Those damn, dirty Apes are at it again. And that sure as hell isn’t a bad thing! The Melbourne band will be gracing the Blurst of Times festival stages with their garage rock goodness. Happy had a quick yak with the band about the shows and their first UK tour.
Happy: You guys were just in the UK for the first time, how were the shows?
Apes: The shows went great over there! It was quite overwhelming right before hand being like “Holy shit we’re playing our first show overseas” but it was awesome! The first night in London our lighting tech set off the fire alarm with his smoke machine bahaha but it all added to the wonderful clutter that was scrapping around getting the shows to work! We got there in the end and had a ball! The UK crowds were all awesome and they love to drink hard at gigs because of the London curfew so naturally they’re right into it nice and early!
Happy: What would you say was the highlight of the UK tour?
Apes: Probably playing a show at this place called the Fallow Café in Manchester. We turned up and it looked this tiny room with couches and stuff, we could barely fit on the stage, we ended up sound checking and knicking off for a bit. We came back and the room looked awesome, and packed out! Then out of nowhere this pack of dudes at the front got fairly mortal, they invaded the stage while we were playing, screamed the lyrics in Ben’s face, they even got chanted for an encores… and in the UK! That doesn’t even happen here for us haha it was quite a vindicating experience fair to say.
Happy: Would you say it was any different to shows back home?
Apes: Yeah it was different, definitely not “better” though; the whole atmosphere is quite different over there. Bands often play a lot earlier because a lot of cities have a curfew, especially on week nights. That being said, there’s such a crazy pub culture over there, people knock off work at 5 get the tube to their local music venue, smash beers till 10.30 then go home. We were quite worried about headlining slots being at like 9.30 pm which was different, but it kind of worked hand-in-hand with the way their music fans go about their business. It was pretty cool how they were right into it from the get go, and support bands got a real great rap over there to, they just love their music no matter who’s playing, what time they don’t care!
Happy: Is it surreal at all to be getting all this love on Radio BBC1 and the like?
Apes: It’s very surreal! We’re all completely humbled by it to be honest! I still can’t believe I play in a band that actually releases songs! It was always a huge goal for us to do ANYTHING overseas whether it be playing gigs, radio plays, listeners commenting from another country, it’s amazing and we’re super grateful for it! We didn’t really grasp how influential BBC is over there until we were actually there, and to realise what they had done for us, backing the single and so forth it was awesome, so we’re all still pretty chuffed over here in Apes camp!
Happy: Well now that you’ve conquered the UK, what’s the next stop on Apes’ world domination tour? Is there anywhere you guys really want to go play?
Apes: Hahaha you make us sound like Alexander the Great! Only he never needed a credit card to invade another country! I think we really want to head back over to the UK to be honest, we only played 4 shows there and there’s tons more stuff in the UK we would love to get on board with, a tour of Europe would be nice, but firstly we love touring Australia! So I think that’s on the cards before we even think about heading over the pond, hopefully a national by the end of the year would be sick! Would be nice to go to Mexico though… cigars, tequila & a cheap economy! Sounds like a lovely destination for us lads!
Happy: And now of course you’re back with Blurst of Times on the horizon. Who are you excited to see on the line up? (you can’t say Apes!)
Apes: I’m pretty psyched to see a few actually, Die! Die! Die!, Jeremy Neale, The Creases! Saw Die! Die! Die! play a show not long ago, it was fucking mental! The sound those dudes make for a 3 piece is incredible and their new album rules, and of course DZ, they’re the tits so that will be a great headliner for the festival.
Happy: Blurst made a lot of people happy by announcing the Sydney and Melbourne dates. What do you think has made this event so popular? (you can say Apes)
Apes: I guess the idea that another festival is popping up just makes people happy in general! We’ve all seen this sad trend of venues closing down, certain festivals shutting the gates and bands pulling out here and there, so that fact they’re expanding into other cities pretty much just breaks that! It’s pretty sweet, so bravo to those guys! And yeah….of course… APES.
Happy:It’s been a few months since Pull The Trigger was released; the people are itching for more Apes tunes! Anything in the works, like another EP or perhaps a full length?
Apes: At the moment were just promoting our new track Strange Tastes it’s fairly infant at this stage, it’s only been out a week or two I think… haha, so just focusing on that really and playing as much as possible! In terms of new releases we’re always writing new stuff when we can in-between gigs so there will undoubtedly be more Apes stuff down the road!
Happy: What else is on the horizon for Apes?
Apes: A fair few shows coming up, we’ve got the Manchester Orchestra tour soon and probably an east coaster in the works for ourselves! Festival of the Sun in December which will be sick and just a few spot shows here and there and then finishing off the year and NYE on the Hill. We’re mostly just gigging as much as possible and writing really. I’m also still attempting to watch The Wire! I’m into season 3! Man this show goes on for ages, it’s awesome though.
FIND OUT MORE ON
