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Putting The Fun Back In Music With PEEJ From PUNK ROCK FACTORY · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Hey, I'm Pete Finger from Factory. Yeah, head over to Australia now
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  on, well, I'll finish sure. There is only many first of September
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  we're in Brisbane, going to Melbourne and then Sydney. We're gonna come over.
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  We're gonna do our thing. We're gonna play Disney, We're gonna play
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  TV themes and everyone's gonna have a good time. Tickets are still on sale,
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  but they are selling fast, so if you want to come, do
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  you want to get them on quick? You arderful brother, Thanks for joining
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  us the same. Then are you doing man, You're okay? Yeah,
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  I'm fantastic brother yourself. Yeah, very well, Thank you dude, Good
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  dear. Here's as you mentioned, punk Rock Factory visit Australia for the first
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  time ever this month, starting in Brisbane on September twenty feet, then going
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  to Melbourne and finishing in Sydney on September twenty fourth. Son. The first
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  question I got, boy, brother, is what I mean neglecting us for
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  so long. Well, it's it's a big commitment for us. I mean,
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  obviously it's it's the other side of the world and we've got to make
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  sure we sell some tickets. We don't want to we don't want to turn
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  up and play and no one but no, it's been a there's been a
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  big call for us to come to Australia for a while now, so it's
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  something we've been we've been building up to and yeah, it's finally time,
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  It's finally if we're going to get there really excited. This was a little
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  bit of ster bro but went went packing for a tool like this so far
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  from home. What are three non essential items that you have to pack?
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  Non essential? Oh? Wow, all I can think of as essentials.
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  I mean, you guys will probably tell me that these aren't essential, but
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  I need some sort of spider repellent because I don't. I don't deal with
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  Everett. I don't deal with those very well. So you could probably you
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  could probably tell me more whether that's that's a that's essential or not that's actually
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  not even Really do they sell spider repellent over there? I'm sure I could
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  find some, and I'm definitely going to try if they do, broke,
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  because there's no such thing brilliant. I'm just gonna I'm gonna have to I'm
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  have to sleep in a giant box and nothing gets in. I just drink
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  lots of alcohol. Spiders hate alcohol, Oh perfect, and I love it.
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  So there we go. Read back spider one. I read back some
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  one of our most poisonous spiders and she was actually liked to drink. And
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  the spider like we watched it, yeah, you know, and it walked
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  away, you know, from ten fifteen centimeters and then died like it must
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  must have posed on alcohol in the blood. It was. It was hilarious.
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  That's one. So is it is that a Is that a thing?
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  There? Then? Is it? Is it as bad as thinking? It?
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  Not at all? Bro, Like you'd be like, if you saw
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  one spider in a month in your house, you'd be lucky. There's not
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  that prevalent at all. Bro. And yeah, the chances you've been I've
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  got more chance of getting a date than what you haven't been bitten by a
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  spider. That's good enough for me. But I make that put that puts
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  me at ease. Oh so coming over here for the first time, they're
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  like, you do your research, do you ask people who've been here before?
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  What do you expect? Or do you want to come over recold?
