Singing about mean girls

By SCOTT KARA

Jon Austin is a songwriter with a problem. He has a steady girlfriend. He's been with her - "she's really cool, by the way" - for two years. The singer from Hamilton punk-pop band 48 May is quick to point out that these two years have been "off and on", but at the moment it's going well. That's the problem: it's all so perfect that he's run out of fodder for songs. "I need her to do something mean so I can get some ammunition," he says.

He is joking, in a bratty Blink 182-type humour. Although 48 May describe their sound as Def Leppard meets Sum 41, their debut album The Mad Love is reminiscent of Blink's catchy tunes, big guitar riffs, and even bigger harmonies.

The album is a rowdy bunch of tales about boy meets girl, girl leaves boy, or vice-versa, and, in 48 May's case, boy either gets mad, laughs, or cries. Well, perhaps sulk is more appropriate.

Did any of these situations work out?

"No, none of them did, so thanks for rubbing that in," he says. "Fight Back, I ended up with a bruised jaw; Come Back Down was about a girl who would just not take the hint, and I don't think she still has taken the hint; Leather & Tattoos ... I ended up breaking up with the girl when I finally saw how dud she was. Yeah," he laughs, "every song on there, it's like a Shakespearean tragedy.

"I guess it just shows how little life I have and how truly pathetic I am. I only started a band because I wanted to get girls, and, just as I do, I get a girlfriend," he says.

48 May formed at the Big Day Out in January 2003. Bass player and singer Shannon Brown had played his last gig with former band Tadpole on that day and he was itching to get back into a band with his brother, Jarod. The brothers played together in Mama Said, who had minor success with a cover of DLT's Chains.

48 May's hooky, upbeat pop punk has gained them a hardcore young audience in their early-to-mid teens. It's surprising for the band, but, says Brown: "It is quite pop-tastic stuff."

However, Austin likes to think their demographic is broader than the core teenage audience that their website forums suggest. "We seem to go down well in bars and at all-ages gigs. There's a couple of people's mums who like us. The demographic that people see on our forums, they are the young ones because that's the age where they get fiercely loyal about music and they want to show how passionate they are."

Even though they have indulged in rock'n'roll debauchery - they're banned from a number of Gisborne motels - they don't plan on changing through any sense of responsibility to their young audience.

"We won't change ourselves and who we are because of PC things," says Brown. "I guess we'll kick about just the way we are and if something is seen as controversial, then that'll be dealt with. It's different because we're not used to a demographic that young."

Some of these fans would not have been born when Def Leppard - according to Austin, the "coolest band ever" - were big. He's also a huge Kiss fan.

Kiss, yes. But Def Leppard? People cringe when you say Def Leppard, or mention their 1987 hair metal opus, Hysteria. "I can't understand why people think that," says Austin. "I hate to think that in years to come my grandchildren will cringe when they hear the name 48 May because we utilise a lot of the same stuff Def Leppard does. We try to get big phat harmonies and big phat riffs and stuff in there. So I've never understood why people cringe around the whole Def Leppard thing. I love them. And you know, Kiss were the ones who wore makeup, not Def Leppard."

Imagine 48 May in makeup - total hysteria.