Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Punching Above Your Weight With JASON WHALLEY From FRENZAL RHOMB
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello, heavy people, It's Jay here from the Friends of
- 0:03Speaker 1: Wrong band and apparently we're playing at the Froth and
- 0:09Speaker 1: or Fury Festival, which I think is happening in Perth
- 0:14Speaker 1: and Adelaide, So you can stop winging.
- 0:18Speaker 2: Nice. You've done your homework too, mate. You've got both
- 0:20Speaker 2: venues right congratulations?
- 0:22Speaker 3: Yeah, man, so you are.
- 0:25Speaker 4: Actually correct and Friends are rom have just been announced
- 0:28Speaker 4: as part of Froth and Fury twenty twenty six, which
- 0:31Speaker 4: is in Perth on January twenty fourth.
- 0:33Speaker 2: And Adelaide on the thirty first.
- 0:34Speaker 4: So there's been a bit of debate over this already, mate,
- 0:37Speaker 4: But to set the records straight, are you representing the
- 0:39Speaker 4: Froth for the Fury?
- 0:42Speaker 1: Oh listen, we're a big froth band.
- 0:45Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 0:46Speaker 1: There's not a lot of fury going on in our
- 0:48Speaker 1: world these days, but still a lot of froth.
- 0:53Speaker 2: You never have too much broth, can you? No?
- 0:55Speaker 3: You can.
- 1:00Speaker 4: Tasting line up, bro there's Polaris Sulfline now by Minheart's
- 1:03Speaker 4: wait come back kid and heap some more. But it's
- 1:05Speaker 4: Lucky Lagwig and the playing too, So you guys have
- 1:07Speaker 4: got someone else to talk to.
- 1:10Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:10Speaker 1: Well, I mean I'm looking forward to being the least
- 1:13Speaker 1: heavy band on the entire lineup. You know, I think
- 1:17Speaker 1: it'll be some pleasant relief for people to hear some
- 1:20Speaker 1: nice three part Harmony's a bit of Linda Ronstat, you know,
- 1:25Speaker 1: a bit of the Eagles.
- 1:26Speaker 3: Maybe.
- 1:28Speaker 4: I don't think I've ever asked you this before, Brad,
- 1:30Speaker 4: But do you actually like heavy music?
- 1:33Speaker 3: Oh? God, I don't like any music. No, I do,
- 1:36Speaker 3: I do, I do like, I do like some heavy music.
- 1:40Speaker 1: I feel like when I'm being sort of screamed at
- 1:44Speaker 1: for longer than probably fifteen minutes, then I start getting
- 1:48Speaker 1: the shits.
- 1:49Speaker 3: But those fifteen minutes are good.
- 1:53Speaker 2: Fucking got a bit bigger than mine.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Bro, When I can't understand one lyric for you know,
- 2:01Speaker 1: ten to fifteen minutes, and I'm like, don't make me
- 2:05Speaker 1: look at the internet to find out what you're saying.
- 2:08Speaker 1: I'm just going to assume that you're not a Nazi.
- 2:11Speaker 1: But who knows.
- 2:14Speaker 2: Gordy'll be right at home. He loves his heavy stuff,
- 2:16Speaker 2: don't he.
- 2:17Speaker 3: He sure does.
- 2:19Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he's an enigma now, Gordy, because you know,
- 2:22Speaker 1: he loves he loves the Beatles, and you know, a
- 2:26Speaker 1: lot of a lot of seventies pop rock, you know,
- 2:33Speaker 1: Air supply. He loves air supply, but no, he does
- 2:38Speaker 1: also love his heavy music. You know, he plays in
- 2:40Speaker 1: that band of mind Snares. You know, they love screaming
- 2:46Speaker 1: at you.
- 2:49Speaker 4: From what I want to know, Bro, is like, do
- 2:50Speaker 4: you think Friends Will got the invite for your music
- 2:52Speaker 4: or you've got a more for your charm and good looks?
