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

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  So John O'Connor from Nirvana Tribute and we're coming back to Australia but also visiting
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  New Zealand this run. So we're coming on Friday, the twenty sixth of
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  July. We're coming to Taranga to Torres Street. The twenty ninth were in
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  Oakland in Galatas thirty first of July. We're in Newcastle in Australia at King
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  Street. The first were in August in Sydney at Manning Bar. Second of
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  August, we're in Melbourne at the SB. Third of August, we're in
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  Hobart at Unipar. Seventh of August, we're in Geelong at Barwan Club,
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  the ninth of August on the Gold Coast at Cooling Gata Hotel. And the
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  tenth of August in Brisbane at Princess Theater. You did well, you did
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  really well until you got to Geelong. It's Geelong. You did really well.
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  I'm gonna choose you right. We couldn't sell that you were inn't it?
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  How are you rather good to talk to you again? I'm doing very
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  well. How are you very well? Rather very well? Off to Japan
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  in a couple of days actually, So I'm trying to cram as much in
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  as before I go, but I'll be back in time for your show,
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  which is a good thing. Yeah, I look forward to seeing you there,
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  man. Yeah, it'd be good to catch up again, Bro,
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  it'd be good. Now, this might be your first time in New Zealand,
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  but it's your fourth time coming to Australia, mate, Like, what
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  is it about the place? You must have a decent demand here to keep
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  coming back. Yeah, yeah, I mean like the people seem to like
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  us there, so I mean we'll always go back. We'll always go back,
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  and we love it as well, you know. I think my first
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  visits to Australia, I was just completely blown away. So and just the
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  hospitality of the people and stuff there as well. Man, So you can't
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  beat it. And that's a trigger band. It's going to be good too,
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  because Australians are honest as fuck, Like, if you were a shit,
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  they would have told you the first time he came out that you were
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  a ship. But the fact they keep coming the shows, that's probably the
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  best endorsement you could ever get. Yes, yeah, I think so.
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  I think we would have known that that they weren't happy, but no,
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  they made us feel right at home on that very first trip, so I'm
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  sure the fourth one will be just the same. Wait, and you're visiting
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  New Zealand for the very first time, mate, So for the benefit of
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  people over there, what can I expect to show it? I look,
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  there's there's so many acts getting around that that are very average that it takes
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  a gloss off the ones that are good. So but tell them, tell
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  them what to expect from you, guys, because he's off at the moment,
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  like there's some sort of an oversaturation almost at the marka but like kind
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  of substandard Nirvana tribute bands and stuff like that. But I mean, this
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  is the one to come and see. You know, this is the one
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  to come and see if you want to see some like genuine, a genuine
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  Nirvana performance and go home feeling like you've been at in Nirvana show. This
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  is the one that you need to see. Plus we bring a little bit
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  of chaos with us as well, so that always helps. Done that,
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  and you're it's gonna be headlining the Lound the Love Runham Shows, which features
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  very o the Pole Jam experience, plus a tribute to Sound God and and
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  Alison Chain. Have you pled to there any other guys before, and I
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  actually haven't, but I'm really looking forward to. I've been like I've been
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  watching their videos and stuff and like it's it's amazing. It's going to be
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  great to share the stage with these guys. You know. I think it's
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  like, what a great opportunity for people as well to come out and you
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  know, you get the classics, all of these classic bands all on like
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  one night. I mean, you couldn't really ask for more as a grunge
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  fan or as a as a music fan in general. I think, like
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  what more could you ask for? Really? Like you get the big the
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  Big four as they say, the Big four grand Man. Yeah, it's
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  a hell of a lot of grunts for one day. Though, bright like
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  it's it's sort of grundt is starting to come back I record, Like is
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  that something? Because you travel the world doing this, so can you see
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  that around the world? Did the grounds throws coming back up? Again?
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  Yeah? Absolutely? I Mean, like the one thing I always say that
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  I love to see and I noticed it all the time is like you see
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  these generations like if a family, so you'll see like a young kid and
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  he'll be with his dad, but he's with his dad, you know.
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  So you've got like the three generations there, which is like a fantastic thing.
