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Come As You Are With JON O'CONNER From NIRVANA TRIBUTE · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  All right, this is John O'Connor from the band or vander Tribute, and
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  we're going to be hitting Australia next week for our tour. Beautiful John,
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  thanks for joining us, brother, Thank you for having me as pleasure.
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  All right, So the v Attribute returned to Australia for a running show,
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  starting in Adelaide on August eighteenth, before going through Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
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  at Gold Coast and finishing in Auckland on August eight ds. Mate, so
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  not far off now? You're packed and ready to go pretty much? Yeah?
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  Can at some of my buggage here in the room? Yeah, I've
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  been. I've been packing for the last couple of days. You're overad that
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  often about you. You should just hand like an Australian suitcase set aside,
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  so just pick it up and go whenever you come back here. Dude,
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  I should have a lapper over there somewhere. Right. You're going to be
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  playing in usual in fullest part of the album's thirty than aniversary celebrations. Isn't
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  that right now? Yeah? We are. We're going to mix things up
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  a little bit though and keep everybody guessing. So we're not going to do
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  it in track order, because that will get boring pretty quickly when you know
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  what's coming next, and you've always got that I don't really like that song
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  as much, so you're going to skip away to the bar or do whatever
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  you're gonna do. But you won't have the opportunity to do that with us,
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  because we're going to keep you guessing. Great good So, but but
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  you've had to learn in you to write the whole album then, bro,
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  So how hard was it actually learned that from the back? Like I couldn't
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  imagine when it was written that they would have played on every song being played
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  live one day. Some of the songs are a little harder to play live,
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  like Milk. It is a bit strange because the timing is a little
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  bit funny, I guess, And you know that that song can fall apart
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  pretty quickly. But um, but I mean, I've been playing that album
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  since I was a kid. Yeah, you know, it's one of their
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  greatest albums. It's an absolute classic, it is. Yeah, And I
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  suppose I got the other start on the coin too, Like it gives you
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  guys a chance to explore some different materials too, Like you're not just playing
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  what everyone wants to be, because, like you said, that was a
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  great album, but you played too many songs off it, and people just
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  to go back to the start. But you guys a bit a bit of
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  your Yeah, we like to mix things up a bit, So you'll certainly
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  hear in Utro in full, but you will hear it with a smattering of
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  other classics and B sides. I mean even we've even pulled in a B
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  side from in Utro into this. Okay, I'm setless, so I'm not
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  going to tell you what that is. But so one of those songs that
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  everybody keeps requesting the whole time, and it's just I didn't know why we
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  weren't playing it. Um. So, yeah, I've definitely been working on
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  some new stuff for this tour. So what is some of your memories of
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  your uter when it first came out? My like, were you a fan
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  of AO about that? I was a huge fan of back then. I'd
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  been I'd been honest before nine, I guess, like passing around cassettes of
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  Peach. But by the time in Utro came out, I was immersed in
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  that culture and that music heavily, so I loved the album. But I
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  do remember or at the time the critics weren't so favorable of him. But
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  here we are thirty years later and it's you know, it's it's revered as
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  one of their classic albums, isn't it. There's a bit of a history
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  made on how you came to be fronting the Nevada Bandmail like something you always
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  want to do? Have you always been in tribute bands? Falling your lot
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  like that happened? Well, I was going to start this up in like
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  two thousand and nine. I had an idea that I started watching other tribute
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  bands and what they were doing. I didn't see anybody doing Nirvana internationally,
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  like I saw that there was a band out there at the time. I
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  don't know if they even exists anymore, but there was a tribute band out
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  there at the time that did. They did like America, and they'd go
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  to like, you know, some of like most American states, and then
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  they'd go to Hawaii and stuff. But they weren't really traveling traveling. And
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  I just thought like, well, this is something that could be totally national,
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  something that could be take wide. And I thought that if if people
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  are what I have offer, you know, if I could good enough back
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  together. I think that maybe it's the chance to take off. But here
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  we are thirty four hundrees later. You know, it's insane, right it
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  did. So even like I, um, are you a cold combining tragic?
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  I guess quite like you? Do you study him? Do you read
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  these books and stuff like that too, or do you just like his music?
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  No? I mean maybe when I was a kid, I would have
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  read books and stuff that came out at the time, because like my interest
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  was really high, you know, but I was reading. I was reading
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  everything at the time. I was reading books on Aussie and I was reading
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  books on like stuff within the grunge as well with grunge genre as well,
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  like Allison Chains or Stone type of Pilots kind of stuff. Anything I could
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  get my hands on. But you do that when you're a kid, I
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  guess you. We were reaching out for every facet of information. And this
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  isn't the time before the internet, as you'll remember, so like you know,
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  we were we were going to the music stands. Do you remember that
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  We're going to the magazine and you are, brother, It was a great
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  time. I remember going and standing in like a store and waiting, you
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  know, to see it. Was that magazine that that I saw on the
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  back cover last week? Were they going to have it this week? Because
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  like, oh, you are waiting for stories LEAs same were albums and stuff.
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  Everything is tips, it's right there streaming and online. Yeah, sort
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  of mist sized eyes a little bit, like like you get that anticipation you
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  used to have, like dow un to the shop and like I say,
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  like wondering if it's going to be there a lot now that as you just
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  sit there and click your fingersn't get what you want. It's like it's it's
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  not the same. Absolutely, yeah, it's not the same. I like
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  having it in my hand. It's not I mean album artwork when you when
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  you pick up a record and you are a CD and you you flick through
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  the book or you flick through the album artwork. I mean there's no Spotify
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  or streaming service in the world that can replace that. Opening the plastic of
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  a new vinyl and smelling, you know, like finding out what the words
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  actually are as opposed to what you thought they were. Old were you bro?
