relatively small punter base. And, of course, this leads to cockheads getting praise and exposure they don’t deserve. So any faggy youth-sexy trendsetter gets to see their suitably modern mug in print regularly and gets to build their scrapbook full of clippings and reviews and gets their year or two in the numbing glow of the shining music scene sun. Then it’s back to flipping burgers, working in a music store (they all fuckin do!) and rooting ugly girls. Boofuckenhoo. And bloody oath cunty, we use the press too! We promote the fuck out of ourselves. And I’m arrogant enough to say we deserve the attention. Hahaha. Mate, there’s no point doing the amount of shows we do and wrecking ourselves the way we do without the witness of as many of our prickly punters as we can muster, right. And we actually get pretty good support from the local press. Even though most venues won’t have a bar of us (fuck ‘em), a lot of bands refuse to play with us, locals either love us or fucking hate us (fair cop too), don’t know how to take us or are scared to come to our shows, the local press has pretty much always backed us up. Most of the time I get the impression that most of the local “industry” would just love it if we finally drank ourselves to death. As I’ve said, I really can be a negative and cynical old prick. It’s the old cliches mate. I’ve been ripped off, slagged off, underpaid, kicked out, lied to, banned, disrespected... But really, and this is most important, I got it fucking good. We play a shitload of fun fucking shows, most of 'em being more like a pissed-up party with yer mates and associates. And let's face it, The Homicides are always drunker and more drugged-up than the punters we play to and we still tear that fucker up. I think that counts a lot. I know I crap on a lot… You'll get used to it... Y’know, punk rock may have saved me. Hahaha. I didn’t really have any mates or shit growing up. We moved around a lot, y’know, broken home, poor schooling, mental fucking problems, boohoo, all that boring shit. Kicked out of home at fifteen, booze, drugs, crime, living on the street. I spent both my 18th and 21st birthdays locked up. Work that one out. And I was always a weird fucking kid anyway, preferring drawing stuff like pirates and car crashes and reading Christian comix and religious tracts to the company of other humans. I remember going through a big Adolf Hitler stage when I was in Grade 2 or 3. A bit of a bloody outcast really. Hahaha. And glad of it. Punk rock probably saved me from total social retardation. In our house we grew up on stuff like AC/DC (like all good little Aussie kids), Suzi Quatro, Sweet, a lot of country. But around 11-years-old a kid at school gave me a beat up copy of the ‘Pistols …Bollocks LP and that was fucking it for me. This is around 1980-81 and I was soon into all that stuff that was around at the time – Plasmatics, Black Flag, Ramones, Exploited, 4Skins, Skrewdriver, Menace, a lot of Oi!/streetpunk shit. Listening to this stuff, though, especially in the fucking suburbs we grew up in, actually made me more of a bloody outcast. Harhar. But it got me out of my own fucking head, got me out of the bedroom; I thought maybe I wasn't such a fucking weirdo after all! (On a side note: It was around this time I got the DK’s In God We Trust 12-inch EP. My first 12-inch! Now I didn't know and didn't notice that the 12-inch was played at 45RPM, just like a single. So for about four-five months I played the EP at 33RPM! And it was the rawest fucking shit I ever heard. Hahaha. Try it at home kids, it's mental! And just as good at either speed... Sorry mate, as I said (me mates will tell ya too) I do tend to crap on a bit. But as much as I piss on what most people respect and revere about the music scene and the industry (and let’s not forget kids, to the ones running the show, even in the so called “underground”, it most definitely is an “industry”, just like McDonalds and just as disposable. Remember that, motherfucker. We all squat down to shit. Ya know what I mean?), being in bands and being involved in any scenes has undoubtedly been one of the best, most positive things to ever happen to me. It’s all rock ‘n’ roll man, y’know. And thank fuck for that! I’ve mixed in a lot of different circles, some more unsavoury and dangerous than others, but the music thing has given me more in terms of just straight out fuckin’ fun fun fun. The great fuckin’ people I've met, the touring and getting to play over the years with some of my favourite bands, the close friendships I’ve made; close, respectful relations I thought were beyond an arrogant nasty old cunt like me. Haha. To my friends both at home, over East and