- 2:55Speaker 1: Oh well, I mean it'd have to be charm. But yeah, look,
- 3:02Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean I feel like our Friends
- 3:04Speaker 1: Will always had this bit of a weird crossover with
- 3:07Speaker 1: with metal fans. There's always there's always a couple lurking
- 3:12Speaker 1: around just you know, disappointed after every show there's no
- 3:18Speaker 1: blast beats, but I mean Gord, he slips them in
- 3:20Speaker 1: every now and then. No, I think it's like when
- 3:23Speaker 1: we played a few years ago, we played that Download
- 3:26Speaker 1: Festival and it went across really well, you know from
- 3:32Speaker 1: my point of view.
- 3:33Speaker 3: I mean, we did play war Pigs.
- 3:34Speaker 2: But and you did it quite well too. Actually I was.
- 3:39Speaker 3: But you know, there's probably something for everyone in a
- 3:43Speaker 3: Friends of One set.
- 3:45Speaker 4: You could always play Dinosaurs twy four hundred and sixty
- 3:47Speaker 4: eight times.
- 3:48Speaker 3: Yes, we could.
- 3:50Speaker 1: Actually we've been playing that twice in our set because
- 3:54Speaker 1: for some reason, I can't really nail it the first time,
- 3:58Speaker 1: and so we do a slower version and when when
- 4:00Speaker 1: I was filling in the opera form, so I was like, yeah, no,
- 4:04Speaker 1: we played that twice when it goes for four and
- 4:09Speaker 1: a half seconds.
- 4:10Speaker 3: But you know, getting.
- 4:12Speaker 4: Paid apparently, as you said before, man, you're currently about
- 4:17Speaker 4: halfway through the Man's Still Not a Camel tour, which
- 4:19Speaker 4: celebrates roughly twenty five years of that great album. So
- 4:23Speaker 4: how's it to be going, brain Like, it looks like
- 4:24Speaker 4: you're selling a few shows out.
- 4:27Speaker 1: Yeah, man, people love it. It's one of those things
- 4:30Speaker 1: I think I was talking to you about it. How
- 4:32Speaker 1: you know, really, from from our point of view, there's
- 4:36Speaker 1: probably four good songs on that record, and we play
- 4:39Speaker 1: those four songs every single time we play. But then,
- 4:43Speaker 1: you know, as soon as we sort of say, oh,
- 4:44Speaker 1: we're celebrating the album, everyone's like, oh shit, Chair and
- 4:47Speaker 1: the couple, and then they then they also realize that
- 4:50Speaker 1: there's only four good songs on it. But now I've
- 4:53Speaker 1: been playing some deep cuts off. It's been pretty fun,
- 4:56Speaker 1: and yeah, it's just good to you know, up with
- 5:00Speaker 1: everyone and playing doing the regional tours. Fantastic, you know,
- 5:04Speaker 1: going to all these all these towns and yeah, catching
- 5:08Speaker 1: up with people we don't see very often, and all
- 5:10Speaker 1: that jazz.
- 5:11Speaker 3: It's good.
- 5:12Speaker 4: And I've got to ask you, bro, because you're you're
- 5:15Speaker 4: a rightfully confident sort of chapte, but you guys actually bluster.
- 5:19Speaker 3: On the on the inside of an anxious wreck.
- 5:22Speaker 2: Well I'm talking outside, Jason.
- 5:24Speaker 4: Yeah, it is actually surprising that you are still selling
- 5:28Speaker 4: our shows this far into it.
- 5:31Speaker 1: I am there's no no person on the planet more
- 5:34Speaker 1: surprised than myself.
- 5:37Speaker 3: It's no, it's good.
- 5:38Speaker 1: I mean, it took me a while to realize that,
- 5:41Speaker 1: you know, those songs have some meaning for people in
- 5:44Speaker 1: different times of their lives, and you know, sometimes they
- 5:47Speaker 1: might have been struggling, or you know that they might
- 5:50Speaker 1: remember those times as like having a you know, kind
- 5:54Speaker 1: of as a pivotal moment in their lives, and so
- 5:57Speaker 1: that that, you know, a lot of these songs were
- 5:58Speaker 1: sort of their soundtrack.
