Gigantic - ¿Hay un abogado en etapa?
» A Gigantic Tour! - September 28, 2006
Being a lawyer must be a pretty cool gig; not only can you drink lots of wine, talk about personal liberties and shout ‘OBJECTION!’ when someone says something you don’t like, but according to some reports, you may even have access to more drugs and groupies than your average rock star.
Not that that is why Mark Di Renzo clocks in at the state solicitor’s office in Western Australia each day. For Di Renzo, it’s all about the annual leave and a regular income that allows him to tour with his band, Gigantic. And the way the band are going, Di Renzo is going to need as much annual leave as he can get.
Starting out as a “sort of casual thing”, Gigantic, with Di Renzo on vocals and bass and his brother Paul drumming, have been building momentum since 2002 when their debut EP My Friend Radio got some regular rotation on Triple J and NOVA FM. Later that year they scored a nomination for WA’s Most Promising New Band at the influential Kiss My WAMi awards. Since then, things have gone all international, with Gigantic signing up with Barcelona based label Bip Bip Records, and San Francisco label, Zip Records. All this, the release of their debut album, Gigantaphonic Sound, and a Europe/US tour in 2008, mean Di Renzo has had to become pretty friendly with the HR department.
‘I think you sort of start out and you have a goal of playing some shows and then the next goal is “Lets release an EP”… and before you know it, you tour and tour … and tour,’ says Di Renzo, ‘It’s all still on an indie DIY scale, but it’s a great thing when you’re not stuck behind a computer and [you] take your annual leave and use it for something exciting rather than the standard sort of holiday.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint when Gigantic was born, as they seem to have been whittled down from the comings and goings of various people. A few years back, Di Renzo responded to an ad for a bass player to join two neighbours who were working on some songs together. It wasn’t until the singer left to pursue a career in television, that Di Renzo decided to bring in other members, including his brother, Paul, on drums. ‘I sort of thought, “‘I’m enjoying this and I want to do this seriously’”. So we got some other people in and Paul came in to play drums and I guess we haven’t really looked back since. And we’ve had people come and go, we weren’t always a two piece as such, but I guess we’re the only two who could put up with each other and it’s pretty hard to fight that brotherly love, despite all the creative differences.”
While Mark and Paul make up the core of Gigantic, the band had various people involved in recording Gigantaphonic Sound including Joel Quartermain from Eskimo Joe and Rodney Aravena from End of Fashion. A fuller line-up for their live performances, allows Gigantic to really push their guitar/vocals driven, power-pop melodies. It’s a sound that is beginning to gain attention overseas with college radio stations in the US picking up their first release as well as several stations in Europe. The band have also been included on a few international pop compilations released in Brazil, Japan, the US and Europe.
‘We slowly sort of seem to have developed an overseas profile and to be perfectly honest, it’s something Paul and I sort of aspired to. Y’know once we started touring in Australia, we wanted to do more and it’s really appealing to go somewhere foreign and play shows. When the album was done we sent a few copies – it wasn’t many at all – to one or two people who had shown interest, or to labels we thought would like our stuff. And it was as easy as that. We had a couple offers in Spain and the label we went with, Bip Bip records, we knew about and liked what they were doing. We also liked the idea that we were the first band that they had signed outside of Europe and they were really excited about signing an Australian band.’
But relationships with record labels on the other side of the world aren’t without their problems and there have been some lost-in-translation moments between the band and their Spanish A&R rep, who relies on his brother to translate interview questions. Not always successfully.
Not to be put off, Di Renzo has started Spanish lessons and can respond with “no comprehendo” when the Spanglish isn’t working. He also knows that when someone says, “Le amo con todo mi corazón y alma” they aren’t channelling Linda Blair, but rather expressing their love and devotion. And with The Dwarf adding, ‘can I please have a beer?’ to his vocabulary, Di Renzo is ready to conquer Latino countries the world over.
But first they have to conquer Australia … for the fifth time.
Following four successful national tours in Gigantic hit the road in September on their final tour before heading overseas. For Di Renzo the best thing about touring is the exposure to other Australian bands, “you get to play with so many great bands who you often haven’t heard of, or you’ve only heard a track on MySpace … you really get to see some fantastic talent … There is so much music out there and I think there are so many people out there who are missing out by not getting off their backsides and going down to their local music venue and having a look. There’s not really too much to lose.’
Styling the tour after the distinctive 80s influences popping up on ‘Lied To’, they have dubbed it the Denim Tour and may just break out the clothing to match. ‘I have these really cool [80s] Levi’s jeans … pity I can’t fit into them … I was pretty young at the time’.
