Tough gig

by Matt Neal. Warrnambool Standard 22nd Jan. 2005 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2005.  All rights reserved
EIGHT musical acts will line up on Warrnambool's Civic Green from noon today to play in the Hand Up For Youth event. Not only is it a fund-raiser for the city's proposed community and youth complex, I but for some of the bands it's one of the few opportunities they get to play their own songs to a large crowd.  Warrnambool newcomers Zygoma are just starting on the road that many south-west bands have travelled and in just over a year of practising they've played two gigs one at school and one in a battle of the bands. Rob Trewartha, 15 (bass), Jordan Marshall, 14 (drums) and Nathan Eccles, 16 (guitar/ vocals) realise they're only just starting out. . "Aside from competitions, there's not really anywhere else to play in Warrnambool," Eccles said. "More people want to listen to songs that they know (and) nearly all our are originals," he said.

Camperdown extreme metal band Killhead are in a similar boat, but are further along the trail, having played together for nearly five years. "The only place that gives us a shot is the Cri (Criterion Hotel), they let us play every fortnight for a little while," vocalist Josh Mitchell, 21, said. He and bandmates Luke Murnane, 21 (guitar), and David Alexander, 20, (bass) find it hard to gig without a solid metal scene they play mostly originals and stand out from most other bands because of their use of a drum machine. "We gig once a month or so," Murnane said. Without battle of the band competitions, Freeza gigs, and recently, the Cri, they would have nowhere . "But band comps and Freeza gigs are not ideal because we're a bit older now," he said, adding they had travelled to Beaufort and Ballarat just to play, usually coming home out of pocket. Murnane knows unless they become a covers band (perhaps even a metal covers band), they have no future in Warrnambool and may have to follow fellow Camperdown metalheads 13 Monkeyz off to the big smoke. "Everybody needs to move to Melbourne, or Killhead's pretty much dead," he said.

 PORTLAND heavy rockers Emprica have managed well in just over a year, gaining support slots with The Dissociatives, The Androids and Magic Dirt. Jono Colliver, 16 (bass), said the band played mostly originals and gigged at Freeza events, charity fundraisers and battle of band competitions. "They're good, they let us get up and have a go," Colliver said. Along with brother Joel, 15 (guitar), Nathan Johnston, 16 (drums), and Aaron Smith, 17 (guitar/vocals), they've worked at building a reputation rather than their bank balances. "We're getting more promotion - we keep getting heard and so we feel it's working all right," Colliver said. I "We haven't pushed too much for pug gigs because we're all under 18. "I'm being cynical, but I'd say at pubs, everyone I wants to hear the same old - Khe Sank and the classics. "It's hard to get gigs and it's hard to convince a crowd to start liking your songs but I think we just have to keep playing original songs. "I don't think we have to change our approach by playing more covers. We've just got to force people into hearing our songs." He said people had suggested the band would have to move to get anywhere but the guys have to finish school first. Bassist Mitch Crute, 18, of Warrnambool punk-rockers Zygoma, agreed it would be hard to continue in the south-west. For now though, "you want appreciation and covers are what people appreciate", he said. In five years Crute and the band (including brother Brad, 20 (drums), Nick Lyons, 20 (guitar), and Michael Ferguson, 22 (guitar/vocals) have put together about 12 originals and nearly 60 covers, won about four battle of the band competitions and recorded a 10-track album at Motherlode Studios. However, the group is getting too old for battle of the bands and is now finding it hard to get into the pub band scene, possibly because their music is suited to a younger audience. "We play once or twice a month at the Cri there's nowhere else," Crute said. "No one wants to try new people - they only like what they've heard, and it's hard to get heard." A few weddings, parties and CD launches are on the horizon, but Crute said moving might have to be in the band's future. "I can't see us making a living in Warrnambool it might take moving to a place where there's more opportunities," Crute said. TROUBLED Minds is another band looking outside the south-west. Having "emerged out of the mud flats of Nirranda" (as their bio puts it), the band has managed to find "a gig or two a week" after a slow start about five years ago. When I spoke to Josh Taylor, 19 (guitar/vocals), he and his bandmates (brothers Sean, 19, and Lachie McKinnon, 21 (bass and drums respectively) were en route to Melbourne to try and pick up some gigs, I having enjoyed a successful start to the new year by . playing at the Purple Turtle in Fitzroy. "It's best to go see (venue managers) face to face, get to know them one on one," he said. Troubled :Minds are now regulars in the local gig guide, having started out at pubs in Peterborough, Boggy Creek and Timboon before expanding to play in Warrnambool and Apollo Bay. A former TAFE Music Industry Skills student, Taylor said the best advice he could offer bands starting out was to get to know the scene you're looking to play in. "Actually go to the pubs and suss it out, suss out the music industry - you wouldn't go fishing if you didn't know how to fix up a fishing rod," he said. "Keep practicing and if you get knocked back by a pub keep hassling them, don't feel like the whole world has ended." Troubled Minds have used band competitions and regular gigging to help spread word of mouth about themselves - winning their way into The Push battle of the bands final has been a big help and will see them play at Luna Park to thousands of people in March. Taylor said the band was trying to find a creative happy medium by playing mostly covers and slipping in the odd original. "The main priority is to play covers - you feel more confident and they actually listen to it , "You've got to give the crowd what it wants, and get everyone listening to (the music), then you get to play (originals)." SO what's the moral to this story? Do young bands have to become cover bands or move to Melbourne to make a living out of music? Ex-Nutshell member Ross Krzyzanski, 25, said covers were a necessary evil of being a money-making musician in Warrnambool. Krzyzanski now plays in a cover band called Kaboodle, having played numerous festivals and gathering awards with original compositions in Nutshell. "I used to look down at cover bands because they got the money and the gigs - when you're younger, you aren't as interested in money, but when you're older you need it to pay the bills," he said. "It is a disappointment (not playing originals anymore), but on the other hand it's good to go out and have a guaranteed crowd," he said.