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NFÏ: Get Drunk Or Try Dying With CHRISTOS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Sweet.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm Christo from NFI, Sydney Central Coast bass punk
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: rock outfit.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: We don't like to take ourselves too seriously.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: We like to drink hard, party hard, and have a
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: laugh while we play our tunes because the world's pretty
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: fucked at the moment, so if you don't laugh, you'll cry,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: you know?
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Damn good attitude, brother. Thanks for joining us.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here, brother.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: You as well, my friend.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: And just to reiterate your point about liking to have
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: a laugh, and if I released a new album called
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: Get Cooked or Try Dying back in July.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: So how's the response been?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Well, we got a bit of traction online. A few
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: people were looking at our Ikea video clip and our
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: monthly listeners on Spotify significantly went up. So, yeah, at
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: least a few people are paying attention, you know, so
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that's cool.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, though, we sort of
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: do the music for us. So if other people like it,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that's just a bonus, you know.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, damn straight, man.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: The title of the album, it's a great title, man,
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: but it's just asking for someone to have a crack
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: at doing it. So what's the wildest or most literal
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: way someone has gotten cooked while listening to this record?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, mate, I'm going to have to fucking think about that, eh?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: There's plenty of instances, mate, where fucking.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: People have come and come.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I run a pretty fucking loose ship at this house, mate. Fuck.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: A couple of.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Incidents, mate, like, I've been living in this house for
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: a couple of years.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I've had people piss themselves, shit themselves. I've had fucking.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: What sorts of carnage, mate?
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, mate, I can't really think of one particular incident.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I can think of one where I had a bit
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: of a misadventure many years ago, but that's why I
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: don't do benzos anymore, mate, you know?
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: What about the no-flow zone?
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't fuck with the farmies too much, mate. No,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the government drugs aren't very good, except for the government weed.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: That shit's fucking awesome.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Fucking hate.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: The title of the album, it feels like it's a beautiful,
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: chaotic ultimatum. Where did the phrase come from? I know
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: the answer to this already, but how does.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: It sum you guys up?
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: It's a bit of a throwback to the old 50 Cent,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: get rich or try dying.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: And then we were going to call it Get Cooked
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: or Try Dying because my mate was working on the
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: mines and there's a lot of cook cunts out there.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And we just liked, you know, everyone was getting cooked
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: there for a while. So we liked the word.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: And we were originally going to call the album Get
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Cooked or Die Trying. And then my bass player's neighbour
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: was off his fucking head and he flipped the words
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: around when he was trying to talk about the album title.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: And then we looked at him and went, oh, that's
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: heaps better, dude. Yeah, fucking oath.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: We're going with that. So the album title is actually, yeah,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: my bass player's drunk neighbour mixing up what we were
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: originally going to call.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: It, and then we decided that he was on the money.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, nice.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: And if you can see behind me there, that is
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: the album cover. So I can't tell without your clothes on, mate,
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: but is that you guys or have you got stunt doubles?
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's us, mate.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: That's us, Bray.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: So we're going from fucking left to right. We got Randy.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Then we got me. Our bass player's in the middle.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: And our new guitarist, Jed.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: And then our OG guitarist on the outside, Robbie.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: All fine-looking specimens you are too, brother.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, mate. We were in the gym for months
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: getting ready for that shot, hey.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Mate, you look like you could do with some Queensland sunshine, too.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Fuck, mate.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: My pasty white skin, bro.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Fucking hell, mate. Yeah, nah. I mean, I grew up
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: in Queensland, bro, but fuck, she's warm.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: I lived in Cairns for 25 years, bro. I know
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: all about warm.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Bloody hell, man.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got to be careful being a white man
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: in the black man's land, you know. Our skin ain't
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: built for this fucking sun, you know.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: No, it's not at all, man.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: The album was recorded at a pet food factory with
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: an unknown bloke by the name of Jason Whaley from
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: Friends of a Wrong Man.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: How was it like working with that legend?