“Rock ‘n’ roll was once considered dangerous. Punk rock too kids! D’ya get it. Everything’s hip nowadays, everything is cool and acceptable. It’s a good fuckin’ kick in the arse that’s needed here.” – Rat fuck away from the “industry” and the false hype that goes with it. The people that continually pat your back need bloody watching! Shitheads who perceive what they do to be precious, special or, god forgive, relevant?! Hahaha. I think “scenes” are generally made up of backslapping Johnny-come-latelys whose standard formulas and positive attitudes could mostly be a cover for a lack of skill, insecurity and lack of any real heart. Real balls. No dash. I fuck 'em... Their haircut demands it, ya know. I mean, exactly when did every single fuckin’ genre, sub-genre and pimply MySpace musical fart become hip? Trendy? Friendly? Rock ‘n’ roll was once considered dangerous. Punk rock too kids! D'ya get it? Everything's hip nowadays, everything is cool and acceptable. It’s a good fuckin’ kick in the arse that’s needed here. Individuality has become conformity! Harharhar. I come from a time when ya sat back and earned respect. When idiots got belted. People remembered their fuckin’ manners, kept their mouths shut, paid some dues, had some fuckin’ class, had some dash and go and earned their respect, ya know? Just when did our punk rock and hardcore become mainstream, or worse, safe?! Music scenes? Shit man, don't get me wrong, OK, I love our punters, even respect the ugly fuckers, but nothing really changes. It all comes and goes like a pubic hair down the drain. Next please. As for musos, with their insatiable egos and insecurities they’re worse than fucking junkies, man. Part of the “scene”? I don’t even know what that shit means. Though I suppose in some ways I am very definitely part of some music scene and even responsible for creating some of it... Mate, it’s very easy, and I admit I can be a bloody negative bastard about the whole scene thing, I’m not the most approachable person. Haha. But it's an easy target just begging for a kick in the nuts. Really. I’ve always tried to stay well clear of all the games, subterfuge and bullshit that goes on around music scenes and industry. I manipulate it to my own means. Kill John Butler. The Homicides are decidedly underground – strongly and arrogantly independent if you will. So all the crap has little to do with how we approach things. And we’ve been fucked around heaps! But we’ve achieved what we have and got as far as we’ve come strictly on our fucking terms, our fucking way. We’ve got out there and played and played and tore it up like a motherfucker. We’ve pushed it and bullshitted it and made the bastards pay attention. And unlike most bands’ hype, we can back it up. In Perth it’s really easy to get a name for yourself pretty quickly – loads of shows if ya want 'em, lots of music press and easy exposure to a
45
overseas, who’ve put up with my shit, drank with me for days, backed me up and watched my back and made me welcome, thank you, my fuckin’ bloody darlings, you know who you fuckin’ are. Let me tell ya, mate, the older I get the more enemies I make. But also, my life, the band, friends, all that good good stuff, just gets better and better. Gimme a fucking medal. Danger: Who started the Dose/Homicides? Is there any difference between the Dose and the Homicides besides the name? Rat: The Dose started around February 2002 when I got back from living in Sydney for like 18 months. The Rats were doing shows over there, pissing on with the A.V.O and Blurters boys (top cunts to a man!). When we got back to Perthsville the band kinda broke up. We have done the odd “special occasion” show since, like the Gus Chamber memorial gigs. Now, anyone will tell ya that I’m a terrible slut when it comes to playing and shit, so with no Rats, another band for me to spank my crank in was obviously on the cards. Simple story: sitting around a table with some mates, three cartons of piss into it, the gear’s already set up in the house… “Mate, let’s have a fuckin’ bash!” We wrote like our first four or five songs straight away. Piece of piss really. We started playing shows about two weeks later. Fuck it, ya know. Hahahaha. For a while there we only had like five or six songs but our sets would go on for like forty fuckin’ minutes and shit. We were just trashed, belligerent and having a lot of dirty nasty fun. So were our crowds!! Some of the videos of those Dose shows are fuckin’ “out there” mate. Bodies flying everywhere, glasses and bottles flying, punches thrown, blood, puke, potato chips and nudity – you name it. Our cobber, Big Col', passed out cold with his head in the bass drum while we were playing. We started to get banned a lot pretty