Australian Hardcore Dished Up

TIM SCOTT recently shared a table with Extortion’s Rohan Harrison, Mindsnare’s Matt Maunder and Yeap Heng Shen from Pisschrist. On the menu: Australian hardcore.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] It's not very often you get the chance to share dinner with vocalists from three of Australia's most respected hardcore bands. But not long ago, in a cheap Indian restaurant at the top end of Bourke Street in Melbourne’s CBD, I found myself at a table chatting to Matt Maunder from Mindsnare, Yeap Heng Shen from Pisschrist and Rohan Harrison from Extortion.

Melbourne’s Mindsnare are the undisputed godfathers of Australian hardcore, having blasted their aggressive and metallic style of punk for over 16 years; Pisschrist have toured all corners of the globe, but will be calling it quits after two more shows; and Perth’s Extortion have built a fanatical following in Australia and beyond with their frenzied speed and adrenaline. While each band's style may vary, they share a wealth of experience playing to audiences in Australia and overseas.

With a show this weekend at The Arthouse – Melbourne's home of hardcore – it was a good opportunity to chat about the current state of Australian hardcore over plates of vegetable biryani, eggplant bartha and naan. Curiously, the interview starts on the most unpunk of subjects: band management. Yeap explains that a well-known Sydney band are looked after by a manager.

Rohan: Really, they have a manager?

Yeap: That's what I heard. I think he helps organise them shows. He works with some other bands too.

Rohan: We don't have a manager but maybe that explains why Extortion is a complete mess. [Laughs]

Matt: We have Nigel, our bass player. [More laughter]

Yeap: I guess I take care of Pisschrist, but I don't think of myself as a manager.

Matt: Maybe not a manager but every band needs someone to step up. Nigel has always been the guy who organises things for Mindsnare.

Rohan: I don't have as much responsibility in the band as I used to. I chip in when I can but I do all the songwriting and art as well.

Yeap: Since our second 7”, I have written all the songs and did the recording.

Matt: Our guitarist, Beltsy, pretty much writes all the songs from head to toe and I just come in and do all the lyrics. We've had different line-ups over the years but Nigel has always looked after organising stuff and Beltsy has always had a big influence on our sound. When we didn't really know what we were doing or what sort of band we wanted to be, we all kind of contributed. Now that we know what we can and can't do, Belsty has it down pat.

Having played for as long as you have do you find yourselves sticking to your strengths?
Rohan: Yeah, but you kind of freak out when you choose the path of your sound and have that brought out in each release.

Matt: I can understand why people want to change styles though. Especially people who are really good at playing music. I feel sorry for them if say they are a really good guitar player but they are in a band but they can't really do much.

Yeap: I think also that when most bands start out they aren't very good, but they improve together. They realise what their strong points are.

Matt: I don't really believe in that whole, “Oh, but you used to sound like this and now you're shit.” You get to where you are by just playing music that you like. You don't know where you are going.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] What about your old demos. I know the Extortion demo has been re-released on vinyl.
Rohan: When we originally released that it was 150 copies. Just a promo for anyone who wanted to hear how we sounded, but as we got more of a following especially overseas, things were getting a bit crazy and it was going up to like 500 bucks on eBay. I was feeling real funny about that. So we whacked a couple of unreleased tracks on it so it wasn't a complete rip off and it was released. It was recorded on a shitty 4-track. It's not a good recording. But it's a demo after all.

Matt: Before Mindsnare, we were called Mad Circle. We released a demo which was basically taped over original tapes. We'd record over them and then write Mad Circle in black texta. Some of the originals were pretty cool and I probably wish I still had them. [Laughs] We'd just hand them out to people … Just all the original dudes who we first met, possibly a few overseas but we certainly didn't get five 500 bucks for them. [Laughs]

We more or less were doing tapes to send to Sydney because I didn't want to play shows that were boring. I knew that if I sent the tape to a few kids up there it would get passed around. When we did go to Sydney there were some people singing along and knew what we were about.

Do people still sing along?
Yeap: Yeah, they do. That's why I think it's important to include the lyrics in releases. I remember when I was a kid in Malaysia I would sing along to my local bands too. I think you understand the band a lot more if you know what they are singing about.

Matt: Yeah, the singing is important. As far as I'm concerned it's always been a boring show if other people weren't involved. I'm not sure whether I need people participating like some kind of ego thing but it's good to know that people were singing along and understanding what it was that you were singing about.

Yeap: I think it's a good way to connect to the audience too. You feed off the energy.

Matt: That is one of the differences between hardcore and rock: getting down the front and singing with everybody. We didn't play a show with a crowd barrier for so fucking long. Every now and then we would and you realised why you wouldn't play those kind of shows. It sucked when there was a physical barrier. The show wasn't as good. There was a time when you couldn't play a decent sized room without a barrier. Occasionally we had to suck it up and be professional about it. [Laughs]

Yeap: I think I've played three shows in my life that had barriers. Once in Japan, Finland and America. I jumped all the barriers. [Laughs] In America, I saw the security guy take a photo of me as I was jumping it. He was laughing.

