty rough.

Vincent: Not long after that the typical storm came through it got hectically windy. I think a tree fell on someone, but they were okay. I just remember hearing about that and thinking holy crap.

Connor: It was at Welcome to Country at the start of the day. So there was a big celebration going on and everyone was watching the dancing and you just heard this almighty snap, and this tree falls down. Luckily no one was hurt. Everyone rushed over and helped them out.

You also released an EP last year, how was that received?

Vincent: Yeah Red.

Connor: Yeah it was alright. We had just come off doing our debut album (Potpourri Lake) at the end of 2018. We wrote a bunch of songs that we were really pleased with, it was when our sound kind of changed a little bit. We got Jordan our singer on guitar as well as keyboards. A lot of the songs we were writing were really interesting and exciting for us because we hadn’t played with two guitarists since 2016 when we were a 5 piece. It was exciting to get some of those sounds back. That’s were our songs Message in the Sand, Pocket Money and Taylor came from. I think we pumped that EP out really fast and into the open, but it was still a fun process. I don’t know that it performed as well as we would have liked it to, but it still did well, and we got heaps of opportunities from it.

Do you record in a studio or do you do it in house?

Connor: Jordan did it at Uni for a bit, but he has been teaching himself to do it for a long time. We’ve had one song mastered by someone else and we kept telling Jordan he should have a go at mastering it as well so we could compare them, but he never did! It turned out good but not quite how it does when we do it. It wasn’t that one was better or worse it’s just that we like how Jordan does it better. So we are sticking with that for the time being.

Vincent: If you’re competent enough with the programs you can pretty easily figure it all out. We just enjoy the process too, all being there. It’s easy enough to make changes and not be worried about the ‘time is money’ thing. If you’re getting someone to mix it or something then you’re paying for every change. So it’s good inn those aspects for sure.

Tell me about the story behind the new single.

Connor: Most of the instrumentation I had done I think in 2018. It would have been the last year I was at Uni. I was pretty fed up with Uni and if you take all the lyrics out and just listen to the instruments it sounds heaps more angry than what it turned out in the end. Which is good. I think it’s a good thing that Jordan and I have got going at the moment. With his musicality and lyricism and the way I write songs as well I think we’ve got a pretty good combo going on at the moment. Also our bass player Angus has been stepping up and doing a bit of song writing too which is cool. SO now there is bit more dynamics going on in the song writing process. The lyrics, from what Jordan has explained, it’s about you kind of being left in the dark not knowing if someone just wants you for a short amount of time or if they are in it for the long haul. That’s what I understand from what Jordan has told me about it. Like I said the instrumental part has been around since 2018 but we didn’t do anything with it until 2019, we recorded it all and haven’t been able to use it since, until September when we could put it out. We’ve been playing it since before this time last year, so I think that kind of helped with the anticipation of it. We would announce that we were putting a song out and that it wouldn’t be this song and people would be like ‘Oh come on put out Thank you for the honey, Honey’ already. It was like na we want to put this one out.

Vincent: Pretty much after every show people would message us saying I can’t find that song where is it?

Connor: Or they would put it on Instagram stories asking what’s this song. Or do you guys have this song out? There has been good build up to it. I think being able to practise it for a year before it came out is pretty good too.

I did see someone had written something about it being leaked prior to release, I’m assuming that is what they meant. You guys already playing it live.

Connor: We had a mutual friend leak our song. Often we show our friends to see what they think of songs and get some feedback. It was pretty funny, one of Jordan’s friends put it in a team fortress 2 gaming montage. So he had it in a gaming clip, I don’t know how big his following is, but I assume he has a bit of a following, but people watching started asking what’s this song. There was just silence, he was like I’m not allowed to say what the song is because it’s not supposed to be out yet. It had a couple of changes before release and you’d have to dig pretty deep into YouTube to find it.