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  When you when you played and sung your first Divana song and what was
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  it? Wow? Um, well I was about I guess I was about
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  eight years old when I picked up the guitar for the first time. So
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  I was trying to play like about a Girl and stuff like that. That
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  would have been like the simplest possible thing, And I think About a Girl
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  was the first track that I ever played. I was kind of in and
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  out with the guitar for a couple of weeks or a couple of months.
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  At that point, I think never mind came out and it was just if
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  I was gonna learn the guitar. Now I'm definitely gonna learn the guitar,
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  you know. So I remember sitting down playing trying to play something in the
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  way. There was a clip i'd scene of Kurt tuning as guitar on something,
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  and I figured out how to get drop D tuning from that, and
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  my brain put it together that this is what he's must be doing here,
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  you know, I remember that quite clearly. So, yeah, I have
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  never thank for a lot, because if it wasn't for them, I don't
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  think I'd be doing what I'm doing today. You know, I've been playing
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  music like twenty six years on stages, which is which is crazy. Since
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  I was a building fourteen fifteen years old playing in biker bars and stuff like
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  that when I was about fifteen years old, and that was all from Nirvana.
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  It's just all because I wanted to get out and experience that, you
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  know, experienced a live concert. Here. We are mostly blessed in a
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  way to you that you're sort of born looking a bit like Kurt Cobain like
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  imentually, if you're born looking like no Gallaghamy, you'd be doing my waysis
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  tribute. I'm not gonna say anything bad, but let's move on them showing
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  So last time to tomp Penny, got a bit of a Tom Penny about
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  your man, But I I don't think you look the same as it was
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  in its what you do on stage? Now, remember a little bit chut
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  before made and you tell me that you've got a tople of new band members
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  from when you were out here last time by introduces to them. Yeah,
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  so we've got on bass. We've got Marcus Hunter, a great guy.
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  I've been working with him now for a couple of years and yeah, he
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  really brings it on stage. He has the complete Chris Nobcelic presence, from
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  from his mannerisms to his bass to his playing style. He's great. He's
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  a great guy too. And I've got Brad Radcliffe on drums behind me now,
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  Brad Radcliffe from the band Profiler, which I believe you know, and
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  they're making some waves now at the moment, so check out the band Profiler.
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  They've got a new single, THEO at the Moment, which the name
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  of escapes me entirely. So I apologize, Brad, but go check out
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  that single on YouTube. I've edit that in liner on Mica Spider look good
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  to worry about it. One thing and I'd have spent you guys earing out
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  of your last time mate, is that you play some live versions of tracks
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  and some studio versions of him, Like how do you choose which version of
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  the song you're going to do when you play? Yeah, that can be
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  a bit strange. I mean it's some of those classic live performances, and
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  some of those have these little changes to some of the songs. I guess
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  that we try to incorporate live and some things we tried to play it very
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  true to the studio. You know we're trying to do. I'm trying to
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  get like my sounds as close as possible sometimes to like say the never mind
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  tone. I'm using them like a DS two for that or a DS one
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  modify DS one and I am. I have a sound sample then that I
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  use for the usual stuff, and it kind of alternates throughout the show.
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  But I'm trying to We're trying to We're trying to nail things as close as
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  possible to the record sometimes but not always the case. Sometimes I'm trying to
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  create that chaos that they had in their sound and stuff on stage as well.
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  You know, you could believe Ravana. I'd just say it's probably about
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  three three songs that you did the live versions of because that that big panser
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  and that bit Edgier and never one say well yeah, because yeah, thank
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  you very much. Right right. So I'm sure you're used to this might
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  because you can get it all over the world. But there's got to be
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  some people out there that say, I'm not going to go and say a
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  tribute band, I'm not interested. But what would you side to those people
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  to make him come along and check out in the vanas tribute Just come down
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  and check it out, because I think you woke away surprised. I've never
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  met anybody that after a show that didn't leave with a smile on the face.
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  And didn't have a good time. And you know, I've met many
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  a person that said to me, you know, I don't like tribute bands
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  as a whole, and especially I'm the Nirvana fan, so this to me
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  was like sacrilegious. But then they're like, what I heard the show when
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  I watched the show, and it's like, you took me back. No,
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  it's when I hear that, especially from somebody that was there to remember
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  it, or somebody that was at Nirvana show. I get that a lot
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  where people that were at Nirvana shows come up to me and say that was
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  it. You know, you got as close as you could get. To
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  me, that means the world. So if you're a tractor or a hail
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  and you think that you know, we can't possibly do it, just this,
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  give us the benefit of the doubt. Come down and see the show.
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  And if you're truly truly unhappy, okay, I'll hold my hands up.
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  I can't convert you, but come down and check this out, because
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  you know, never judge it up by its cover. You've got to see
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  it before you can judge it. That's right, might very well answered,
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  and I'll jump in here. And so I got started bringing the shows last
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  time. And I'm not a massive Divana fan, but you guys put on
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  a great entertaining show. So one may I've earned and the real Bend didn't
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  win you and you guys did, so that's a good endorsement, Matte,
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  Thank you very much, Thank you so much. All right, well that's
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  so good for you. I'm silver backchuring and bringing out the Divana tribute saying
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  get your tickets through siver Back then all the socials and I'll come along with
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  the bridge with an adal to show mate and have a beer and catch upp
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  Yes, no problem, looking forward to it, all right, brother that
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  you take care mate, all right, you take care to I'll see you there.