Australian rock act Violent Soho will make their first New Zealand appearance on Friday night, just in time for Halloween.
Australian rock act Violent Soho will make their first New Zealand appearance on Friday night, just in time for Halloween.
Australian rockers Violent Soho are huge at home but only just starting to make a dent in New Zealand. They talk to Chris Schulz.
Post-punk, skate-rock, or bratty Aussie upstarts done good. Whatever label you give rockers Violent Soho, make sure it's not 'grunge'.
"It's frustrating," admits Luke Boerdam, the front man for the rowdy Australian four-piece who find themselves lumped into a resurgence of mid-'90s rock trends but feel they have little to do with them.
"When people call (Violent Soho's latest album) Hungry Ghost 'grunge,' I'm like, 'Really, is that how you'd describe it?' We're not part of that. We're just playing songs we think are good and this is all we can play," he says.
The Brisbanites met at school and formed a band out of "boredom" shortly after graduating. Ever since, their knack for crafting beer-swilling anthems like Jesus Stole My Girlfriend and Covered in Chrome has found fans in high places.
They've performed for Rick Rubin, signed with Thurston Moore's label Ecstatic Peace! and re-recorded their debut album with alt-rock legend Gil Norton in Wales.
When asked about his favourite bands, Shihad drummer Tom Larkin recently named Violent Soho as one of them.
But whatever success they've had as a band has been accidental, says Boerdam.
"In our heads, our debut was always a demo tape. We only made 1000 copies. It was a way to start touring. But we got to work with Gil Norton, we played in front of Rick Rubin, we moved to New York, then toured for a year. We played (Australian festival) Splendour in the Grass and a day later we flew to perform at Lollapalooza."
But chasing their dreams of stardom left Boerdam, and his bandmates James Tidswell, Luke Henery and Michael Richards, feeling burnt out. Much like Shihad and their American efforts, Boerdam says Violent Soho found themselves back in Brisbane feeling "mentally drained" and contemplating a future away from music.
"America it was an awesome experience and I'd do it all again, but it was a blessing how we just got dumped back in Australia. It was like, 'F*** it, we're doing it our way. We've done this and we've hated it so this is how we're going to do it."
To that end, they returned to live in the same Brisbane suburb they grew up in, now living just minutes from one other. They're playing their first ever New Zealand show tonight at the King's Arms, a gig they'll back up with an appearance at the Laneway festival next year.
And they've just released the first taster from their third album, the typically feisty and not-grunge-at-all single Like Soda.
Despite several band members marrying and having children, Boerdam admits there's truth to their music videos which portray them as up-for-it skate bogans searching for the nearest keg party.
"We're getting older and we may not have as much party fuel in us every night but I don't think that's something that's going to be shaken any time soon," he says.
"We feel too ridiculous acting any other way."
* Violent Soho are playing a Nightmare Before Christmas show at Auckland's King's Arms on Friday night, with PCP Eagles, Miss June and a Die!Die!Die! DJ set.