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  We just we just love throwing ourselves into this stuff, man, Like we
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  you know, we we do what we do and you know, people see
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  people seem to love us for it, so you know, we just we
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  just come over and do our thing and just and just throw ourselves into it
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  as as deep as we can. You know, no, you don't really
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  know what to expect from us, man, But on the flip side,
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  we've got no idea what to expect from you either. So describe a typical
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  punk rock factory live shade of us. You know, ours shows it's all
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  about it's all about fun. If everything we do is is silly, it's
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  funny, like you know obviously the tracks that we do, it's all the
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  kind of nostalgia stuff, so all TV stuff and guilty pleasures, you know,
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  stuff that people love but maybe don't admit. But we do it in
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  a style that everyone loves. So you know, our shows are always fun,
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  they're always inclusive, like we love playing like the club shows, so
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  you know, very much like the venues that we're going to be playing now
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  over in ours, like they're going to be you know, the smaller club
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  shows, which you know, we've kind of ended up doing bigger shows in
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  the UK and Europe now, but to go back and play these club shows,
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  we absolutely love it because we're you know, it gives you that connection
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  with the crowd. You know, there's not that kind of big divide between
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  the stage and the crowd, and everyone can get involved and it's it's it's
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  fun. It's a bit of a laugh. Everyone has a good time and
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  everyone everyone goes away, you know, after having a you know, having
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  a great time. You know. Now, I hate comparing bands to other
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  bands, and I'm sure you guys don't like it either. But the people
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  in Australia that haven't heard of you before, would it be fair to say
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  that you're similar to me? First? And the gimmy gimmis Oh yeah,
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  definitely. I mean it's pretty much the same kind of you know, it's
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  the same kind of thing, and they're kind I would say they're probably a
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  little bit more of the kind of old school punk feel to them, like
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  they all skip punk stuff, whereas we're maybe a little bit more a little
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  bit more punk rock pop punk. But you know, they're all about fun.
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  You know, this shows are always fun and you know, obviously you
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  know, they're punking up guilty pleasures as well. I guess so yeah in
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  that respect, yeah, very similar. Yeah. And the only reason I
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  bring that up ros because they came out of here about six months ago and
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  pretty much sold out every show that they played. So if people know that
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  that's that's it could help. Oh perfect, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah,
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  if that's going to help, yeah, absolutely. So for those are
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  familiar with punk rock Factory Mate, you are, like, as a name
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  suggests, you're a punk band who cover everything from Matlife to Disney songs to
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  John Farnham, Like, is that the best way to describe? I would
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  say so, I would say so, yeah, like any any no no
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  song is is off the table for us. So like, like like I
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  said, guilty pleasures, like you said, anything from sort of Meatloaf to
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  Disney, say your favorite TV theme tunes from when you were a kid,
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  things like Gummy Beers and Captain Planet and stuff like that. You know,
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  it's you know, nothing, nothing's off the table. So yeah, whatever,
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  there's a little bit of something for everyone. I think I would you
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  say, like, everything's on the table, Like, how would you go?
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  Would you attempt something like say some of the harder metal bands like slip
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  Knot or Henchier or something like that. Would you attempt to punk those songs
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  up or would they be a bit chea diffico. Well, it's funny,
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  it's funny you say that we like we did. We did release an album
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  a year or so ago which was the kind of early two thousands kind of
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  scene, songs of things like you know, Papa Roach and Fallout Boy and
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  Bowling the Soup. But we we have been discussing recently that we would like
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  to take things from the heaviest side of things, so, like you say,
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  things like slip Knot, maybe Metallica, things like that, and and
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  translate them into a into a sort of pop punk song. I'm quite the
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  challenge of changing a vote from something which is quite aggressed and doughty in something
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  oddic and morph into to the punk rock vibe, you know. So that
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  and that is actually something that we've been talking about recently. So yeah,
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  one hundred percent, that's something that we're looking forward to doing. Oh,
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  I think they'd be interesting, really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Twenty twenty
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  album A Whole New Bust, which focused or worst would you say, which
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  focused on Disney songs really introduced to you guys to the world way like we're
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  surprised that there was the album of Disney songs. It was the one that
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  got you noticed. The Disney thing took us completely by surprise. Man Like
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  when COVID hit back in twenty twenty. We were we were working from home.
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  Obviously, no one was no one was going anywhere, so we were
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  all doing bits and bobs from home. And we we had done a cover
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  of just Can't Wait to Be King from a Lion King and we posted it
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  on TikTok just and obviously everyone was everyone was at home, nobody had anything
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  to do. Everyone was on TikTok and everyone was on their phones, and
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  it went bonkers. It went absolutely wild, and we thought, well,
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  maybe, you know, maybe there's something in us doing some Disney stuff.