Matt: Whenever I see a barrier I'm thinking, “Physical challenge. How do I jump it?”

With Mindsnare and Extortion there have been many line-up changes and a lot of different songs. How do you decide what to play? How do you remember it all?
Matt: We don't remember much. [Laughs] Some stuff you write and that we have recorded just doesn't' sound very good live. It may go on a couple of bars too long. I end up standing around like an idiot. [Laughs]

Yeap: We have something like 60 songs but we just devise the best set for a party. Songs that work well together. We change our set every show.

Rohan: Has Pisschrist always had the same line-up?

Yeap: Yes, always the same line-up for seven years.

Matt: The one and only line-up? Wow. That's amazing.

Rohan: Extortion have had a few line-up changes. [Laughs]

Matt: I'm the original member of the first Mad Circle line-up. We had Anibal and the original guitarist Brad was the guitarist who wrote the first Blood Duster record. I'd seen him at a Blood Duster show and I explained to him what I wanted to do and it suited his style real well. It was more of a modern American hardcore sound.

Sean Bailey [Lakes, Wasted Truth] used to drum for Mindsnare.
Matt: Yeah, he came in later on for a bit. He had come to Melbourne from Tasmania. He was pretty young. I think we scared the shit out of him because we were all bastards and he was getting into straight edge and veganism and everything and we were just party dudes. But it must be pretty hard to jump into a band who had been hanging out for four years.

Besides Extortion have you been involved in side projects?
Rohan: Always. In Perth I always had what seemed like a minimum of four bands on the go. The house I lived in was above a shop and there were no neighbours. We just set up gear in the living room and every day of the week people would come around and jam.

Yeap: The same for me. When I first came to Melbourne from Malaysia I started living at the Pink Palace, which was a warehouse with a jam room. We used to jam there every day. Pisschrist, ABC Weapons, Straightjacket Nation started out there. Even though it's not there anymore I'm still trying to involve myself in as many projects as possible, you know, get younger kids to play in a band.

Rohan: Even just to have a practice space where all the gear is set up is awesome. It solves the problem of having to cart the gear around everywhere.

But you guys are all vocalists. You have it easy. No gear. Just turn up.
Matt: We used to live in a house in Mordialloc [in Melbourne’s south-east] where we had shows back in 1990 and ’91. That's how we started with people who didn't know how to play guitars. I think Vicious Circle were playing and a band called Force Fed who were a Dag Nasty kind of band. They sounded like Dag Nasty and Bad Religion. There wasn't anything that was like a meathead hardcore kind of band, so we figured we'd start one. [Laughs] Just real dumb Madball songs and old Agnostic Front kind of stuff.

It's funny how these styles come and go.
Matt: I've seen it come and go a couple times over now. We got so ragged out when we started playing because there were all these purists and they wouldn't listen to any hardcore recorded after '83. They would hear what we were playing and say, “Fuck this new-school bullshit.” And we were, “Well, it's what we like and besides we were listening to '83 hardcore long before you were.”

Yeap: Forget about fashion and shit just do your own thing which I think Mindsnare have always done.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

I know that you don't like being called “crust”, Yeap, but the Pisschirst audience would be a lot different to some parts of the Mindsnare audience.
Yeap: Yes and no. I often get surprised by kids who I think wouldn't come to our shows. I always listened to that early ’80s European hardcore and wanted to do that. But I'm surprised by how many other punks are into that style too.

Matt: When we started playing there were only really crusty punks. There weren't many hardcore kids. Just metal heads, punks and skaters who were more into modern stuff but had a soft spot for the “crusties”. They were into similar things like vegetarianism, and there was something political still going on.

Rohan: Perth is weird because it's smaller and there seems to be one band of every style.

Yeap: And you are involved in all of them! [Laughs]

Rohan: Yeah, but I've doing fast bands for a long time now. I mean there was All in Deep Shit and other stuff. We are lucky we are getting records released on Deep Six, an American label that gets out stuff in places like Japan.

Yeap: That reminds me. I saw Mindsnare records when I was in Japan.

Matt: Yeah, we played Japan back in ’99, I think. We played three shows and I remember a really big Beastie Boys and metal kind of scene going on then. I'd get up and jump around and scream to all these hip-hop and metal kids. It was kind of weird. Then we played one show in Kyoto and there was non-stop hardcore skinhead and punk kids. They were singing along. I'd go back just to play that one show again.

Yeap: That's like going back to the demo tapes that we were talking about. When we first did our demo tape we released like 200 copies. Even people in Belarus were singing along

Matt: I think Pisschrist are the most travelled hardcore band. You've been everywhere.

Rohan: We've only been as far as the US. We're pretty piss organised

Yeap, what are you going to do now that Pisschrist is coming to an end?
Yeap: I have a new band Bloody Hammer. A more traditional oi! band. Along the lines of Cock Sparrer or early Screwdriver without the politics. What Pisschrist plays is something that has always been dear to me and I worked really hard to keep it going. We were planning on doing a world tour next year to Europe, American and Japan but I just can't see us going there.

