Busybee
Norgdom
Perth Music
The story of Skybombers begins with the ejection of one member from his high school orchestra, as a result of some ‘Living End’ style double bass standing. The word went out, guitars were borrowed, drumkits were dusted off and re-assembled. The lads wrote songs based on those of the bands they loved, 1960’s garage pop, 1970’s rock and roll, early punk, 1990’s grunge and Britpop. Skybombers are about energy, they’re about melody, they’re about 4 A.M., they’re about being so drunk that you can’t stand still, so your only option is to dance, they’re about love. Most of all, they are about being young in the city. Everyone can relate to that. With the release of their debut album Take Me To Town on June 7th drummer Scott McMurtrie caught up with Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.
Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (10:48 - 2.5Mb)
Scott started off by telling me a brief history of the band and what the band has gone through in the last year and a half. “It probably all started when we signed to a record label. We signed to Albert Productions at the start of 2007 and since then the ball has been rolling, we’ve been given the opportunity to go overseas and play a couple of shows and record our album there. We’ve been received really well, in LA in particular and we’ve been over there four times in the last year. When we haven’t been in the States we’ve been touring our asses off in Australia, we did a Rock The Schools Tour last October and we ended up doing around 70 shows in four weeks playing seven days a week. Then at the end of last year we were given the chance to go and record our album in LA with producer Rick Parker (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sugarcult, The Dandy Warhols) for 6 weeks.”
“We had a selection of 20 songs to record and from the 6 weeks we had there we nutted it down to 12 songs and that’s what is on the album. We’ve spent the last 2 and a half months in the States touring on the same bill as this old 80’s punk band called X who are legends in the States. We did 15 thousand kilometers in 6 weeks and we played like 20 to 30 shows and we just got home last week. And then we have a couple gigs coming up over the next week. But we are young and as long as we aren’t drunk too much we are pretty good at being responsible and being on time and getting the job done” Scott continued.
I asked Scott how it was recording in LA and being out of their comfort zone to record their debut album. “It was a very interesting experience and definitely one we won’t forget. We had 6 weeks in a studio in a part of the world where we hardly have ever been to and we had no idea where we were and we were out of our depths. We were also out of our depths in the studio because with 6 weeks to record the album, the longest we had ever been in a studio before then was 3 days. We really didn’t know what to do or what to expect so it was definitely a learning experience. All in all we were amazed at how well and how smoothly the recording process went. You hear all these stories of these producers being wankers or record labels getting involved or management having their opinions but we had none of that. We had the time of our lives with Rick Parker, he was heaps of fun and a kooky kind of a guy. He gave us some really good inputs and feedback and we were really stoked at how the album turned out.”
Skybombers have built up a huge reputation in the States with their live shows so I asked Scott to explain how they treat their live shows. “We pride ourselves on our live shows, that’s the main reason we are in a band. Every show is always a really fun experience for both the band and hopefully the crowd. We don’t hold back, we aren’t pretentious wankers either, we just get up on stage and have fun and don’t stare at our feet or shoe-gaze. We try and get a good reaction from the crowd and if that works we play probably better and harder and they go crazier and dance faster. We try and have a unique relationship with the crowd and just have a really fun experience in all.”
And upcoming tours? “Shows are just getting organized now but we should be going around the country in June/July/August and then head back to the States and Japan and Europe at the end of the year hopefully. We spent a bit of time in Perth for the Schools Tour last year which included an over age gig. It was amazing, we actually had a bit of time off and we love the city. We know there are some great bands that have come out of there and it’s a really cool spot to be involved with music either as a band or as a fan.”
Take Me To Town is released today June 7. For more info on Skybombers visit www.skybombers.com