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  So we, you know, we came up with the idea to check a
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  few Disney tracks weather, which kind of snow inspiring into less full Disney album.
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  And because everyone was kind of at home and not anything, including every
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  music in the world, we ended up contacting, you know, a few
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  people who were more than up for jumping on as guests on the album.
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  We ended up with an augustant album full of guest vocalists. So yeah,
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  it worked. Really well. That the Disney stuff took us by surprise,
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  and that was the kind of catalyst for everything for us. Really, it
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  kind of catapulted us right into the right into the thick of it. You
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  know, do you offer them Parents come up to you thanking you, bro,
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  Like I'm actually like, I've been trying to get my daughters. I
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  got a seven and nine year old. I've been trying to get them into
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  medal and punk for years, but they weren't ahore of it. But when
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  I had to listen to Let It Go before from Frozen, and it's like,
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  I've got your little fuckers now, like I get many parents come up
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  and sort of go, thank you for helping introducing our children to this music
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  that they probably wouldn't listen to otherwise. All the time, man, we
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  get it a lot, and that was one of that's one of the really
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  humbling things for us. Us Like when we play, when we're playing festivals
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  and we're playing, you know, we're on tour, the amount of people
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  who were kind of our age, kind of mid to late thirties, early
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  forties that are coming up to us and really thanking us. It's so appreciative
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  that they've kind of and ended up with it on a different level through music
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  and finding that middle ground. They love it and and they love it happens
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  a lot. It's it's it's amazing. We love that, absolutely love it.
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  But what's your actual selection criteria when it comes to picking songs to cover,
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  Like, yeah, here's something on the radio and go pack that'll be
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  all right to have a crackhead or do just sit around and go through your
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  old catalogs, like how do you how do you sort it? Well,
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  we're quite we're quite analytical. We always we're always we're always looking at stats.
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  We're very statistic driven. You know, like things like if there's something,
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  for example, that's going viral, whether it's Lewis Capaldi or Justin Bieber
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  or Taylor Swift. You know, if there's these cut socks songs that are
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  popping off on whether it's on TikTok or Instagram or whether it's just huge in
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  the charts, you know, then we will we'll we'll take a look down
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  our route. But then also when it to things like like we've obviously done
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  the musicals tracks, we've done the Disney tracks. When when it comes to
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  selecting a kind of albums worth the tracks. We we look at which ones
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  are the most popular from within those films or within those genres, and which
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  again in streamed the most, and things like the and yeah, we've always
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  looked the big hits and what people you know, which songs people actually lived
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  into and which people actually will hear. You know, these are actually intelligent
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  punk rockers. Yeah, we we do tried, We do try. If
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  you're ruining the whole genre now, mane, I know mine, I know,
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  I know. You guys are also a very dry band, like doing
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  everything from rehearsing to writing, recording, mixing and filming in your own studio.
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  The sausage factory. Now, firstly, bro, do you know what
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  a sausage factory is in Australia? I think of a part of the male
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  and naturale that would slightly resemble us sausage. Yeah. Well, if you
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  if you had a sausage factory or a sausage past, it means there's a
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  lot more of that there than what there is of the other. Okay,
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  yeah, yeah, I get that, I get that. Yeah. Is
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  that why his it wasn't you know what the whole sausage thing it was such
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  a random thing. And how it came about it was it was basically on
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  a track that we did very early on in what we were doing, and
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  we changed one of the words to something about being a silly sausage, as
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  in being a bit of a plank, being a bit of a plan cert
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  and you know, and then all of a sudden, this kind of sausage
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  thing just stuck. People kind of picked up on it, and then it
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  kind of became a bit of a thing that we tried to shoehorn the words
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  sausage into every track we did, which is which is why you know some
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  of our albums have got the word worst in them, like a German sausage.
