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THE BASICS Name : Chris Reed Band : Snakes Among Us Job In Band : guitars Website Address : www.myspace.com/getyoursnakeon HOME Hometown : Sydney Hometown is best known for : being a c**t of a place Best thing about the music scene in your hometown : I’ve made some good mates through it. Most influential band to yourself that’s come out of your home town : Unpaid Debt were probably the biggest local for me growing up. RIP. Best up and coming band from your home town would be : Rex Banner THE BAND What’s the story behind the band name? We were really struggling to come up with something for a long time. Benny and Pete from the Hot Lies were high on valium one night and came up with it sitting on Pete's couch. We were all pretty stoked with it, there’s so much political stuff going on in the scene these days, we thought it was a good representation of what’s going on, hoping to be above that as much as we can. When did the band begin and how did it come about? Originally I found Matt through a drum add about 3 years back, met Cale through another guy who was playing guitar for a us, but just couldn’t get a complete line up together and things fell apart for a while. Then mid 2007 decided to give it another go, recorded a few demos, picked up Yods and Benny and things went from there. How would you describe your sound to the average Joe on the street? All aussie, energetic punk rock. Picture Lagwagon and Strung Out putting Kisschasy on a spit. What’s your current release? Tell us a little about it… “on a night that’s spiked with violence…” is our debut EP which we’ve just released. We recorded it with Greg Stace late last year and we’ve been playing around Sydney and did a trip to Melbourne to try and get it out there. What image do you think / hope your music conveys? We just want to be a no bullshit punk rock band. Good music. Good times. In five years time the band will be… Who knows, washed up probably. We’re here for a good time. Not a long time. OFF THE STAGE What was your first introduction to music that made you think seriously about playing it? Haha well mum and dads taste in music was always terrible so me and my brother asked for walkmans at a real young age and we’d wake up really early every Saturday and make mix tapes recording straight off Rage. As for playing, my friend got a bass for his bday and we decided if I got a guitar we could form a band. He stopped playing bass though. Bastard. What was your first band name and what style did you play? Never Got Lucky was my high school band, we played your typical late 90’s pop punk. We sold out every back yard we played. Tell us three albums you couldn’t live without in your collection Strung Out – Twisted By Design Pennywise – Live @ the key club Blink 182 – Dude Ranch Best piece of musical advice you’ve been given Don’t let anyone else tune your guitars. Two groups/artists you’d love to take out on the road Lamexcuse from Canberra and Lost In Line from the Gong. Favourite song of your group? Track 3 on our current EP, “A Playground For The Ill Informed” it’s a bit heavier than the rest. But some of the new ones are sounding amazing, can’t wait to start demoing them. The thing you most look forward to just before a tour is the beers The thing you least look forward to before a tour is checking my bank account when it’s all over. When you’re not doing band related stuff, what are you usually found doing? Working, football, drinking, spending time with my girlfriend. ON THE STAGE / ROAD What gear do you use? I use an ESP guitar with my Marshall JCM900. Favourite place (city/town/country) you’ve toured… and why? Melbourne/St Kilda – always fun, great people & the Espy! The best show you’ve ever played was… and why? EP launch last month. We’d been dying to play for so long, all our mates came out and loved it. Was just a really awesome night. Who hogs the stereo in the van the most? Ben, I think he has only 3 bands on his iPod – Lagwagon, nofx and the vandals After a week in the van/bus on tour which band member will have the messiest section, and what would we most likely find stashed there? No one really stands out. Generally you’ll find empty bottles of V and probably the odd empty beer around. Who in your group has the worst “bad habit” on tour, and what is it? Ben and his microslips. Most embarrassing moment on tour? It wasn’t on tour, but at our EP launch my wireless died after only a few seconds. We had this big intro and then I went to play and there was just quiet. Give us a good quick ‘on the road’ story, funny, embarrassing, memorable, whatever… Well last week when we were in Melbourne, we all went out for the day, came home to (sober) Ben, dressed as a woman. And that night our mate Peg went missing from our very dry house at 3am and returned at 4am with a case of beer, big effort. Your manager calls and says the venue you are about to play really wants to keep you happy, what’s the first thing you chuck on the rider? A few cases of VB, a bottle of jager, some quality scotch and maybe an 8 ball? RIGHT NOW What’s getting the most spins in your stereo right now? Alexisonfire. Loved them at Soundwave so I bought a few cds. Tell us a band or artist everyone should check out and why… Stand Defiant. Amazing. www.myspace.com/standdefiantband If you could change one thing about the music industry today, what would it be? People need to take more interest in the local scene. Live venues are struggling or closing down, especially in Sydney. Kids are obviously still listening to the music with internationals selling out shows all the time. There’s so much good stuff around on a local level, people just need to get out there and support it. As soon as I’ve finished answering these questions I’m about to… Go back to pretending to do work. |
