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Letting The Mongrel Out To Play With THE REVEREND From WEST THEBARTON · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  I'm Ray otherwise known as the Reverend from West surbanon the band. We are
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  based in South Australia and we've just got a new record out called Mongrel Australia.
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  Came out a couple of weeks ago, but we're heading on the ride,
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  ready to take on take on all the East Coast cities in a few
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  weeks. Fantastic. Should I call you Ray or the Reverend? I'm confused.
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  Now you can call me ray Man. Thanks brother. So West Urban,
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  as you say, released your second Albumrel Australia back on March the twenty
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  second. Like I know, it hasn't been now that long made, but
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  how's it been received? Oh? Yes, well it's number one. It's
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  been awesome to just be out there, to be honest, because we've been
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  sort of writing and sitting on these songs and playing them live for a couple
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  of years now with everything that's been going on, So just having it out
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  there in the world has just been a huge side of a relief for us,
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  and you know, super anxious putting them out there and just seeing how
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  they've been recepted. But so many people have you know, been telling us,
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  you know, how awesome it is to have a new record out there
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  that they can listen from end to end. And also, you know,
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  there've been a bit of a change of tone on some of the songs on
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  this record. You know, we're just we were in a bit of a
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  different place on the second record compared to the first record, and so you
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  know, some of the content and themes are a little bit different, and
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  we've had a bunch of people reach out saying, like, wow, this
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  is awesome to hear some of the slower songs, Like we've got a song
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  called slow on there, which is you know, very stripped back, it's
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  not very chainsaw to the throat West seven and like, but yeah, people
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  are really loving it, which is awesome to hear because that's you know,
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  one of the things you always worry about as a musician is you know your
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  fans going to enjoy the stuff you put up, especially if it's a bit
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  of a change up from the last album. Yeah, definitely, it's actually
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  on that note, bro, Like that's something you discuss as a band,
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  Like I mentioned, this album is a little bit different to your first one,
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  So just have that chat and sort of say, like, maybe we're
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  going too far away from what fans would expect or should we go here?
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  And I don't think we've ever had that chat. Like the thing I love
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  about being in West Then and everyone else in the band I'll speak on their
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  behalf, is everything seems to just happened pretty organically. Like we never really
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  sit down and have a meeting and say, oh, let's let's put off
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  all of our heads together and write a slow song tonight. But you know,
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  typically one person comes with an idea and that comes in some shape or
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  form, and then it sort of goes through this west End machine filter that
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  spits it out of the end and it's got you know, input from everyone,
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  and it's been molded and shifted into a different shape, and you know,
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  everything always seems to be organic. We never really sit down and say,
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  oh, let's change this stuff or be too worried about how it's going
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  to be perceived. I think that's, you know, one of the best
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  things I really like about being in this band. So so, yeah,
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  someone's ever heard of the band before, Braze, pick three songs off this
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  album for someone to listen to. You give them the best representation. Okay,
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  well, desire firstly, because I think they'll have the time of their
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  life listening to it, and it will make them want to take a little
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  bit of a holiday down the coast and a few days off work to enjoy
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  it. I think Faceless because that's a nice slow song, and that's probably
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  got one of the best guitar solos we've ever put out. But also I
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  think I've ever heard on any kind of popular rock track ever. And then
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  humble Heart. So humble Heart is just classic West. That buzz saw right
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  in your face, you can feel the saliva off of the person yelling,
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  and it's you know, just quintessential West seven And vironment do you realize that
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  you actually did that? Mate? You went from one sentence saying that it's
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  the best solo ever, and then the next sentence you're saying, humble Hard
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  is the best song to listening. I also noticed that there's no song on
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  the album called Mongrel Australia, which great, great title two, by the
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  way, but there's no song called that on the album, and so that
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  obviously means there's a bit more significant to the title. Yeah, well,
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  I mean we've got a song on the record called Modern Australia and Modern Australia
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  funnily enough. That's actually Modern Australia Part two. That's originally it was part
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  two. We had a Part one, which had an awesome chorus, but
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  the song just didn't fit together really well, so we dropped part one.
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  We just had a song called Modern Australia. And then when we were talking
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  about the record, we're sort of putting our heads together and talking about,
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  you know, what we should name, and you know, it always comes
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  back to that conversation on what does this album mean to you? What do
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  you think about? And you know, everyone in the band is so different,
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  we're all such different people, but somehow it works. And so we
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  always were obsessed with this kind of vision of a mungol dog, like a
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  little mixed breed dog or you know, some kind of real mongol. And
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  then we had the song Modern Australia and we thought, oh, well,
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  you know, that kind of defines us as people and it defined what we're
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  singing about and playing about in this record. So that's how Mongrel Australia became
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  very cool. Now, you sort of mentioned that this album is a little
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  bit different sonically in the first one, so go to a bit deeper now,
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  brow like, how how does Mungo Australia differ to your debut album,
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  Different Beings being different musically, well, I think Different Beings was very It
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  was raw and energetic and it was paptured us. It paptured us in our
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  early twenties perfectly, you know, early twenties, when you've got all the
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  time in the world to make all the mistakes that you don't think of mistakes
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  and all that sort of stuff. And then Mungol Australia really is sort of
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  where we're at now. You know, we've evolved as people, as musicians,
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  as everything really and we're no longer you know, those happy go lucky
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  party every single weekend kind of people were I'm not going to use the word
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  mature, but we're sort of more well rounded people. I don't think that
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  that means that the music is that different, it's just I guess from the
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  inside looking out. A lot of the themes we talked about on the record
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  are a lot more focused and a lot more thoughtful than the first record,
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  which was very like you know, slinging from your hips gun Shooter start.
