Mudgereebah three-piece Slow Riots are well on their way to cementing a successful career as talented musicians. Currently in their final year of high school, the band strives to stand out from the crowd and are focused on being successful in their own right. I spoke to guitarist and vocalist James Hilan to discuss their recent successes and future goals.
Describe Slow Riots in two words.
Noise Gaze.
With influences such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Tool and My Bloody Valentine, you've obviously got a pretty strong identity as a group. Was this difficult to achieve as a band, starting out?
We started out as 12 and 13 year olds playing stuff that was influenced by indie and semi-mainstream alternative. At that age, it's very difficult to develop your own sound, especially within the rock genre, partly because there's just so much stuff you haven't heard. We found that with every discovery of a great new genre or band (like the ones you mentioned) our sound took a step forward in maturity. But it certainly took time for that to happen.
We started out as 12 and 13 year olds playing stuff that was influenced by indie and semi-mainstream alternative. At that age, it's very difficult to develop your own sound, especially within the rock genre, partly because there's just so much stuff you haven't heard. We found that with every discovery of a great new genre or band (like the ones you mentioned) our sound took a step forward in maturity. But it certainly took time for that to happen.
Many young bands allow trends to override unique creativity, but you guys seem to steer clear of that path. Are you glad to have made such a decision?
Of course. We couldn't deal with playing stuff that sounded too samey, or too much like any other band. People say we remind them of all sorts of different bands, so I guess it's working. It's more beneficial in the short term for a local band to play trendy stuff, but our resistance to that is paying off. Every new song has been the result of challenging ourselves to write something better and more unique, and we're glad to have stuck to that over the past 5 years.
How has the release of your EP, "Bored" affected you as a band? Have you found it to bring about a greater level of public recognition for yourselves?
'Bored' took over a year to record, because of lazy engineers, promises made by recording studios, lack of money, etc. The songs were fairly old by then anyway, so we were very tired by the end of it and just wanted to put the CD out. Eventually we got to a great studio and managed to breathe new life into the recordings, so that got us excited about it all again. We're hoping it will be received well when we start distributing it on iTunes and in independent stores in Australia, but since it's only been out for a month there haven't been any great leaps in recognition for us yet. Hopefully we can sell a fair few copies at our next show in Condong and really make a name for ourselves in that area.
'Bored' took over a year to record, because of lazy engineers, promises made by recording studios, lack of money, etc. The songs were fairly old by then anyway, so we were very tired by the end of it and just wanted to put the CD out. Eventually we got to a great studio and managed to breathe new life into the recordings, so that got us excited about it all again. We're hoping it will be received well when we start distributing it on iTunes and in independent stores in Australia, but since it's only been out for a month there haven't been any great leaps in recognition for us yet. Hopefully we can sell a fair few copies at our next show in Condong and really make a name for ourselves in that area.
What should the crowd expect from Slow Riots at the upcoming "Great Banana Barn Dance"?
A lot. This will be our first show since the start of June and our first with new bassist Shannon Kelly, who is by far the most talented musician we've played with thus far. We'll be playing a new song with him that nobody has heard before, and it really shows how well we all gel together as a band now. Of course we are also known for throwing ourselves around and being a bit psychotic at certain parts in our songs, so everything people have come to expect from past Slow Riots shows will be back in full force.
A lot. This will be our first show since the start of June and our first with new bassist Shannon Kelly, who is by far the most talented musician we've played with thus far. We'll be playing a new song with him that nobody has heard before, and it really shows how well we all gel together as a band now. Of course we are also known for throwing ourselves around and being a bit psychotic at certain parts in our songs, so everything people have come to expect from past Slow Riots shows will be back in full force.
How do you feel generally about collaborative events such as this one? Do you feel it's important for local up and coming bands to support each other more often in this way?
They've pivotal to the development and continuation of any sort of musical scene. The Great Banana Barn Dance will be especially great because, unlike most other local festivals, it combines many different sub-genres of rock and metal. James Doyle from Severe Noise Entertainment is responsible and he's doing a lot more stuff like this in the future, so we're eternally grateful to him for that because it will give alternative music a major kickstart. Something's got to knock hardcore off the podium eventually.
They've pivotal to the development and continuation of any sort of musical scene. The Great Banana Barn Dance will be especially great because, unlike most other local festivals, it combines many different sub-genres of rock and metal. James Doyle from Severe Noise Entertainment is responsible and he's doing a lot more stuff like this in the future, so we're eternally grateful to him for that because it will give alternative music a major kickstart. Something's got to knock hardcore off the podium eventually.
