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ISSUE# 29.26 December 9 – December 16 Editor : Mandy Nolan Editorial/gigs : gigs@echo.net.au Advertising : adcopy@echo.net.au p : 02 6684 1777 w : echo.net.au/entertainment

THE BUSY WORLD OF THE LAZYS

THE LAZYS ARE CERTAINLY CREATING A GROUNDSWELL ON THE LIVE FRONT WITH THEIR RAW AND ENERGETIC ROCK PERFORMANCES. Touring Canada three times already this year, their blistering sets at Canadian Music Week in May saw the central coast rockers create a buzz that saw them record a couple of tracks with legendary producer GGGarth Richardson (Red Hot Chili Peppers). How has the response been in Canada and the US? The response was overwhelming really. Since our performances at Canadian Music Week in May we have signed some great deals, toured the entire country and also worked with some of the biggest names in the business. Radio is getting right behind the single across Canada, so much so we even charted for a few weeks, which was unreal. How does an Aussie band manage to crack the US – do you have a strategy? How are you going about making inroads? There’s definitely an element of strategy from a manager’s point of view but, as for the band, our live show is our selling point. That and having a great album supporting what you do live is key but what we had to make sure of was when the bigwigs saw us, we were undeniably the best rock band they were ever gunna lay eyes on. It’s a big statement but truly what defines a rock band is the impact they leave on the crowd and that all comes from what you as a band put into each and every performance.

Tell me about the new album? What was the original vision? The new album was recorded in NYC with producers Gus Vango and Werner F (The Trews, Monster Truck, The Grates). There were two additional songs added to the album after Canadian Music Week. These songs were our brand-new single Shake It Like You Mean It, co-written with Ian D’Sa of Billy Talent, and Hard Luck, which was co-written with Colin and JA from The Trews. Both songs were produced and recorded by GGGarth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Biffy Clyro) in Vancouver. The album is a body of work that screams rock ’n’ roll. Mighty riffs, singalong choruses and songs that belt outta the speakers! What is the band’s process for getting a song from page to stage? Generally Matt and I will write the majority of the song and then build from there. Lately we have been doing a lot of co-writing also, which is unreal as it offers so much more to the final product. Working with Ian D’Sa of Billy Talent is a dream because the guy has so much knowledge and so much to offer. What are you looking forward to most coming back for an Oz tour? Really looking forward to Byron Bay as it’s just such an epic town. We also can’t wait for Festival of the Sun because so many other rad bands are playing and it’s gunna be a great chance to drink a few beers on the beach and hear some amazing music. Getting back to Tasmania is also gunna be great as we haven’t toured there in a while and we have lot of supporters down there. Friday at the Hotel Great Northern. Free Entry.

GAY PARIS IN BYRON

The sleepy village of Alstonville has always had a touch of Desperate Housewives Wisteria Lane about it. Perfectly neat houses lined up on perfectly neat streets, all with perfectly neat lawns. One often wonders what goes on behind those perfectly neat doors. According to Lachlan Marks, guitarist/ vocalist for rock band Gay Paris, a bit of heavy guitar. Years back this is where Marks cut his teeth – as a schoolboy playing metal in the garage! ‘When we were kids I had a neighbour who would crank up Madonna or Cyndi Lauper to counteract the punk rock from next door… eventually my parents were happy to shell out the $15 an hour for us to rehearse up at the sports centre!’ Now years on Marks has made his mark in a band that promises ‘to bring Satan back’ on their epic Last Good Party Tour Cycle. All tongue in cheek of course. Marks is modest about the band’s achievements. ‘I feel like the one thing we do have is that there aren’t a lot of bands that sound like we do and I think it comes from being a little bit uneducated musically – and because of that we have all attacked songwriting sometimes having no idea what we are doing. We are musical dyslexics in some ways!’

Often we write something I can’t play and hope I can play it onstage! We still do write things we can’t necessarily play right away, but the difference between the first show and the fifth or sixth show in a tour is enormous. We pick up a lot of our songs and rework them as we go. It’s a bit of roadwork!’ Every band has their own process for how they write songs or choose songs or sift through ideas. Gay Paris has a unique approach all of their own. ‘We have a ridiculous process, I am pretty sure no other band does this. I write every day so there are hundreds, almost thousands, of ideas, so it’s mathematically impossible to try to make a record out of that many. So when we have a 15-hour drive from somewhere like Sydney to Brisbane, we get the spreadsheet out and get everyone to vote on the songs as we drive. It’s pretty awkward in a car with four people right there and you hear them vote on your art, 4–0. But in the end I don’t want to play music they don’t want to play. It’s like the Gay Paris riff convention…’ Gay Paris have just welcomed a new drummer to the fold. Adam Simpson has taken up sticks and the band is forging ahead faster than ever.

Gay Paris have just wrapped up their third album and are looking forward to hitting the road for their summer tour. ‘I constantly write music and then we use a filter process. It’s a four-way process. We rented a room, which was always a goal in the day, a tiny freezing cold room in the bottom of Sutherland in Sydney, and spent 15–20 hours a week hashing out songs over six months. We’d write and rewrite songs all the time. One time I got home at 2am from a gig in Manly and wrote the end of a song and brought it into rehearsal the next day. During that process we rewrote constantly. It wasn’t about making it more accessible; it was about distilling a song down to its essence. We wanted to make things that are great to play live. ‘For us the process was also about hitting the point where we are agreeing: these are my limitations – this is my set of skills and this is my toolset.

‘The most important part of the band is the drummer,’ says Marks. ‘The drummer is the engine room of any band. From a musician’s point of view you know if they are speeding up or slowing down. Things can go a bit weird… We had a transitional period when our last drummer had to bow out and we needed a fill-in and we thought Adam wouldn’t be interested because he had other bands, but he was keen. We’ve been four men married to each other ever since.’ So what should people expect from a Gay Paris live show? ‘We are a live band. It’s not going to rock everyone’s world, but our music is divisive and conclusive; they either say this is my favourite band or else they will walk away and say that was shit! ‘When you were a kid you are sold this idea you can be a rock star if you write just one song, but it’s not that. I like the idea of maintaining the cult status of a band. I would rather be a band that can put 500 people in a room for 20 years, than 20,000 for just two.’ Saturday at the Hotel Great Northern. Free Entry.

coming soon 19 DEC 20 DEC 26 DEC 30 DEC

BOOTLEG RASCAL TY SEGALL DROP LEGS WAXHEAD DACHAMBO GOONS OF DOOM, OCEAN ALLEY, THE BADLANDS LYALL MOLONEY ELEGANT SHIVA THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS

WED 10 HOT SEX CHOCOLATE THU 11 NEW NAVY, VINNIE LADUCE, NYE IF I HAD ANTLERS SATURDAY 13 DECEMBER FRI 12 THE LAZYS 2 JAN GAY PARIS, VALHALLA SUN 14 JESSE PUMPHREY 3 JAN LIGHTS, HAMMERS, 8 JAN MON 15 DAN HANNAFORD DJ CHRIS BRADLEY TUE 16 MARSHALL OKELL HOTEL GREAT NORTHERN • thenorthern.com.au • 6685 6454 28 December 9, 2014 The Byron Shire Echo

Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au