I guess you are pretty keen to get on the stage on Thursday night and play

Connor: Yeah it’s going to be good. We are mixing up our set a little bit and trying something that we have wanted to try for a long time. We are going to tandem our songs into one another because there is only a very short set so there are going to be no breaks or end of song, just play them straight through. We are excited to try it out because we haven’t done it before, we also haven’t practised it together either so we could scrap that last minute!

Vincent: We could get into rehearsal and realise we need more time to do it! But we’ll see. Hopefully it works.

Connor: We have some time to rehearse prior to the gig. After taking a bit of break, the first time we play it’s like crap we’ve lost the mojo between us but then the next time it’s like it’s just there again. We are all back in sync with each other. Hopefully that happens on Thursday!

It’s a very talented line-up and I’m looking forward to watching you all.

Vincent: We are super keen. Specially to see Boler Mani.

Connor: I was doing a phone interview the other day and I was saying Boler had his first ever gig in 2018 and my friend group knows him from his sister being in our social group. Everyone was like get down for his first gig and I missed it by like 5 minutes. So I’m excited to actually see him play.

He has so much content on You Tube.

Connor: Yeah he has heaps of stuff.

And Velvet Bloom are just amazing. Maddy’s voice is something else.

Connor: We have been fans of Velvet Bloom for a long time. They have played a bunch of shows with us.

Had Ryan not sent me the PR pack weeks ago I would be none the wiser about these bands. I’d heard of you guys before but not the other acts.

I also got a little touring story from the guys when they set themselves the task to free camp the entire tour!

We Big 4 a lot when we tour or free camp. On our tour at the start of the year we had a goal to try and not pay for any accommodation for the whole tour. We did really well but there was one night where we couldn’t stay where we were going to, and we had to get an Air BnB at the last minute. But the rest of it we tried to do it without having to book and pay for somewhere. Obviously when people let us stay we buy them beers or dinner or merch. I think it was funny. I think our biggest show in Adelaide we supported Lime Cordiale at HQ, that’s a huge venue and when its full it looks awesome. Some of the other guys rocked up early and we were like where are the rest of the guys? They were like there at the hotel studying for exams. We were like that is so different from our set up!! We are at the West Beach Big 4.

That’s actually a really good caravan park!!

Vincent: Yeah it is I love it there.

Connor: Actually we were at Wills that time! I remember thinking man I wish we could pay for a hotel (laughs) I reckon out favourite packing the car story is one of the first times we had to fly from city to city. We flew from Melbourne to Sydney to play our own show and then the next morning at 5am to play the HQ show. In Sydney we got a hire car. Vinnie and I were talking about it for ages. Like should we get a sedan or a small hatch. We went with small hatch thinking it would have more space. We rock up to the depot and we have all of our shit and we look at this car. It’s like stuff under the arm, hold cases, bags and stuff and we just looked at it and thought there is no fucking way that this is going to fit in there. Basically it just fit. It was the most ridiculous set up ever. The front seat was pushed right to the front. We had one of the back seats down and Angus and I were just about sitting on each other’s laps!! It was a good time, but I think we will go for a Rav 4 or something next time! We just wanted to cheap out but sometimes its not a good idea.

You get good stories from that and make hilarious memoires.

Connor: I just remember Jordan losing it!! “Who’s fucking idea was this??” That was before we had even attempted to get anything in the car. Just doubt straight from the start, like this is not going to work.

I can relate to that. When I picked up the Diamond Construct boys from the airport we got to my car, which is a Commodore, and just looked at the car and all the gear!! We looked at each other and then at the car and we all had that “how the hell are we going to do this” look on our faces. It was like Tetris packing, but we got it all in.

Last words…

Vincent: Stay tuned because we have more stuff in the works as soon as we are able to record.

Grab a ticket to the live stream on Thursday night here: https://bit.ly/2FV8QOz

Teenage Dads are another band to keep on your radar. Go follow their socials to keep in the loop.

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Suze Blacketer 26/10/20 Suze Blacketer 26/10/20

INTERVIEW SERIES: AND WE ARE LIVE!

