Partying to death with The Grates

The Grates have a reputation for being hyperactive and enthusiastic. A total party band. Knowing this, I was looking forward to some wild tales of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll from their time overseas, where they have been busy touring to promote their debut album, last year's Gravity won't get you high and playing shows with the likes of The Go! Team and We Are Scientists.

Whilst I didn't get the scandalous party stories I was hoping for, it would seem that The Grates had a lot of fun on their travels, albeit of the clean and wholesome kind. This may have something to do with spending a lot of time hanging out with their favourite touring buddies, teen aged sister duo Smoosh. “They were definitely the most fun band we have ever toured with. The other day I found this picture that Chloe drew of us, there was a little sign that said 'let Chloe draw animal portraits of The Grates'. Patience was a mermaid cat, I was a skateboarding dog and Alana was a flamingo with a lollipop.”

Aside from making new friends, what were the highlights of the tour? After a warning that it is a pretty gross story, John says “We were touring around the US and Canada in this RV, and it had a toilet on board. It was really gross to empty out, so our tour manager just left the valve open so it would just trickle on to the road, it was freezing cold (like -30 degrees celcius) so the urine (we didn't use it for poops) would just freeze before it hit the ground, making a piss icicle (or pissicle). We were going through customs to get from Canada to the States and we got flagged down and our whole RV got taken into a heated room and searched while we had to sit in this tiny room for about 45 minutes. When we got the all clear and left, our icicle had melted all over their floor. Told you it was gross.”

If that is what The Grates consider a highlight, I have to ask what the lowlights were like, “On the same tour, we were planning on sleeping in this RV (and remember it was -30 degrees?). A few days in, the RV's heating broke, so we only lasted a couple of nights. They were pretty dreadful. There was also something beeping inside the RV that went off every 1/2 an hour, making sure we never got to sleep.”

To mark the end of this tour, The Grates have released a live DVD Til Death Do Us Party. Filmed at The Forum in Melbourne, or as John calls it 'the prettiest venue in Australia', it has the entire concert plus film clips for all of the Gravity... singles. As a nice bonus for fans, the band have filmed their own credits, using an old demo as backing music.

So now that they have wound up the tour, released the DVD and are back home, how are The Grates feeling? “We were all really restless for a couple of months, but we've all settled back in to home life and have started writing again. It's so exciting cos we haven't had any time to write with all the touring,” and what is next? “plenty of writing and recording and working on our 2nd album! and lots of catching up with friends before we have to run away on tour again.”

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