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  And it seems to just that it's building more momentum now. I mean
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  everywhere you go you see in Nirvana t shirt like I'm young and old and
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  like, you know, it's amazing. So I think, yeah, it's
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  somehow it's like even gaining more momentum. It's like the it's like the little
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  train that could and it'll never die kind of thing, you know, very
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  good. Think about where Nirvana came from, dude. I mean, Nirvana
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  came from like sweaty gymnasiums with nobody there, you know, playing to a
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  handful of people to play in like some of the largest auditoriums in the world,
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  with people clamoring to get into these sold out shows. So you know
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  what I mean, Like the momentum that Nirvana built, and then with Kurt's
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  passing, it only seemed to strengthen it. You know it. He became
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  almost like this basic character totally man. And it's like that and people do
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  understand, I think, like it's not they're not worshiping this guy like a
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  in an odd way, they understand that like, out of all the people
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  we've had over the last thirty forty years, he was like one of the
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  most genuine, you know, and he had a good heart and he you
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  know, he had good things to say. I had a good message to
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  deliver, and I think that message is still finding its way to like the
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  generations that are coming up now today. Yeah, I was gonna ask a
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  bit more about Kurt later on, but since he brought it up, we'll
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  skip to that bit now. But like it's nott a touch ont of it.
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  What they didn't put out a heap of albums. You know, they
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  weren't massively famous for a long time, but then they were like what is
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  it about their music? You think that Birstley struck according in the first place,
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  but now, like a lot of it's because Curt's gone. People sort
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  of love the nostalgia, but it's still something about the music that makes it
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  connected. Very few bands have ever managed to do before, Like what about
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  you think it is? I think it's that sort of raw energy, but
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  there's like I don't know, there's like in songs like something in the way
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  and that you can you can hear that that the man's soul is kind of
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  in that song or you know what I mean. You like, there's something
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  there's something quite kind of captivating about Kurt's voice and about Kurd's presence and his
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  way of writing, Like you know, it drew a lot of people in
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  and stuff, so I mean you could say a lot, right. It's
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  the the soft heavy kind of thing people like that and the pop pop punky
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  kind of like melodies and stuff like that. But I think kind of like
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  most people are drawn to even if you can't don't understand the lyrics, Like
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  I mean, there's there's there's people that follow us and follow like you know,
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  from from Malaysia and places like that and Indonesia, and like I've had
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  like some of those people reach out to us and they don't understand some of
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  the lyrics and stuff like that either, but they're drawn in by Kurt's presence,
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  Like his soul is almost two worn on the outside, you know what
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  I mean. And I think, yeah, people kind of see that you
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  can see a genuine you can see somebody's genuine character, you know, if
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  somebody is real or not. You know, it's like why we we looked
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  at like people like John Lennon in the same way, you know what I
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  mean, And you just you can you can tell when somebody wears their kind
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  of soul almost as like a suit of armor. So yeah, this one's
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  going to put you on the spot, BROB. Sorry, But what resonates
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  more with you personally? The men or the music? That's a good question.
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  I think the man because like his views and his his morals and stuff
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  like that, or something that a lot of people could learn from, you
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  know, having respect for women and treating people fairly and don't look down on
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  others kind of thing, you know, and never really be above your station,
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  you know, kind of never realize kind of you know, everybody is
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  the same, dude. It doesn't make a difference if you've got a million
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  pounds in the bank or a million dollars in the bank or whatever, and
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  you know, you're no different from the guy that's like begging for change down
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  the street. You know. I think her kind of realized that as well,
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  Like that's why he shopped out at thrift stores and he wouldn't buy a
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  brand new car. He drove a beat up old four by four right up
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  until his last days. You know, it's like you know, you just
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  yeah, he had good morals. He was a good man, you know,
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  a good a good human being. And I think, yeah, a
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  lot of people can learn from that, especially in today's day and age.
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  Tell me about it. You've been there this for anover years now, Brown,
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  You're pretty much live in brave put when you when you're out during the
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  shows. As you do it for longer, does it become harder to disassociate
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  yourself from that Besona offstage? No, not really. I mean, look,
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  people are really surprised normally when they meet me right and they don't like
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  I don't mean meet me after the show, when I've gotten offstage or taking
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  a picture or signing things or whatever. I mean, like if somebody sees
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  me on the street, right and they're like, oh, we're coming to
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  the show later, they're meeting like me in a suit. I know,
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  I'm ninety percent of the time I wear a suit, and you know I
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  look like a totally different guy, right, and like, yeah, I
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  have Yeah, I don't live my life as Karl Cobaine, you know what
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  I mean. I don't. I don't do the things he used to do.