We all know that Covid has well and truly messed with the music scene this year. X Promotions have taken matters into their own hands to promote some of the best local indie pop/rock, soul and hip-hop acts from the Frankston/Peninsula area.

We all know that Covid has well and truly messed with the music scene this year. X Promotions have taken matters into their own hands to promote some of the best local indie pop/rock, soul and hip-hop acts from the Frankston/Peninsula area. This 60 minute event will be live streamed into your lounge room from the Frankston Arts Centre via their Facebook and YouTube pages:
FACEBOOK

YOUTUBE

Tickets are priced at whatever you can afford and 100% of ticket sales will go to the artists and guest hosts on the night. Support the artists via the ‘Donate Now’ button HERE

Check out the Facebook event page HERE

Ryan McGeary and Andrew Gorman from X Promotions sat down and had a chat with me about what they are doing and why.

Well to start with I guess you better tell me about X Productions and what you guys are about.

Ryan: It’s a pretty new venture into the live-streaming stuff. Andrew and I stumbled upon one another with an interest in putting on live shows. Back in the day it was me with my band. We were looking to get some shows. Andrew had an interest in fostering some live shows. We met while doing separate shows and then came together to do some. This is just our next step in the Covid friendly world.

There isn’t anything friendly about Covid!!

Andrew: Ultimately, as much as we love to see the crowds and bands having a great time, we can only do half of that at the moment. With this event, we saw the Frankston Art Centre putting on live-stream events for the traditional theatre type crowds. We though hey there is no reason why some of the younger music acts couldn’t get in on that as well. Thankfully the theatre have jumped on board and the council has backed it as well. There are a few more big announcements to make in the coming weeks, there are a lot of things going our way. Thankfully everyone is loving it.

That’s a really good thing to hear. Good for the bands and for the fans. So there are just the four bands on this bill

Ryan: Yes we are seeing some really talented bands. We are trying to keep it local, there are some really awesome acts down this way that we thought needed the spotlight shone on them a little bit more. Especially during this lockdown. So we have subcult. Velvet Bloom who are.. how would you describe them Andrew?

Andrew: They are a very grass roots soul act. It’s a really cool sound. It’s not a sound that you expect. Maddy the singer has the smoothest voice.

Ryan: Maddy has that voice that as soon as she starts to sing you just lean in a little more than what you were.

And then we have Teenage Dads who have an indie pop sound. They are just an awesome bundle of joy on a stage. And then we have Boler Mani who is in the hip hop/rap game. Again he is high energy, really good stuff that is well produced. As soon as I saw him I was like cool. It’s tough when there is one person on stage, tough to get that energy across and he’s got it

Andrew: He was also lined up 3 or 4 festivals this year, so this was going to be his break through year. Teenage Dads have some festival experience. Velvet Bloom has been around on the peninsula for a while. She has broken into Melbourne in a big way, she has a big fan base. subcult have a new single out and are releasing their second single on the night of this show. They have all had stuff put on hold.

It’s a good time to be interacting with fans on social media and getting your music out there. Building that fan base so that when gigs return you already have a following.

Ryan: It’s a really good time to ‘gather your supplies’ is what I have been telling people. Strengthen your foundations and get all your processes in place so that when you do get released into the world it goes gangbusters. The really good thing about the acts that we have got at the moment is they were all on the verge of something really great this year. They still are, don’t get me wrong, but using subcult as an example they did shows with Ruby Fields and names like that and it was looking to be a huge year for them. This has delayed them a little bit, but it gives them an opportunity to get more songs under their belt.

Andrew: Support local doesn’t have to be just for your shops. Support your local bands. We aren’t going to see any international acts in Melbourne for at least the next 6-12 months. So we all need to get behind not only Aussie music but the local bands that are in your back yard. All the big bands started out small so let’s help these smaller bands get there quicker.