- 6:00Speaker 3: And you know, I used to give me the shits,
- 6:02Speaker 3: but now I quite like it.
- 6:05Speaker 4: You every actually had someone come up to you and
- 6:07Speaker 4: say that they gave up smoking because of I'm hissed
- 6:09Speaker 4: my luck.
- 6:11Speaker 1: I have not, although there is a lot of people
- 6:14Speaker 1: that think that I've only got one lung as a
- 6:16Speaker 1: result of that song.
- 6:17Speaker 2: But can you perpetuate that mint?
- 6:22Speaker 1: Well, I try not to, but you know, people make
- 6:26Speaker 1: up their own history. Actually, someone the other day called
- 6:28Speaker 1: me Cones Santa because like every single person, I like,
- 6:33Speaker 1: there's too many people that think they've had cones with me.
- 6:35Speaker 3: But I can't be everywhere at once.
- 6:38Speaker 1: You're like that magic man, like, yeah, we had cones
- 6:44Speaker 1: in the Budgy Boy car park in ninety six.
- 6:46Speaker 3: Like I don't know that happened.
- 6:48Speaker 2: I did sing a song about it once, but I
- 6:50Speaker 2: didn't have good to see.
- 6:54Speaker 4: You guys are pushing yourself too hard either, Like you
- 6:57Speaker 4: sit in August out then you're doing four shows in
- 6:59Speaker 4: your step Chamber to in early October to white things up?
- 7:02Speaker 2: Like is that because the body doesn't sort of bounce
- 7:04Speaker 2: back because he used.
- 7:07Speaker 1: No, Well, we we we've been.
- 7:10Speaker 3: Going pretty hard up until now.
- 7:11Speaker 1: Then God he's having God he's having couple tunnel surgery
- 7:15Speaker 1: on his arm, and so yeah, we got six weeks off.
- 7:19Speaker 1: But I'm actually touring with my other band, the Neptune
- 7:22Speaker 1: Power Federation in this little break. So haven't actually stopped
- 7:28Speaker 1: you coming up to Brisbane.
- 7:29Speaker 3: With that sure.
- 7:32Speaker 1: Playing the playing the zoo of the Crowba the.
- 7:38Speaker 4: Cob had actually seen that band yet, so I shall
- 7:42Speaker 4: I'll come be un to say. Yeah man, yeah, now
- 7:46Speaker 4: I also noticed too, bro if you found time for
- 7:48Speaker 4: a sneaky trip avery Q back for the red Bridge Festival.
- 7:54Speaker 3: It was fantastic.
- 7:55Speaker 1: I mean it was we're only there for four days
- 7:57Speaker 1: or something, as it was kind enough to kind of
- 8:02Speaker 1: bring us all over there.
- 8:03Speaker 3: But yeah, it was funny.
- 8:05Speaker 1: I think the rooting of the tour was like it
- 8:09Speaker 1: was like Caloundra, Montreal, Ladulla or something like that.
- 8:16Speaker 3: But but yeah, it was fantastic.
- 8:17Speaker 1: Yeah, we did our own, our own show in Montreal,
- 8:21Speaker 1: did the festival.
- 8:22Speaker 3: It was great.
- 8:22Speaker 1: It was like Propagandy and a bunch of bands and
- 8:26Speaker 1: then yeah, we did our own show in Montreal and
- 8:29Speaker 1: it was great because like everyone, we never go there,
- 8:31Speaker 1: so everyone sort of travels from all over to come
- 8:35Speaker 1: and see us, and yeah, I had kids coming up
- 8:38Speaker 1: from New York and Boston and Baltimore and flight over
- 8:41Speaker 1: from Vancouver and whatnot, and yeah it was cool.