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  You know, I have no no desire to do that. Like I'm
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  I'm fortunate doing what I do and the and sruttly that doesn't escape me.
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  And when I'm standing in places where I know he stood and on stages and
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  places where I know he's been, that doesn't escape me either, you know
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  what I mean. I relate every single moment of that, But no meet
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  me and me and him are two completely different people. And I do hope
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  people understand that that when I go on stage, I kind of shut the
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  door on John O'Connor for an hour and a half or an hour and forty
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  five minutes, and I try to I try to portray like everything about that
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  man on the stage that meant something to me, and I try to deliver
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  a performance that makes people that watch it think, like, you know,
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  I want them to feel like they're kind of there, you know. I
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  want them to feel for that hour and a half like a suspension of belief,
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  kind of like a pro wrestling thing. You know, you got to
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  suspend your belief for that hour and a half. But if you do,
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  when you come on that ride with us, man, it can be special,
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  you know. And I've seen some I've seen some special reactions out of
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  people, So yeah, I bet now Britain. The press really says that
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  you guys meticulously recreate every element of a Divana performance. Run us through about
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  that in towns is do you watch videos and study them? Do you listen
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  to music? How do you how do you recreate it? It is it
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  just a field thing it is now? I guess yeah. I mean like
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  I grew up, like you know, like we've we've had this conversation before.
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  I grew up in Nirvana as a kid, you know, and I
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  felt like it. It helped me so much in my life. It really
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  did, you know, like that band and Kurt just like I really didn't.
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  It hit at just the right time in my life where I needed most.
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  And at that time, I was engrossed, and you can imagine I
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  was watching everything. We were tape trading because we had no internet back then,
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  so we're tape trading and we're trying to get like a view of them
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  any way we can magazines, every performance they did on TV or whatever,
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  trying to get like whatever bootleg stuff we could, and it just sort of
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  embedded itself, I guess. You know, his movements and the way he
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  would act on stage, and you know, he was so really with himself
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  and stuff like that as well. So I think it's just yeah, it
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  just ingrained itself and we embedded itself for me so that I just lay all
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  of that like muscle memory to kind of spill out when I walk on the
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  stage. So yeah, I suffer for it afterwards, though. I bet
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  you did that. You put a lot into it, especially at the age
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  of hit now you know. So have you still got the same band is
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  what you came out with last time? No? No, no, I've
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  got completely different guys with me. Yeah, I've got two great guys with
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  me now. I've got ADM Brad with me and their boat like powerhouses,
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  man, and then their boats are such nice guys as well, and like
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  so the guys that will with me the last time I've gone off to do
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  their own thing. Mayano, he moved back to Spain, brought a little
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  apartment for himself out there, and he's brand out there now full time and
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  he's having a great life. And I couldn't be happy for the guy.
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  He's like, I wish him all the best. Loved that guy and the
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  same with Ali, love him too. He was my best man at my
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  wedding because oh wow, that's awesome. We haven't got to see each other
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  in a while as well, but we will. We'll still link up and
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  we'll always be like the best, like you know, with each other.
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  So, but Ali's doing is it the Copycat Killers? Yeah, he's doing
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  that in a couple of other things now he's still in the tribute world,
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  but he's ventured into pop and stuff like that now. So but wish him
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  all the best. But yeah, the two guys now edit Brad, they're
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  solid, solid guys and and they really deliver a performance on stage, really
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  deliver a performance on stage, Like Brad Strumman has to be kind of seen
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  to be believed really, So like, yeah, the guy's an animal.
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  Literally, not for me, John Will. Thanks for you, Tom,
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  I've always a pleasure to speaking with you. Mind the Nevada Tribute Bend.
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  The tour in New Zealand starts on the twenty sixth of July. There's two
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  shows that it is trying to hit pretty much everywhere. So where can people
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  find out more about the tour and get tickets? You can go to Sarvana
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  Tribute dot net or go to October Presents dot com and you'll get all your
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  tickets and information there, and just keep an eye on our page as well
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  on Nirvana Tribute on Facebook and you'll get all your info