That’s why I started writing for myself. I want to help promote the smaller grassroot bands that we have in Australia. There is so much talent here. And I’ve been lucky and had so much support from the scene.

Andrew: It’s huge. When Ryan and I were sitting working out how to spread this as far as we can, you don’t discount anyone who has even 50 followers. Speak to whoever you can because it’s not only about getting to 5 big 10,000 follower groups, but also about getting to as many small pages and groups as well. The love comes back and forth amongst these people.

Tell me about And We Are LIVE

Ryan: We have four acts that we have mentioned, so Boler Mani, subcult, Velvet Bloom and Teenage Dads. It will be hosted by the awesome Ali Barter and Oscar Dawson (Holy, Holy) we were stoked when we got the call from them saying they wanted to be involved. It’s hosted at the Frankston Art Centre, for us it’s one of those venues in Frankston that everyone has an experience with. Whether its as a kid in your school play, or as an adult in a lot of theatre based things. They haven’t really dabbled in this scene as much so in our conversations with them they were really excited to be expanding their horizons to a new audience.

Once Covid blows over you have yourselves another venue.

Ryan: I’m going to be there as often as possible. There are some awesome spaces within that venue. There’s something like 3-4 performance spaces, each with their own little quirks. Fortunately we get to cover off a few of them in this live stream, so we are doing it in different ‘studio’ spaces which helps with the changeovers and all that. It also showcases what they have to offer as well.

Andrew: The main theatre is 800 seats, so it’s a huge theatre. The Cube theatrette is 200 seats.

Ryan: The Cube 37 is an amazing space. Its an art gallery mixed with a performance space. When it is set up for a live show it is such an awesome spot.

Andrew: It’s not your traditional pub venue. It’s a world class venue that these acts don’t have access too. This event is not for profit, we are doing this for love as well.

It would be a perfect place for AA shows!

Ryan: I was going to mention that. The world is hanging out for AA shows. If you ask people what their favourite show was there is a 90% chance that the answer is we had this all ages show at this hall. It was an awesome atmosphere. It’s almost like you take the alcohol away and everyone is more invested in the music. It’s something that I hope we can foster.

We then moved on to genres!!

Andrew: Don’t read a book by its cover!! Ryan gets as dark as any.

Ryan: (laughs) This is my formal attire.

I listen to anything from Country to Black Metal!

Ryan: Good. That’s the way to be though. It’s a thing I have always found with people who are so genre bound with their tastes. When you’re not feeling angry and angsty or if you’re not feeling lovey dovey what are you listening too?? You have to embrace it all and each genre has their own advantage. And bringing it back to the event I think we capitalize on the moment by having four acts that arguably you wouldn’t see on a bill together unless it was a festival setting.

There’s been a lot of talk about bringing back the mixed bill line-ups.

Ryan: I think the only prerequisite should be that they are good.

100% correct

Ryan: I used to be in bands that sort of did the heavier thing and now I’m dabbling in weird electronic stuff. I would love to be able to still play with those bands, I’d love for their to be a scene that ‘Is it good? Yes. Cool let’s do something together’

Andrew: You have to look at the broad brush. If you have a fine artistic brush and you are just appealing to that one corner you might get your 50-100 people along. Where if you have that bill where you can get the boyfriend bringing the girlfriend and her mate because they all love something different that is on the bill it makes for a great night. And you fill the room. And as Ryan said if it’s good you will.

The diversity was key in this line-up. Funnily enough all four acts were the first four acts that we approached. We thought that we could do it with three acts not expecting them all to jump on board. Being a live stream we didn’t want to have them playing 30-40 minute sets so they each have 15 minute sets so if you’re not loving this genre wait 10 minutes and the next act will be on.

After having a listen to these bands make sure you jump on and purchase a ticket because you are in for an hour of great music by some up and coming talented young Australian bands.

Leading up to event day (THURSDAY OCTOBER 29) we have a series of interview with the artists involved so watch out for those over the coming days!