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Mate, Drew is bloody awesome, mate, you know? Like, we've
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: recorded with a couple of other guys, and we did
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: do some recordings from this album with our friend Kyle
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: up at Habitat Studios in West Gosford.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: So we did do some work with Kyle.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: But a few of our friends in the local scene
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: have been recording with Jay, and obviously everyone in the
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: band's a Frenzel Rom fan. And, yeah, man, to get
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to work with Jay– Oh, mate, we'll definitely
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: be going back to do it again. That's for damn sure,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: you know. I mean, yeah, awesome fun to work with.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: It's like sick, dude, to hang out with. But he's
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: got a great ear.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: For punk rock.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Like with other people we've recorded with in the past,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: there's a bit of an effort sort of finding what
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: we want our sound, what we want it to sound like.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And then, you know, we recorded with Jay.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: He sent us some prelim mixes within a day and
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: we're like, oh, yeah, that's fucking good, eh? Yeah.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Fuck yeah.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I first met Jay about 30 years ago up
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: in Cairns over Toronto with Grinspoon and had a few
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: beers with him and he got me up on stage
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: like I had a bit of a yard with him
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: a few drinks before the show and just before the
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: show started, his security's come over and grabbed me and
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: he's took me to stage.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: A table, two chairs, a flower, a bottle of vodka,
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: a bottle of champagne, a bottle of orange juice, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: he's gone.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: This is where Jay wants you to sit for the set, bro.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: And I sat there right beside him the whole fucking way,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: got up in the sun, get fucked, you fucking fuckwit with.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: Him, absolutely butchered it. I came in too early, that,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: and fucking started all over again. I was embarrassed as fuck.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, vocals, fuck the song up. First five seconds.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: LAUGHTER Hope you don't think I'm rude.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: Well, I came in, like, too quick. I was a
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: bit nervous.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Too quick, too good.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: What do you like to work with, man? Like, does
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: he sort of sit back and take it all in,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: or is he hands-on?
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Well, we already had our songs pretty much ready to go,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: so we record everything live, all the instruments at once.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: And then, yeah, I was doing the vocals in a
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: separate room, but all the boys were there. So he
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: didn't really give us a huge amount of insight because
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: we had the songs as we wanted them.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: He did have a couple of suggestions.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: I think he got me to sing extra high and nasally,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: even more whiny than I normally.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Sound, you know, on a couple of bits. I think, yeah,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: once or twice he's like, oh, mate.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, he got in on the fucking egg shaker
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: on one of the songs and did a bit of that,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: you know. And I think on another one he just
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: got little things, you know. Like I think it would
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: be different if we didn't have our songs ready to go.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: He'd probably have some good advice, but... he didn't offer.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: A huge amount of advice, but the few suggestions he
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: did have were fucking good.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm surprised he didn't talk him into being
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: in the video for Ikea. That would have been right
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: up his alley.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: He, we did get, uh, we got, uh, Fox, uh,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Mike Foxall to do the video clip and he's done
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of animated stuff for Frenzel in the past.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: So it was, we're so keeping it in the family,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I suppose, you.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Know, cause, uh, we've got it. We wouldn't mind doing
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: another video clip. We can, uh, Yeah, get the band's
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: finances back up.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: We're probably thinking about doing another film.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Clip for the song Where's Paddy. I think he'd do
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: a cracker on that. We actually have some real film clips. Like,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: we've got one where it's us in actual this us,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: not just cartoon forms.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: So, well, we don't know. We'll probably release them in
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the next month or two, you know.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Whatever. Yeah, pretty much, man.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Like... Ben's doing everything I want it to do.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I've got a great bunch of mates.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I get to play music with other fucking sick bands
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: around the local scene, and we're always having a good time, mate.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: So, yeah. It's ticking the boxes as far as I'm concerned.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: We played a show at the Lincoln Pin a couple
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: of weeks ago, and I got free beer all afternoon, mate.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I've pretty much fucking made it, mate.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: You're a fucking rock god, brother. LAUGHTER Now, not the
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: subject of the song IKEA, bro.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: Like, it's a fucking awesome piss take on the IKEA shop.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: So many people bitch and whinge and complain about that place.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: But what made you step over the line and write
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: a song about it?
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, I have this sick poster.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: And I wanted to put it on my wall and
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I was looking around online and it was like the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: only place I could get a picture frame that would
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: fit the poster within the vicinity of my house and
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: not like wait a week and get it.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Delivered or whatever. It was like, I'll just go to Ikea.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: It can't be that, you know. It's only like five minutes,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: ten minutes drive away, you know.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Fucking in there, found the thing I wanted within like
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: 15 minutes and then fucking took me another 40 minutes
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: just to get out of this fucking place, you know.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: And then I'm like, I don't want to look at
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: another 16-bedroom settings.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I just want to fucking leave, you know.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: And then this lady's like.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: You can't go that way. And I'm like, fucking watch me,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: It's just capitalism done to death, you know.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Like, you can't just buy something.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: You have to look at every other fucking bit of
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: shit they sell.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: And it's all crap furniture anyway, mate, you know. It's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: all made of bloody wood chips and glue.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: You can't.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: It's just rubbish.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: It's i don't get it i buy furniture off fucking
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: facebook marketplace that's made at the 1930s mate you know
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: i got this fucking cabinet it cost me a hundred
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: bucks mate and it'll outlive everybody you know it's fucking
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: solid wood mate you know like Yeah, I don't know.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I like old stuff.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, man, going to Ikea and spending a fortune
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: for a bunch of chipboard shit that you've got to
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: put together yourself. And they don't even use proper bolts
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: and shit. They use those stupid screws that lock in
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: once and then you can't undo them.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: It's like a joke, mate.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: It's like Ikea. How about the film clip? Was that
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: shot in an Ikea store?