Matt: But you guys do so many shows. Like how many did you do in Japan? Twelve in two weeks? That would wear you out, I reckon.

Yeap: No. As a matter of fact it makes us get better and better. I think the band likes that. Our first European tour we did 16 shows back to back with one day rest and we improved with each show.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] After playing for so long have you ever considered what it would be like to be in a non-hardcore band.
Matt: What? If I sung in a real band? I think about that all the time! [Laughs] If I could sing properly there's no way I wouldn't be trying to do a proper band. I just like being in a band. I like the way the world rolls when you are in a band. But at the same time I like responsibility of having a daughter and work. When you are on tour you are like an animal that keeps eating. You are a bit of an arsehole. But I am at peace with myself now because I've made my own life. Everything I've got I've made for myself. But at the same time when I go on tour I love it. I'm usually the last man standing at three o'clock in the morning

Yeap: We should go on tour together! [Laughs] People say we should move to Europe and then we can go on tour forever. But that's what I like about living in Australia. We can go over there [overseas] and go as hard as we can, but we can come back here concentrate on our lives.

Rohan, you are involved in design and illustration. I know skateboarding is a big part of your life. Matt and Yeap, you are a filmmaker and animator, respectively. What makes you all keep coming back to music?
Yeap: We are still doing it because it drives us. Music keeps me sane.

Matt: Yeah, I like experiencing music but sometimes I just got to do it. I get a real urge to play, to even rehearse. It's the same when writing new songs. You can't wait.

Rohan: It's amazing once you get a bunch of riffs and it all just comes together.

What music do you listen to?
Matt: I'm still infatuated with the shit I listened to in high school. I was so busy accumulating records back then that a few dropped off and now I've rediscovered them. Shit like Lawnmower Deth.

Yeap and Rohan: Yeah!

Rohan: I never stopped listening to stuff I used to listen to. I guess now I listen to more styles or genres than I used to. No matter what genre and how crappy it is there is usually one or two bands that I like. It depends what mood and I'm what I'm doing too.

Matt: As you evolve as a person you have to live with other people and you just cant go and throw on a Napalm [Death] album on the stereo whenever you want. [Laughter]

Yeap: I'm playing in an oi! band now so lots of oi! at the moment.

Like Blitz?
Yeap: No, more like French oi! like Camera Silens.

It's appropriate that this upcoming show is going to be at The Arthouse, which has been the home of Melbourne hardcore for so long.
Matt: Yeah, and it's sad that it's closing down next year, but I'm looking forward to playing. We always enjoy playing there. It holds about 270 people and I think it will fill up

Yeap: The New Year’s Eve show we played with Limp Wrist there was definitely more people than that.

Matt: I've been going there since I was 17. I didn't really drink until I was 21 and I couldn't believe people would be drinking and going to the bar when rad bands would be playing.

Yeap: I don't drink when I'm playing or when I'm watching bands. I think because I'm so excited. I want to fuckin’ mosh and stuff. [Laughs]

Rohan: I went to the Mindsnare anniversary show at The Arthouse and had an amazing time. Rhys [Extortion guitarist] piggybacked me into the pit. [Laughs] But I can't remember much.

Matt: I could never play super drunk, and the times I have I fell off the stage. And I forget so many lyrics .

Now you can pick and choose your shows but that probably wasn't always the case.
Matt: We have played some weird shows. When we got Gordy from Frenzal Rhomb drumming for us we got dragged out on some weird tours and festivals with them. We'd be the only hardcore band on the bill. The first time I went to WA we played this really cool club gig that you were probably at, Rohan.

Rohan: Is that that the one where there was break-dancing at the gig? [Laughs]

Matt: Most probably. But the next day we played this footy oval on New Year’s Eve, where we played in between Area 7 and Killing Heidi or something! Everyone was having a ball and all the bands were getting a good response and then we get on and everyone was like, “Who the fuck are these guys?”

Nowadays, a band like Parkway Drive would headline a festival like that. Do you think hardcore has crossed over more?
Matt: Those guys are just downright good at playing and they are nice dudes. I don't care a whole lot about their music but they have nailed that sound. They are massive.

Yeap: I remember we were doing a show in Slovakia and a girl came up to me wearing Parkway Drive tracksuit pants. I was thinking, “Wow. That band is pretty big.”

Rohan: A lot of it has that Swedish melodic metal sound. Lots of guitar work.

Not to piss each in other’s pockets, but what is it you like about each other’s bands?
Matt: Both Extortion and Pisschrist are just great bands. The style is not trendy and not a lot of people here are doing it so I'm just stoked that good bands like that are still going.

Rohan: Both bands are the best at the what they do. As I said earlier, I listen to a lot of different music and genres, but I think these guys just nail the sounds that they do.

Yeap: I love both of these bands. I always have a good time going to watch you guys. Mindsnare have been doing it for a shitload of years and are still great. It [The Arthouse show] will be a good way for Pisschrist to go out.

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Mindsnare, Extortion and Pisschrist will perform tomorrow (July 31) at The Arthouse in Melbourne. Supports by Ironmind.