eGigs Meets Sound and Fury

just before they take to the Astoria, London stage on Wed 3rd Dec 2008

As they prepare to open a bill that also features Stone Gods and future Aussie legends Airbourne, eGigs grabbed a few minutes with Canadian rockers Sound And Fury mere moments before they take to the stage at London's hallowed Astoria venue.

You've been on tour with Airbourne for aaaaaaaaages. How's that been going for you?
Griffin: Yeah great, I mean it's a good match - we're both straight-up rock 'n' roll bands and Stone Gods are really cool too, it's a good threesome!

You came over to the UK earlier in the year to support Sum 41, how has this tour been different?
John: I found that Sum41 was a way younger crowd with loads more kids, whereas with this one you see the kids, but then you also see the older guy wearing his AC/DC shirt too. It's a much wider range of people with Airbourne gigs, whereas with Sum41 it was all kids.

Do you prefer playing to crowds who wouldn't normally follow your music, or is it nice being in front of people who are all classic rock fans?
John: Well, I do find kids a little more open minded – not even open minded, just rowdy. They're much more rowdy.

Griffin: They have much more energy, whereas at Airbourne shows, you have the first few rows showing a lot of energy, but then as it goes back you get the older guys with the arms getting more and more crossed, and they're like, "We enjoy it, but we're not gonna show you!" (laughs)

And how do you find playing England in general? Our fans can be quite fickle after all...
Daz: We love England!

Griffin: Yeah, both times we've been here it's been really really good with some great crowds. Obviously it depends from venue to venue, but the crowds here in general have a lot of energy, they’ve always got into [our music].

So presumably you'll want to come back here for a headline tour at some point?
John: Yeah of course, I mean obviously we're not going to be playing to two thousand people the first time we come over here, but yeah we'd love to.

Musically you guys seem to have merged the music of classic rock acts like AC/DC and Thin Lizzy with the style and swagger of many of the British punk bands from the 70's, where did that mix come from?
Griffin: It's pretty much just what we listen to. Some of us like punk rock, some prefer hard rock.

John: Basically when I was a kid, if it was heavy I liked it, whether it was punk, metal or just straight-up rock. If it had a good beat and I could dance to it and was upbeat and heavy then I liked it, so I just kind tried to wind that all into one. It wasn't like I was just into punk or I was just into metal...

Griffin: We enjoy having that variety.

Rock and Heavy Metal seems to making a comeback as of late, why do you think that is?
John: I think people are just finally getting sick of all this perfect, polished stuff. I think the White Stripes are a great example of [good rock music]... I mean the drummer sucks, but [Jack White's] riffs are so good and the melodies are good. You don't need drumming with samples all over it... fuck it, I'm fired as they don't even need a bass player! (laughs) But I think that they kept it simple and that opened a lot of people's eyes to good rock music.

So for those who haven't heard of you yet, how would you sell yourselves?
Griffin: Come see the shows!

John: Yeah basically I think that's our best selling point, just come see the shows. We definitely put on a show, and if you come see us, you’ll get it.

Is it not a bit knackering trying to translate your music into a live performance? It's very energetic stuff.
John: It was pretty hard yesterday, I ate way too early before the show! (laughs)

Griffin: This is the last show, so everybody's a little bit sick by now. Airbourne caught it and then it slowly trickled its way down all the bands, so now we're feeling it.

Airbourne's Joel O'Keefe climbed up the lighting rig at Donington earlier this year, can we expect any such shenanigans from you guys tonight?
Griffin: ...no. (laughs) I mean every show's different so it's always unpredictable. It's gonna be 2,000 people here in the Astoria so the atmosphere will be pretty electric.

Do you think the fans have been into you on this tour then?
Griffin: Well I don't think we've had any bad shows so far.

John: Yeah, like I said the crowds this time are a lot older, so maybe some are less receptive to something new. I found that the smaller places like Inverness, Folkstone, Dundee, places like that where people are just happy to have a show are the best ones.

Griffin: It tends to be harder to sell ourselves to big cities, to get them to like us, as they see bands play every week.

John: Like with the Sum41 tour, it's not necessarily that everyone else was more into it, they just had more energy for it. I mean they're just as rowdy as I was when I was 15! Although I can handle my liquor better now...

Fair enough! So this song 'I've Got Rabies'...
John: Haha! It's a love song! No I think that we were just really trying to offend. (laughs) Kicking grandmas across America... It's one of our more popular songs live actually, it's just thirty seconds of mayhem.

Griffin: If you watch the crowds it's great, cause it kicks off and they get into it, and then it just stops, so they're like "Okay, what the hell was that?!"

We look forward to it. Cheers for the chat fellas!
John: No problem!

article by: Merlin Alderslade

published: 03/12/2008 12:14



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