No Jackets Required

Wollongong garage four-piece The Pink Fits may have ditched their 'Grease'-esque bomber jackets, but they’re still committed to goodtime r’n’r. Ahead of some headline shows in support of their new album, guitarist Karl Weber talks to TIM SCOTT.

There's four of them. They are from the 'Gong and there's little chance that they will ever make any real impact or impression on the hipster side of the rock’n’roll divide. As far as getting one of their songs on a car commercial? Well, Holden stopped production on the Premier a good while ago.

But it seems The Pink Fits kind of like it that way.

Playing dirty bluesy garage rock’n’roll that harks back to when bluesy garage rock’n’roll was still good, the band’s latest record Deja Blues is a speedy mix of scrappy rock, countrified shuffles and surfy stuff. Basically the kind of music that makes you feel at home with a beer in your hand on a Friday night, knowing that you don't have to deal with your boss for at least another 48 hours.

‘I’m On the Red’ is a song about wine, roulette or uppers?
What's your poison? Its about blood, hearts and brains. The beast within and the pain without. It's about running down a line of anger and scratching your head with confused emotions, still dreaming about satisfaction and just generally going faster than you are supposed to when you've got nothing left. Too cliched? Well, hey, vino is good too.

Not to piss in your pocket but the opening of 'Selfish Heart' is awesome, recalling the Saints and Reigning Sound. Who came up with it?
We all did in our own way. It started like something else and grew into what it is. Nice compliment though. Cheers.

Melbourne has a bunch of rad bands but it seems you guys are one of only a few rock’n’roll bands from NSW that people here wished lived in Melbourne. What’s it like playing in a smaller city? And who are some of your contemporaries in the Wollongong scene?
Hey, Melbourne has produced some of the best music that Australia has ever wrapped it's ears around, so to welcome us is very kind.

As for playing in a smaller city, well, it’s all we know I guess. It can be frustrating and empty at times, but the incestuous nature of a small town can be fun and funny. A few years back, Wollongong had at least eight regular venues and lots and lots of bands. Heaps of touring bands used to come through and could probably tell you about a variety of experiences regarding crowds and places they played. Somehow things used to work pretty well, I reckon, but the scene changes really quickly. Now there are only two-and-a-half, maybe three regular venues that supply a stage for local loud bands. The crowds can be pretty scarce at times. People just like to get pissed to the sound of covers duos and DJs. The “writing your own music” road is a bit of a slog anywhere, I guess.

As for local bands there are still a lot of cool ones (and I don't mean to leave any bands out) but some we play with include The Unheard, Hy-Test, The Spills, Bulldoze All Bowlos, Baby Machine, The Nice Folk, Leadfinger, The Ring Inns, The Rockers and The Alban Brothers. Hey, the internet is a wonderful resource, just type in “Wollongong bands”.

Some people may know of [guitarist] Lenny Curley from his days in Tumbleweed, but the Pink Fits sound is quite different to his stoned grunge of the past.
Lenny has always been into the sort of stuff we are doing, it's just he doesn't have a Big Muff any more - he uses a Hyper Fuzz. It is all rock'n'roll.

Yes, but garage rock is for the most part songs about girls, booze, drag strips and general anti-social behavior. Is that the kind of lifestyle you lead?
Some of us like to drink. We are all in loving relationships with women. Cars are for transport but some look really cool. The mould of garage rock is the sound and the content is the blues. Happiness and despair. Lost and found. Passionate expressions and wild rides. Looking in and finding your way back out. It's meant to be fun and it's meant to get you moving. Hopefully we do that for the people who come along or tune in.

“For some people the ‘truth’ is a gimmick. We have never done anything we didn't want to do.”

You seem to be strong supporters of the “start-the-song, hurry-up-and-finish-the-song” style of songwriting. Brevity seems to be a key to your approach.
It is pretty much how we write and how we jam. Sometimes we will write three or four songs per practice. Some don't reappear the next week and some stick around for a month. Some are still there when we record. We used to laugh about using more than two or three chords. That was our idea of prog.

I can also hear a fairly big Greg Cartwright influence, particularly on songs like ‘I’m On the Red’. More country twang on the new record?
Some of us like his stuff a lot. Compulsive Gamblers, Oblivians, Reigning Sound, whatever. It’s probably also a thing where we like some of the same sorts of bands that he does. The country twang has always been there, just maybe not as obvious as it is on the newy. ‘I'm on the Red' was written a few weeks before we recorded it. It was one of those songs that was written in 10 minutes and then tweaked so we knew when to change riffs. It’s funny how some seem to stick without pushing too hard.

You used to sport pink jackets on stage but at other times you have been described as “call centre workers on a smoke break”. You dropped the gimmick for the truth?
For some people the “truth” is a gimmick. We have never done anything we didn't want to do. We liked the look of the jackets and that is why we wore them. It had a sort of classic thing about it. We always wanted to blend ’50s rock and blues with ’60s surf and soul and mesh it with ’70s and ’80s punk rock. We just thought the jackets fit in with the whole feel. They still hang in the jam room and are there for every practice. They learn the songs when we do. When the moon is right they materialise and their calling is too hard to ignore. This is usually in winter because they are far too heavy for summer.

At the risk of sounding like a Richard Wilkins kind of question how would you say Deja Blues differs from your previous work?
It is pretty varied in some respects, but definitely nowhere near concept album status. They are just some songs we wrote and recorded this time around, combined with some we wanted to put out on the last release we did (Super Mini Album). The problem with the last recording was that we recorded 17 songs and released six. While we canned most of the “leftovers”, we wanted to re-record a couple that we didn't nail.

The title of our last release is a sort of play on that recording experience with it starting as an album, becoming a mini and then we gave it a Japanese twist. We like to record everything live and unfortunately if things are not working at the time, our budget and approach usually limits us to using what we are really happy with, and then we start thinking about the next release. So basically if people have seen us, they might recognise a couple we have been playing live, and then there are some we have never played live, and a few we wrote in the fortnight before we recorded the album.

There seems to be more clarity on the vocals.
People were always asking us to turn them up in the mix. We have tried to find an even ground.

So you are on Off the Hip, one of Australia ’s finest independent labels and certainly the best independent label located in Melbourne’s fishing tackle precinct. How did your relationship with [label boss] Mickster come about?
The first time Mickster saw us was a few years back when we were playing the Kemblastock Festival. A local environmentally minded music fan used to organise these cool festivals under a local mountain in a park. He would get a mix of local rockers and unique out of towners and get them to play shows on the back of a semi-trailer on his local footy field. It was always a rainforest/creek regeneration fundraiser and it was a gold coin donation. Bands would play for free and people would bring their families, have a barbie, drink beers, enjoy the tunes and play soccer and/or cricket.

Anyway, Mickster saw us and thought we were shithouse. Granted, we were pretty damn rough that day. We didn't know he thought this but I sent him the Fuzzyard recording after we had recorded because I knew he was putting out his zine and had started a label. We had put our first EP out ourselves (Emergency Release), but I thought he might have been interested in what we were doing considering the bands he used to cover in his mag. Thankfully he liked the songs and the vibe of the recording. Ever since, Mickster and the Off The Hip team have been nothing but supportive. We have been stoked to be able to do what we have.

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THE PINK FITS TOUR

Friday, March 20
The Tote, Melbourne, VIC
w/The Vandas + Midnight Wolf

Friday, April 3
CBD Sports Bar, Wollongong, NSW
w/The Vandas + Midnight Wolf + Bulldoze All Bowlos

Saturday, April 4
The Annadale, Sydney, NSW
w/The Vandas + Midnight Wolf