- 8:45Speaker 4: Yeah, how do you go overseas, probably, like many people
- 8:49Speaker 4: actually get your sense of huma or you get a
- 8:50Speaker 4: lot of blank faces looking back at you.
- 8:53Speaker 1: I mean, Quebec was particularly difficult because they all speak
- 8:57Speaker 1: French and I don't. So we're just sort of going
- 9:01Speaker 1: about our regular banter to a fair few blank faces.
- 9:07Speaker 3: But then yeah, we may as you get through it.
- 9:10Speaker 1: I think, you know, we're probably one of the few
- 9:13Speaker 1: countries around the world that just belligerently only speaks one language.
- 9:18Speaker 1: So those people sort of pick up a little bit
- 9:21Speaker 1: of English, and I mean, even if they're just hearing
- 9:23Speaker 1: us just banging on, it's you know, I mean, I
- 9:28Speaker 1: think it's entertaining and that's the main thing.
- 9:30Speaker 2: But the hole of Quebec is now saying the word can't.
- 9:33Speaker 3: Are they probably? Yeah, yeah, I did a.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Quick tell you bro, and you guys have got the
- 9:40Speaker 2: next five years Sword of f anniversary chores. You've got.
- 9:43Speaker 4: Next year's going to be the twentieth anniversary Forever Malcolm
- 9:46Speaker 4: Young year half is a tenth anniversary of High vis It.
- 9:49Speaker 4: Following years, the twenty fifth anniversary San Suci twenty fifth
- 9:52Speaker 4: anniversary for the term of their unnatural lives, and then
- 9:54Speaker 4: twenty thirty is going to be the thirtieth anniversary. I'll
- 9:57Speaker 4: shut your mouth and I stopped looking after that because
- 9:59Speaker 4: it was all four in the place a little too easily.
- 10:01Speaker 1: Yeah, but what you're what you're forgetting is that you
- 10:03Speaker 1: can shrink the years and you go, oh, let's do
- 10:06Speaker 1: the seventeenth anniversary of Smoke Out the Pet Food Factory.
- 10:10Speaker 2: You've got to wrap up.
- 10:12Speaker 1: We've gotta wrapped up. Yes, San SUSI will be a
- 10:14Speaker 1: good one. We probably won't tour for shut your mouth
- 10:18Speaker 1: out of respect to our fans, but but yes, we
- 10:24Speaker 1: do that. I mean, we're also keen to write another record.
- 10:28Speaker 1: We've been looking at the notes up, which is where
- 10:31Speaker 1: all good friends of rooms start from. So we've got
- 10:35Speaker 1: some ideas brewing and just sort of starting writing at
- 10:38Speaker 1: the moment for the new new record, and then we'll
- 10:42Speaker 1: do the twentieth year anniversary of that when we're eighty.
- 10:46Speaker 4: You have been doing this for a long time now, bro, Like,
- 10:48Speaker 4: does it get easier or harder to come up with
- 10:50Speaker 4: fresh sounded new music by the more albums?
- 10:52Speaker 1: You're right, I mean, thank you for referring to our
- 10:55Speaker 1: new music as fresh sounding. But yeah, it's actually it's
- 11:01Speaker 1: easy to come up with songs, but it's hard to
- 11:02Speaker 1: come up with good songs. So and That's that's why
- 11:06Speaker 1: we always write so many songs for each record, because
- 11:10Speaker 1: a lot of them you should never see the light
- 11:13Speaker 1: of day.
- 11:15Speaker 2: I reckon, I reckon two or three of them woul
- 11:17Speaker 2: probably be all right.
- 11:19Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, we usually have a hit ratio of one
- 11:22Speaker 1: to ten. So there's nine songs. There's nine nine songs
- 11:26Speaker 1: for everyone that no one will ever hear. But yeah,
- 11:31Speaker 1: it's seems to work.
- 11:35Speaker 4: I'll like to try to come up with some fun
- 11:37Speaker 4: facts every time I speak to you, bro, and I've
- 11:39Speaker 4: got another one to throw at you, like I could
- 11:41Speaker 4: be wrong, but I did a bit of research on
- 11:42Speaker 4: friends wrong, And it looks like you've never had a
- 11:45Speaker 4: guest artist on any of your albums.