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  So yeah, that's kind of where it came from. And then that
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  the studio just became the sausage factory. Then because last year just how it
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  came about it, Yeah, that's that's where that came from. But yeah,
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  as you say, we are very di y. We do. We
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  do everything ourselves when it comes to write in recording, engineering, mixing,
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  mastering, rehearsing. We build all our own rigs for when we're when we're
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  touring. Our drummer deals with all our marketing and our socials. His partner.
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  She does all our photography and our and our and our views and stuff.
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  It's very very small team and you know, very late with very DIY.
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  So I do was s trying mate? You head back overseas for a
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  massive Europe into or Stadi in Bristol October nine eight. I'm finishing in Cologne
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  on December ten, Like you're probably getting nadsome Cologne by the time you finished
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  the man. But the massive running shows like is your booking Asian? Not
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  like him? In right, that's that's torturous. As we again the DIY
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  thing, all this has booked ourselves. We do all this ourselves. We've
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  got our manager who's who's a close friend of ours and he deals with all
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  that and books everything for us. We got I mean, the way we've
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  worked it is that we were doing the UK run, which like you said,
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  starts in Bristol on the nineteenth of October and then finishes on the fourth
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  of November. That we've then got just under two weeks, then at home
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  with the families before we then go back out and do mainland Europe which starts
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  in the twenty third of November. We get hurt. I think the last
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  show is at the tenth I think, oh the eleventh. The tenth is
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  the last show tenth of December then and then we're home for Christmas. So
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  yeah, we've I mean, it is a lot of shows, but we've
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  kind of got that two week break in the middle where we can come home
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  and gather ourselves and see the family, and then head back out for a
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  couple of weeks then before we come for Christmas, you know. I mean,
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  it's not it's never gonna be we're gonna be doing this all year.
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  We like to do it for a month or two and do a little bit
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  in between and festival season and stuff. But yeah, we we like we
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  do like to break it up and have a bit of a gap. Now
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  before I let you go, mate, I've started three new Spotify playlists through
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  Heavy based on songs from artists that we speak to you, so losing your
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  own songs that are covered with other songs, of course, but these are
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  the songs that you've covered. I want a song for a playlist to get
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  the party started, one for a playlist to save your marriage, and the
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  other for a playlist to end your marriage. Oh wow, that is a
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  really great question. Wow. So so what was what was the first one
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  again to get the party started? Party started? Yeah? Right, I
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  mean we do open up set with Version of the Show, which is our
• 16:03
  first album. Yeah, and as an abs Belt, we used to be
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  such a great set open and I really did kick things off. So I'd
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  go with that. I'd go with the greatest show to get the party started.
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  The remind me of the other two. I guess I wanted to save
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  your marriage. Yeah, I want to save Oh wow. I'd have to
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  say let it go because when when when you're arguing with your missus, that's
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  all you want to say, right, let it just just let it go,
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  like it's fine. Maybe in a few more words than that, but
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  yeah, I'm picking up when you're putting me all right, I want to
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  end your marriage in when you don't want to the marriage. Do you know
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  what. I'm gonna take one off our first album again and I'm gonna say
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  our version of Man in Motion because that Man in Motion is leaving, he
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  is out the door, like oh rather, I have Asolute Pleasure speaker with
• 17:10
  your punk Rock Factory out in Australia from September the twenty Feet Thanks very much
• 17:15
  for your time to my brother. I live in Brisbane, so I'll be
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  coming Alongest September twenty first show and I want to get drunk with you man.
• 17:22
  Yeah, I get the beers in, all right, I'll pop down.
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  Can I pop down in the afternoon for sound check and say hello,
• 17:29
  yeah cook can't dude of course. Wait, that's very all right. I
• 17:32
  shall see an NMD. Thanks for your time, bro and seeing a nice
• 17:34
  one dude, lovely. Thank you so much, brother, my pleasure mate.
• 17:37
  See us in, see you soon, dude. All righte