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  You guys started out in Adelaide, made back in the in the mid twenty
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  ten, So what was a musical climate like down there at that time.
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  They gave birth to the band and where did it fit in initially? Yeah,
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  so Weston was born from a few different bands that you know, I
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  was in a different band. A few of the other guys are in a
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  back of Horror, my friend. There were two or three other bands,
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  and we were sort of, you know, we're always playing together at different
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  paths, different venues. Would always be on support for bigger bands that came
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  through, and we just became really close mates through that, and we thought,
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  oh, let's just have a jam and see what happens. And so
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  because we didn't want to leave anyone out, we had seven people in a
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  room just all playing different instruments, and it was more so about, you
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  know, kind of having fun for us than really writing music. At the
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  time. I remember our first few gigs were pretty crap because we didn't really
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  know what we were doing as a seven piece, but we were just having
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  so much fun that we didn't really want to give it up. And then
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  suddenly, you know, this seven piece monster Frankenstein of a band suddenly become
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  everyone's main focus instead of the original bands we came from. But at the
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  time in Adelaide. You know, there was there's always been a lot of
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  great music going on, but sort of around that time was when if you
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  hit a certain popularity level, you'd nip off to the East coast, so
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  you'd go to Sydney or Melbourne particularly, and that's how you kind of move
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  on in your musical career, and we really wanted to push against that,
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  and you know, it was interesting. I always remember getting really pissed off
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  when some of might favorite local bands who I'd love seeing like once a month
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  or you know even more sometimes would go into state and then I'd never really
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  see them again until they coming through on album tour release or tour whatever.
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  And so I think we've sort of had a bit of a chip on my
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  shoulder about that, and so that's the reason why we wanted to stick around
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  and really you know, trying to drive the scene there, and it kind
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  of helped. At the time. We had bands coming up like Bad Dreams,
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  who know very similar kinds of music, and it was awesome to play
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  shows together and sort of leverage off of each other's kind of craze for the
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  Oudelaid music scene at the time. Now you've got an album launch tour coming
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  up as well, by starting in Adelaide on June the twenty first, before
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  we going through Melbourne, Brisbane. I'm finishing in Sydney on June to twenty
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  ninth. Like sounds like fun. You what do you got in store for
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  us on that tour? Yeah, I mean we're kind of wait to get
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  on the road. Playing live is something that we all do. That's why
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  we'll do this whole music thing. We love playing shows. I love the
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  face of seeing people excited and going crazy when we're playing live. So you
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  know, we can't wait to get back on the tour. But I think
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  these shows are going to be awesome. It's our first big run in quite
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  a while, so you know we're going to be playing little hits obviously from
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  the previous record, but we can't wait to introduce the new songs live as
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  well, because we've been playing songs off the new record in bits and pieces
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  instead of some of our earlier shows on the East Coast and the interstate.
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  But this time, you know, they've been out in the world. People
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  have been listening to them, so now hopefully there's a bit of familiarity to
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  them so that we can really you know work the new one set, so
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  yeah, I can't wait to play them. And there might be a couple
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  of special surprise covers and guests as well. Nice And where can people find
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  out more information on grabbing themselves a ticket? Oh well, just jump on
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  our Instagram, our Facebook, our socials, west Ebudon dot com as well.
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  That's where you can kind of find everything. Yeah, hopefully we see
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  some of your listeners at some of the shows coming in. Fantastic bro.
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  I'll be in Japan and when you get to Brisbane, otherwise I would have
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  been there for sure, but I'll catch you on the next trip around.
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  Yeah for sure. Man. Well enjoy the food I always do, mate,
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  Sucky is what I enjoy most, all right, brother, you take
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  care of you have a good one, man, Yeah, thanks for that,
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  enjoying it. Bye, Hey Ray see me on a fucking hollar somewhere
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  until about sep. We're some glass and cook food with coopoos and two dogs
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  will cook you and say just me and you, you and me forget the
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  money in trees? Well tell me that somewhere what is wo D and you'll
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  sweating tip until I got just cant letting me let me won't tell. I'll
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  give you every fucking weekend for Friday to Sunday. I'd e can take a
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  Monday. Him just swim looking through your frustrations, clown to the window watching
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  me mother a law, and I'll skill myself well, say our side where
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  the water is slow blood, and I'll sweat to them neactisi it's killing me
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  well that herself blood is small blood, and I'll sweat on my neckties are
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  you's killing me? So love sec may in our south blu out his swamp
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  blood and they'll sweet, Oh my MASTER'SI yo, it's killing me. Wow
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  tag may our South blue out of swam blood and you'll sweat to a down
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  my neck THISSI it's killing me wa tack may our South blue out his swamp
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  blood and they'll swim oh my neck. Misters ya, it's killing mister side.
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  That's side, mister sad, mister sah. You