- 11:46Speaker 2: Is that correct?
- 11:47Speaker 3: That is incorrect?
- 11:51Speaker 1: When Forever Malcolm Young, my wife, Lauren Friedman your wife.
- 11:58Speaker 1: He's the lead singer of the Neptune Power.
- 12:00Speaker 2: But she's your wife. She doesn't count as a guest start,
- 12:02Speaker 2: she's family.
- 12:03Speaker 1: On Masy Camel, we had Jesse Moss of the Moss Dynasty.
- 12:10Speaker 1: She sings the middle section of I Missed My One
- 12:16Speaker 1: God you put me on the spot, But I reckon.
- 12:18Speaker 3: There's been.
- 12:21Speaker 4: Some The only reason I looked that up was because
- 12:25Speaker 4: I've noticed you'd be doing a lot of a lot
- 12:27Speaker 4: of collaborations lately, Like people are popping up all over
- 12:29Speaker 4: the place with Jay from Friends are on on their track.
- 12:32Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's because it's harder for me to come
- 12:35Speaker 1: up with an excuse to say no than it is
- 12:37Speaker 1: to actually just do it.
- 12:41Speaker 2: It's nice.
- 12:42Speaker 1: I'm pretty pretty busy at the moment. Oh can you
- 12:43Speaker 1: do it in six months and I'm still busy, then.
- 12:51Speaker 3: No. It's good. You know, it's nice to be asked
- 12:53Speaker 3: to do things.
- 12:55Speaker 4: Indeed, I also stuck across some pretty cool on your website,
- 12:58Speaker 4: gem Mate like website. Website that's where I got all
- 13:02Speaker 4: this use is pushing information from. But it sounds you've
- 13:06Speaker 4: given out free guitar and bass lessons. I'm going, there's
- 13:10Speaker 4: just tabs in there and there's a password and you
- 13:13Speaker 4: can learn how to play shit.
- 13:14Speaker 3: Ah.
- 13:15Speaker 1: This was on an old Yeah, that's that old website
- 13:18Speaker 1: that's been around since the MySpace days.
- 13:20Speaker 3: I saw that.
- 13:20Speaker 1: I screenshotted the guitar lessons thing too, and I sent
- 13:24Speaker 1: it to Lindsay and I was like, what's up with
- 13:25Speaker 1: this man? Because I hadn't seen that for a while.
- 13:28Speaker 1: That website, I was like, I don't know if you
- 13:32Speaker 1: want to learn guitar from that guy, but.
- 13:37Speaker 2: You didn't feel like sharing it if you were trade secret.
- 13:39Speaker 2: So there's no vocal lessons on that not.
- 13:43Speaker 1: For some reason, the phone's been strangely quiet, and people
- 13:46Speaker 1: asking me to help them with the singing. But I
- 13:50Speaker 1: want to see here in my illustrious studio, the pet
- 13:53Speaker 1: Food Factory, you know, do a little bit of producing
- 13:57Speaker 1: of beards and stuff, and I'm always forcing three part
- 14:00Speaker 1: armies on bands that don't want them. Anytime you want
- 14:04Speaker 1: to come in, you know, I'll make you sound like
- 14:08Speaker 1: fucking beach boys.
- 14:09Speaker 2: Actually a lot along those lines, break.
- 14:10Speaker 4: There's probably a lot of people out there who'd love
- 14:12Speaker 4: to have the experience of recording with you. So how
- 14:14Speaker 4: do they get onto you to come down to the
- 14:15Speaker 4: pet food Factory.
- 14:17Speaker 1: I'm pretty hard to find. You need to go onto
- 14:19Speaker 1: the internet if you've got it, and then you'll find me.
- 14:23Speaker 2: Just like that. Just go that.
- 14:28Speaker 3: J Wallly pet Food Factory down on the Instagram and whatnot.