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: No, that's all animated, mate.
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: We wanted to do a walkthrough with IKEA, but.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Then we thought, oh, look, man, if it ever gets
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: any traction, they're just going to fucking sue us, you know.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, true. Especially if they see this interview.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Any publicity is good.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Publicity, but we haven't even got publicity yet, mate.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: Mate, we're probably facing a lawsuit over this interview if
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: the wrong person sees it.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: There's always some greasy fuck trying to sue someone for
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: some shit, mate, you know.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, fuck all out of me. Fuck all out of
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: me except a bit of tinier. A bit of tinier
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: and some dirty undies.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Is all they get out of me. Oh, shit.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: So what other songs from the album have you been
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: playing live, man? Anything go down really well?
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we've been playing.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is our third album.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: So, you know, back when we started playing shows five
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: years ago, it was pretty hard to curate a 30-minute
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: set list. But we've got shitloads of songs now so
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: we can pick and choose and whatnot. But, yeah, we've
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: been playing a lot of songs off the new album.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Hepatitis piss wreck. People seem to like that one.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: That's an uplifting number about the time I drank so
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: much piss I had to stop drinking for a couple
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: of months.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: So, yeah. Turns out you can get hepatitis even without
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: a virus, you know? How the fuck?
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: How?
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: How?
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: No, but all I had to do was stop drinking
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: for two months and then everything come good again.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: Now, you're going to have to remember I wrote these
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: questions before I spoke to you, so the next one
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: is pretty self-explanatory, but I was going to sort of
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: ask you, like, your music lends a lot of humour
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: with the punk and shit, but how important is it
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: for you guys to keep things funny and light-hearted, but
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: especially in this day and age where every cunt gets
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: offended by fucking anything?
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: How hard is it to try that line?
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, look at, you know, people getting upset over
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: fucking words while there's kids getting blown apart, mate, you know?
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Like.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: If you look at what's going on objectively, mate, you're
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: not going to fucking be a sane man at the
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: end of it, you know? So, look, I don't try
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: and be political with every song, but I always liked,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: one of my favourite bands growing up, I suppose, I
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: always liked the lyrical stylings of the Vandals.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: How you can have a punk rock band that rocks
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: that hard, but then they fucking crack up lyrics.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: So.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: I've always sort of written songs a bit, you know,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: it's not all my songs are comedic and we do
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: have some serious ones, but there's a whole lot more
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: ones where we're having a laugh, you know. I think
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: that's just a good way to get through life.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, fuck yeah, bro.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: Now, I went out and did a bit of research
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: on this, so it's probably going to be the only
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: question I get wrong, but you guys have got a
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: show coming up this Friday?
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we're playing a dead set. Supporting Purple Disturbance.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I think we've got a rider.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: We might get beers and snacks.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: This is fucking all done together, bro.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: I might jump on a bus and come down and
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: hit the piss this weekend then.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: So we, you know, I'll give a big shout out
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: to a couple of, couple of venues that really do
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: the right thing by up and coming bands. And, uh,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: we played a show there last Friday and they're closing now,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: but the mosh pit has done a lot for a
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: lot of bands over the last.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Seven or eight years.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: So I'm sad to see them go, but, uh, You know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: they did a lot for the live music scene, a
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: lot of up-and-coming bands and band contests and giving artists
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: a foot in the door someplace to start. So, you know,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: big respect to what they did. And it's sad they're
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: not around anymore. And I also want to mention Adam
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: and Millie at the Lincoln Pen at Woi Woi. Those
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: guys are running one of the sickest live music venues
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: in bloody New South Wales, mate.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: Very cool. I've heard of the place, but I'll check
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: it out.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, mate. Yeah, it's a long way to come down
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: to Brizzy, bro. But it's just an intimate little venue,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: but it's just an awesome community. And, you know, they
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: really just put in for, you know, the local bands
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: and what they do to provide a community hub of
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: live music on the Central Coast is fucking awesome.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: Bless their cotton socks, brother.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Fuckin' loads, bro.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: All right, Chris Salsville, thanks for the chat today, brother.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: I've got a feeling I'll be having a beer with
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: you in the future, but NFI have released a new album.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I'll make it home when we're up to close, brother,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: when we're heading up to Brizzy.