The Basics: Pop and Evolution

I had a chat with the boys from The Basics, and, over beer and sarcasm, found out they are anything but (that is the last time I use that pun, I promise!)

Tim: I’d just like to say it’s a pleasure to meet you all, and I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time [Wally unintentionally interrupts] excuse me- I just wanna ask, (sarcastically) how did you guys come up with the band name?

Kris: I wish more journalists would do that, just stick their hand up and say, hey, wait until I’ve asked my question otherwise I’m gonna write really shit stuff about you...

Wally: Can you really stop a journalist from writing something shit about you...

Kris: Of course not.

Wally: ...without, you know, actually physically stifling them...(laughs)

Kris: They can write something without interviewing you.

Tim: I’m suddenly petrified.

Lisa: If I were a more notorious writer, I could write anything I want and people would believe me.

Tim: I’d believe you. I trust you; I don’t trust any of these guys...(signalling to the innocent-looking drummer and bassist opposite)

Lisa: When is the new album coming out, by the way?

Kris: We're talking April...were still deciding...

Wally: Were sitting around going, (makes hilariously confused face) “April?”

Tim: And eating marmalade.

Wally: What Kris is trying to say is that we may never record again.

Kris: Oh, we’ll record again; we just may never release anything! (laughs)

Lisa: There’ll be piles and piles of Basics backlogged tapes they’ll release twenty years after your deaths. I think people who have been at your shows in the past months will have noticed the material is a lot darker...

Tim: We’ve been doing a lot of motor mechanics...that’s why were darker...

Lisa: (pause to acknowledge awful joke, but can't help but laugh) Was it a conscious effort?

Kris: It was, and it wasn’t. It wasn’t in that we don’t set out to adhere to any one style of genre, but it was in that when we wrote Get Back [The Basics' first album, with original guitarist Michael Hubbard] , we were knowingly going for that r’n’b style. Stuff that we wrote before was more for the audience, this is more for ourselves. It’s more about us and less about....not us. This is taking it to a different level. We were more interested in the overseas market anyway; we were already starting to move our focus away from Australia. We’ve gotta go where the.....I think we’ve done everything we can in this country.

Lisa: How is the new album coming along, by the by?

Kris: It’s rad. Radskies. It’s coming along slowly but we’re getting into gear. We’ve booked in some dates to finish off quite a bit of stuff at Abbey Road in December. The single will be out soon. It’s coming along.

Lisa: You guys are getting well known for your bi and tri-state residencies. Is that difficult?

Kris: It’s not really that bad, you just jump on a plane...

Wally: Knock ‘em down like ten pin bowling.

Kris: The hardest part is that were actually running at a loss (laughs) so we try to make the shows worth the trip. We’ve been doing this for so long and we always feel like we’re perpetually on the verge of something and then, I dunno...people join bands and don’t know why it’s not working, and you become more self aware; “what am I doing?”

Wally: You’re constantly building steam, trying to go somewhere.

Lisa: Do you think a lot of it is “who you know” not “what you know”?

Tim: A lot of the time, for sure.

Lisa: You guys did some high school shows recently. What was the inspiration for that?

Kris: We had played to some underage audiences in the last year or so and they’ve been fantastic and we thought, here is a group that is particularly under-serviced. If you look back in history, a lot of the great bands of yesteryear, Angels, AC/DC, they did a lot of shows at high schools because they couldn’t get a gig anywhere else.

Lisa: You’re playing some shows with the Bawdies again coming up...

Kris: Yeah, they’re gonna be fun, those shows. The Bawdies are a great live band.

Lisa: The first single from the album is going to be With This Ship, which many people thought was a big deviation from your earlier, poppier works...

Kris: With This Ship is very poppy, the recording of it, wait 'til you hear it, it just screams FM.

Lisa: Yeah, you gonna sell it to Nova?
Kris: Probably, at least they play our stuff.
Lisa: I’m sure they can squeeze it in somewhere between The Veronicas and...

Kris: I’d like to squeeze in between the Veronicas...

Lisa: Gross!

The Basics play:

3 Dec- Brighton Secondary- North Brighton, SA
3 Dec- Jive with The Bawdies (Japan)- Adelaide
4 Dec- Theatre Royal with The Bawdies (Japan-) Castlemaine
5 Dec- East Brunswick Club with The Bawdies (Japan)- Melbourne
6 Dec- Republic Bar with The Bawdies (Japan)- Hobart
7 Dec- Lewisham Tavern with The Bawdies (Japan)- Lewisham (TAS)

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