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Tackling The Black Dog With EZRA From THE WRETCHED CREATURES · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Oh I'm Ezrae from Wretched Creatures. I played guitar and see right vocals,
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  all graphic design stuff too. Um. The other guys Mike and Dave.
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  So yeah, we've been playing together for like, like over fifty years,
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  basically a couple of other projects before. So now we do like Stone a
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  Rock and Stone a Boom basically. Yeah, they we're playing at Rock Beats
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  Depression. Yeah it should be good. Pause. Yes, thanks for joining
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  us. Star three days Roth, No no worries as you say. Man.
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  The Wretched Creatures are one of many bands playing at Rock Beats Depression at
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  the Mansfield Tavern on September sixth. So firstly, what made you guys want
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  to be involved with it? Um, well, it's something that's affected my
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  life to a great extent. H. So you know, it's it's good
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  to give back to charities, create awareness and stuff. Yeah, basically had
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  anxiety depression my whole life. Basically that plus being quite introverted, makes makes
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  life a bit difficult sometimes. You know, it's a great light up bro
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  like Spearheaded by Dream Colors, Black Whiskey, Goat seel like Gutterfly tailor made
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  rejects, create plenty more way. So who you're most looking forward to sharing
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  stage with it? I really like Gutterflyer, Good Friends of Ours, Hippo
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  pretty good, saw them Nowhere Festival. Yeah, definitely looking forward to that.
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  Um for Delagogo are really awesome. We're good friends with those guys too.
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  But you know, there's a bunch of awesome bands. Dream Killers,
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  Black Whiskey, Taylor Made, Rejects are really good, jolly really good.
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  Um yeah, there's a bunch of bunch of billions. You know, as
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  much fun as the day is going to be made like, there is also
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  that more serious side, as the name rock Beats Depression suggests. So how
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  important are events like this when it comes to helping those people with mental illness
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  and the stuffer depression? Um? Yeah, it's very important. I think
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  a lot of lot's changed in the last probably ten years, especially, there's
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  a lot more awareness, there's less stigma, but there's still a long way
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  to go, you know. So you know, anything that we can do
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  I think is a positive thing. I think the best way to destroy stigma
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  is to talk about it basically. So, as you said before, made
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  like you you've gone through all this sort of stuff yourself and depression something that
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  affects a lot of people, Like it doesn't discriminate man, Like I've interviewed
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  some you know, some major international bands and they tell me that they've gone
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  through the similar sort of things before. Like a lot of people sit back
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  and look at musicians and think that, you know, they're up there on
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  stage, they're jumping around, they're having a great time, they've got to
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  be everything's got to be sweet. But in reality, it's something that doesn't
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  matter what you do in life. It's something that can get old of you
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  in it. Yeah, definitely a lot of the time you can't really you
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  can't really tell, you know, from talking to people, Like a lot
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  of effort goes into sort of pretending to be normal, you know. I
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  think that's just what society expects still, so you know, it's it's everywhere.
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  We have to be aware of it. I think. I think a
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  lot of things that people overlook too, Like it is a charity fundraiser which
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  goes to a good cause, but it's not just about raising money. It's
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  about raising awareness too, and like letting letting your mates know that you're there
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  to talk to them if they need something, or even a stranger, you
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  know, like it's it's raising that awareness. Said, I guess it's okay
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  to not be okay as the same guys. Yeah, definitely. Like I
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  said, a lot's changed, and I'm glad of the progress that's been made.
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  Like when I was at school, I didn't really know what depression or
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  anxiety it really was, you know, like it wasn't a thing. It
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  was just like I thought it was just people who have come back from like
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  war zone had anxiety. Like I thought, that's what anxiety it was.
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  I just thought everyone was the same. And it's good. Now for the
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  youngest generation, it's it's sort of it's not such a stigma anymore. Yeah,
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  it's actually like you said yourself that you suffered from these things, bro,
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  Like, how how do you get over it to get on stage?
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  Like something like me even like I look at people up on stage and I
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  know I couldn't do it, you know, like being up in front of
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  people with a microphone in your hands. But someone that suffers through those things,
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  how do you do you have to will yourself to get up there and
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  then put on a mask or um. Yeah, good question. It usually
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  usually takes like the whole day on a really strange kind kind of headspace.
