Tomatrax spoke with indie-garage-pop band, Lunatics On Pogosticks, ahead of their single tour this month, to get a more personal insight into who the band are, what you can expect from them in the big 2015 and the impact of winning a triple j unearthed competition – is the news good or bad? You’ll soon find out!
TRAX: How did the band form?
LOP: James and I just started making these lame noisy pop songs with his electronic drumkit and we’ve sorta just kept going with it I guess.
TRAX: Where did the name Lunatics on Pogosticks come from?
LOP: Bryce is a mega RHCP fan and he chucked up that name. We were like 15 at the time so we thought it was kinda cool, lol.
TRAX: Your bio talks about you now being University students, what are you studying?
LOP: I’m studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Contemporary Music at VCA. James is doing a Bachelor of Commerce (or Economics, I always get confused on which one he does lols) and Bryce is doing Media and Communications at Deakin.
TRAX: You’ve just released your latest EP, where did the title Sleeping Till The Weekend come from?
LOP: I guess it’s just meant to capture the ideas presented through the EP. The lyrics are pretty consistent with being isolated and feeling distant from loved ones. All our family and stuff live in different states to us, so we all just count down the days till we can go see them. So I guess Sleeping Till The Weekend is just trying to convey that idea of wasting time till you’re enjoying the company of people you dig.
TRAX: You released 3 EPs in 2014. Was there any reason you decided to release your music this way rather than putting out an album?
LOP: It wasn’t a conscious decision or anything to be honest. I think it’s just what we’re used to. We’ve got short attention spans so EPS make more sense to us.
TRAX: Are their any plans to release an album?
LOP: Yeah definitely. As you pointed out, all we’ve released have been EPs which have gotten popier each time. So I think the collective consensus has been to try and write something a little less pop and a little more edgy, but then again I think we’ll just run with whatever and see how it pans out.
TRAX: You won Triple J’s Unearthed High competition in 2013. How has this impacted on your music’s exposure?
LOP: Hugely. Definitely has put us in a place where much more people have heard our name and our music and stuff.
TRAX: Did you feel any pressure to change your sound or abandon your punk rock rough edges after winning Unearthed High?
LOP: Yea we totally did. Not that anyone pushed that on us but we thought we should try and clean it up and be a proper studio band and stuff. We sorta ditched that for the latest EP and decided that the whole aim of it was to create something we like as cheap as possible. Ended up spending $0 for recording and mixing which was mega handy cause we’re pretty poor lol.
TRAX: What is the music scene in Lennox Heads like?
LOP: Ummmm there’s not any real scene in Lennox. I only know of Gus Hawkey, who’s a real sweet guy and an ace rapper. Byron’s got a real solid hardcore scene but there’s also Waxhead, Pilots and Skegss who are aceeee.
TRAX: Do you ever listen to your own music?
LOP: Occasionally. I pretend it’s for mixing purposes and stuff but to be honest I really like listening to us. I don’t see much point in writing music you don’t like / want to listen to.
TRAX: What (other) music do you listen to?
LOP: Bowl Cut. That’s about it.
TRAX: What do you have planned in 2015?
LOP: Just play a couple shows, chuck out an album (hopefully make it free or pay what you want cause that’s nice) and pass uni, fingers crossed.
Lunatics On Pogosticks will be on their Cappuccino single tour with support from Skeggs.
Thursday 15th January – Blackbear Lodge, Brisbane
Friday 16th January – The Spectrum, Sydney
Saturday 17th January – Shebeen, Melbourne
FIND OUT MORE ON