- 14:32Speaker 5: Nice people people come from all over the place and
- 14:38Speaker 5: jump in and record, and we do all sorts of
- 14:39Speaker 5: music and stuff, not just punk stuff, but yeah, all
- 14:45Speaker 5: sorts of shit.
- 14:46Speaker 2: It does actually work.
- 14:47Speaker 4: It's like I get that many emails and should come
- 14:49Speaker 4: through with new music, but occasionally one comes through and
- 14:51Speaker 4: I see your name attached to it and it's like, well,
- 14:54Speaker 4: I'll take the time out and give these guys a listen.
- 14:56Speaker 4: If Jane thinks they're all right, they've got to be
- 14:58Speaker 4: all right. But so actually do on your part by
- 15:01Speaker 4: doing this.
- 15:02Speaker 1: Yeah, well good, you know that's what That's what I
- 15:05Speaker 1: like to see.
- 15:07Speaker 2: Man.
- 15:08Speaker 4: We've actually forgotten to talk about one other festival you're
- 15:10Speaker 4: playing at two BRA You've got in September. You're going
- 15:13Speaker 4: all the way over to the Northern Territory to play
- 15:14Speaker 4: a black in twenty four.
- 15:16Speaker 1: Oh yes, that's very exciting. Yeah, we haven't haven't done
- 15:22Speaker 1: that before. The Neptune Power Federation did it but I
- 15:24Speaker 1: couldn't go, so they had the the have my stunt
- 15:28Speaker 1: double playing bass but yeah, and they said it was
- 15:32Speaker 1: absolutely fantastic. Yeah, super looking forward to that. That's another
- 15:35Speaker 1: festival where there's gonna be a lot of double kick
- 15:37Speaker 1: drums and a lot of people yelling and then us.
- 15:42Speaker 3: But I reckon it's going to be good. It's just
- 15:44Speaker 3: such a weird spot.
- 15:45Speaker 1: It's like two hours out of all the springs in
- 15:46Speaker 1: this place called the Ross River Resort, which I think
- 15:50Speaker 1: is neither a river or a resort, And a lot
- 15:56Speaker 1: of people that go there talk about buying liquid acid
- 15:59Speaker 1: from none and walking around in the desert so.
- 16:04Speaker 2: Before they take the acid. Yeah, that's pretty something in
- 16:08Speaker 2: the air there for sure.
- 16:11Speaker 3: Yeah, it's exciting, it's going to be good.
- 16:13Speaker 4: I had a quick look through the lineup made it
- 16:15Speaker 4: aside from yours, I can only read earthless.
- 16:18Speaker 2: Blood dust of Battlesnake and alarum because the rest of them.
- 16:24Speaker 3: Saw a bunch of sticks. Yeah, no, it's good.
- 16:29Speaker 1: I kind of I kind of like being a bit
- 16:31Speaker 1: of light relief on those those heavy lineups.
- 16:34Speaker 3: I mean, that's a festival. They always have some sort
- 16:37Speaker 3: of band of.
- 16:37Speaker 1: Our ilk on there, like Cosmic Psychos have played it,
- 16:41Speaker 1: and Emil and the Sniffers played and so it.
- 16:45Speaker 3: Sort of sort of makes sense in some way.
- 16:47Speaker 2: And you sort of got on trapped there to you like,
- 16:49Speaker 2: they can't funk off home, can they?
- 16:50Speaker 3: Because it's too exactly where you're going to go. You'll die.
- 16:55Speaker 2: Acid flashbacks in the desert, all right.
- 17:00Speaker 4: I will always a pleasure to speak with your mate
- 17:01Speaker 4: there's lots going on with friends a ro. Look up
- 17:04Speaker 4: their website, not the one with the guitar lessons on it,
- 17:06Speaker 4: because that's fucked apparently.
- 17:07Speaker 2: Look up one and you find out what's going on.
- 17:10Speaker 3: Yeah, man, good to say,