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ON THE COUCH WITH: Bright Yellow

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: How did the band get together?
Bright Yellow: The band got together midway through high school, Chris and I (Jeff) started playing guitar, doing covers and that sort of thing. We met Toby a year or so later who started drumming for us. We started out first shows doing competitions and went on from there.

Access All Areas.net.au: How would you describe your sound?
Bright Yellow: We try to keep our sound raw and like to stay away from too much production. We like to have the freedom to jam the songs out. It's alternative, a sound that people can hopefully relate to.

Access All Areas.net.au: Who would you cite as influences?
Bright Yellow: Our sound has got a lot of grunge influences: Screaming Trees, Nirvana and Sonic Youth, that sort of thing. We also take a lot from artists such as Jeff Buckley and The Smiths. The list of influences never ends; we get it from new music, local bands and as well as each other.

Access All Areas.net.au: 3 Classic albums that have moulded the band/artist?
Bright Yellow: Classic albums are Top 40 charts (volume 1 to 800)

Access All Areas.net.au: What influenced you to get into music?
Bright Yellow: The influence to get into music came from the Beatles, friends, family, and the kind of teenage exploration we all have a kick ass time with. We just so happened to fit right into music, it's what we wanted. We started together and kept each other interested.

Access All Areas.net.au: Dream band to tour/work with?
Bright Yellow: Being huge Screaming Trees fans, and seeing Mark Lanegan perform with the Twilight Singers recently, it would have to be Mark Lanegan Band. He's soulful, raw and truly passionate.

Access All Areas.net.au: Are there any stories from touring or on stage antics that you can tell us about?
Bright Yellow: Tour stories always seem quite similar to, "we got drunk, we broke down, we lost our gear, we watched a beautiful sunset". They’re a great experience for bands and a huge part of the lifestyle, but sometimes it's better not to feed the rock n roll cliché.

Access All Areas.net.au: If there was one message you would like your music to get across, what would it be?
Bright Yellow: If there is a message we're trying to communicate, it's already there in the music. You will have to listen and find it... Everybody gets what he or she wants from music. We write for ourselves in the knowledge that people will make it their own.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Boundary Sounds is very pleased to bring you the first release on the label: Bright Yellow's Love's Not A Comfort EP, out now through Inertia Music.

Passionate, young, and full of angst, Bright Yellow have a gritty grunge aesthetic that is both beautiful and cathartic, and is something to behold. Locked within this EP is the fear of betrayal and the fragility of hope, emotions so human it almost hurts to hear them sung out loud.

So, the story...
In 2003, fifteen year old UK expat guitarist/singer Chris Surgey, was suddenly stranded in whoop whoop (actually, the Central Coast hamlet of Morriset), and so decided to get a band together to kill the boredom. He shared a nip of scotch over school lunch with drummer Toby Ryan and was in turn introduced to bass player Jeff Theys, and thus, a band was formed.

Cutting their teeth on Beatles covers, they quickly noticed that they weren't really ripping them up. So they decided to have a go at a couple of songs that Chris had been working on, and discovered they were onto something hot. Since then their sound has evolved to what it is now: brilliant, messy, cathartic and grunge, inflected with undeniable passion and pop smarts.

Playing live shows at local parties their new audiences noticed one more thing, that Chris has a flat out incredible voice. And so spurred on by their considerable promise, an anonymous friend entered them in the Newcastle Music Awards. They won 'Best Alternative Act'. This was shortly followed by a win in the annual Youth Rock competition, and the stage was set. Within two weeks Bright Yellow were inundated with offers from all manner of labels from indies to majors, finally deciding to work with fresh Sydney label Boundary Sounds.

Produced by Matt Lovell (Silverchair, The Mess Hall, Something For Kate), and mixed by James Cadsky (Bumblebeez, Young and Restless), Love's Not A Comfort is an exciting introduction to a band who will be making more than a few waves in the coming years, filled with the intense angst of 'Mr Officer', the screamy guitar rock of 'Outa My Soul', the gorgeous 'Nice and Agreeable', and the grunge pop of 'Funnybone'.

The first song off the EP 'Outa My Soul' received considerable airplay across the nation, featuring on FBi, 4ZZZ and 3RRR. Already Myspace, AMO and MP3.com have picked up on the buzz surrounding this young band, making them features artists in late 2006.

Bright Yellow has just finished an East Coast tour in support of the Sick Puppies, and has shared the stage with The Sleepy Jackson, Ratatat, Josh Pyke, Kisschasy and Evermore. The Love's Not a Comfort EP is a perfect introduction to a band that could shred your soul into pieces, and it is available in stores now.

www.myspace.com/brightyellow

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Live @ Rock at the Schools tour 2010

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

The Panics
One of the best was Splendor In The Grass a couple of years back when we had just released our album cruel guards. I just remember this massive circus tent overflowing with people singing along,people on each others shoulders, just great atmosphere.

Worst Festival Experience?
Remember being very young and losing my friends, and my shoes at a festival in Perth. I had to climb a tree out the front and wait for them and try and spot them on the way out, and someone threw a chicken at me!

Do you remember going to you first festival? What was it like? (How old were you? Who did you go with? Who did you see? What did you wear?)
I remember going to festivals with my guitarist Drew when we were teenagers. I think the earliest was one called sommersault in perth, I was about fourteen and remember Beck playing. I think we probably had pink hair and army pants like everyone else that day! I remember kissing a girl, I was pretty stoked with that because I remember drew did not kiss a girl...ha!

What festival essentials do you always bring with you? Or are there certain rituals you always do or things you always check out?
I dont bring many valuables because I lose them often... including guitars!

Best and worst things you’ve seen people wear at a festival?
I've seen people nude,generally that goes in the 'worst' bin. white dresses with red wine stains down the front are a favourite.seen a guy passed out in a tux on a forty degree day, I enjoy that too.

Funniest thing someone has come up to you and said at a festival or silliest behaviour you’ve witnessed?
I've seen people fall out of trees. I remember a guy in a bin wearing lipstick laughing his head off,thats pretty weird. ive had a guy come on stage when we were playing, put his arm around me and just stand there giving the crowd a thumbs up and a big smile for a song,that was pretty strange.