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  I have to sort of mentally prepare for it. Basically, I just kind
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  of when I don't want to do something that I know is going to help
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  my mental health, I just kind of picture the black dog is like a
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  demon that I'm trying to kill basically, and I'll do things that seem painful,
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  like exercise or going up on stage is kind of stressful. I'll do
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  it with the motivation to try, you know, kill that demon. Basically,
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  That's how I'll do it. Yeah, Like, do those those feelings
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  last after you finished your set? Like do you get on stage and they
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  come straight back or do you on a bit of a bit of a high.
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  I guess, Oh yeah, it's usually get that you're for a CI
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  usually for the rest of the day basically, sometimes a few days. Yeah.
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  Yeah, it helps tremendously. I think it's the creative outlet, sort
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  of communicating ideas, melodies even. You know, that's really interesting to hear
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  because a lot of people I've spoken it spoken how it can be cathartic getting
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  up there and performing. But I've never actually asked anyone that question before,
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  so no one's ever answered it's it's it's sort of good to get that perspective
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  on things. Yeah, yeah, cool, thanks for asking. All right,
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  Right, so I suppose overall, what message do you hope people will
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  take out of the day. Um, well, I guess part of it
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  is that there's lots of awesome bands in Brisbane that we should be supporting.
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  I think you like, there's the whole mental illness then, but there's also
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  the live music scene is I think it's really struggling at the moment. So
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  you know, you can buy a ticket and help the local scene, plus
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  help these three charities you know, a Black Dog Institute, Beyond Blue and
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  Headspace. Yeah. I hope more people will get some tickets. Yeah,
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  very cool. All right, so we'll get out of the wretched creatures have
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  been now mate. So you gave us a brief introduction to start there,
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  But for those who haven't heard of you guys before, give us a been
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  a history. Um. We formed just before COVID. Actually yeah, we
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  basically started because I wanted to start another band after my last band sort of
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  broke up and physical. Originally I wanted to I wanted to just sing because
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  he's just kind of easier to sing them the stuff I was singing before,
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  which was over the place, you know what's it range and screaming and roaring
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  and stuff. So I just wanted something more chill. I tried to find
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  a guitarist, but it just didn't work out. So I just thought,
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  I'll just I'll just try and see if I can get away with playing guitar.
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  Basically sets how it started. And then I decided to recruit my ex
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  band members Mike bass and Dave on drums. Mike used to actually play guitar
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  in our previous band, so he's playing bass in this band. And this
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  is the first time I played guitar in a band. I used to just
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  sing um. But yeah, we've you know, attracted a bit of attention,
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  a bit of momentum. We're about to release our first album like this
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  year, which is pretty cool. We're pretty happy without sounds. Yeah,
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  we've got a few few videos on YouTube. Got of the names of some
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  of those songs broth, so I people, I'm going to check them out.
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  We get a video for the God's Gun, which is kind of it's
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  kind of like early Queens of the Stone Age kind of stone or rock.
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  Probably one of a better songs. I guess I've got a song called Descending,
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  Yeah, so that they will be on the album when it comes out,
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  but you can already listen to those. They're just singles we've are released.
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  Yeah. The third single we've released is Strongest and the Finest. Yeah,
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  very cool. So um Runners Runners through a typical live show from the
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  Wretched Creatures of what people can expect from you at Rock Beats Depression. Uh.
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  I think we're a lot heavier than most people are expecting. We're usually
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  really loud, especially for a three piece. A lot of people say it's
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  like a wall of sound. There's lots of fuzz, lots of thick riffs,
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  alot of hooks, pretty much all clean singing in this band. But
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  yeah, you know, we like stuff. That's that's how easy can get
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  without the metal basically is what we do. Description Yeah, good, all
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  right, thanks very much for your time that I wrote. The Wretched Creatures
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  play at Rock Beats Depression at the Mansfield Tavern on September sixteen. Tickets are
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  available now through ostis And like you say, not only is it for a
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  good cause, there's some damn fine bands made as well. So if you
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  live in Brisbane and you're not. There's something wrong with you. Yeah,
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  I reckon you have a good weekend.