| | | |  | After a manic start to the year with festivals, sacrilegious rock singles and record deals, Brisbane Hip Hop degenerates - Butterfingers, have dropped a new instalment of cheeky tunes that will keep you warm during a cold, cold winter in HELL! ‘FIGJAM’...
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| Interview | Eddie from Butterfingers
Access All Areas.net.au: How did the band come together?
Butterfingers: Butterfingers is kind of a collection of old Brisbane bands now since they all disintegrated or whatever. I’ve been in few bands with Dave, our bass player, actually all of them at different points and I hadn’t been in a band for a little while and had accidentally booked myself for a gig and only had a short time to get a band together, so I rang the most reliable and good musicians and had that gig and we’ve stayed together ever since.
Access All Areas.net.au: How do you describe your sound?
Butterfingers: I don’t really know, I don’t really put us in to one category of music, I couldn’t say it’s hip hop or anything. It’s probably an ecliptic mix of everything – all things good!
Access All Areas.net.au: What can we expect from the upcoming album that you're collaboating with Magoo on?
Butterfingers: More of the same really, there will definitely be a lot of different styles on it. Topically, I don’t know, we’re sort of working on two albums at once at the moment so we haven’t sorted out what’s going to go where. Probably a little bit more grown up and not as stupid.
Access All Areas.net.au: The band has spent a lot of time touring and playing live; do you prefer this to the recording experience?
Butterfingers: I don’t prefer… I like both things. I enjoy recording where the songs come to life on paper and then you hear back and you work on things. The creative process is really cool but at the same time though touring is wicked too and playing songs live. It’s a rush in itself as well. I couldn’t say which I’d rather do… I don’t know.
Access All Areas.net.au: Do you prefer to play the festival gig atmosphere or your own gigs?
Butterfingers: Same again, there’s good things about both. I prefer the actual show and at playing a smaller gig because the crowd is so much closer. It’s cool because you can see everyone direct and give energy at every single person in the room. There’s so many people at a festival and they’re all so far away because you are up so high on the stage. It’s like performing on TV, like you know people are watching but can’t feel them there so much.
Access All Areas.net.au: What is your impression of the Australian music scene and how do you fit into it?
Butterfingers: My impression of it is it’s good at the moment. There’s lots of good bands and so much support for Australian music in general. The general public aren’t rejecting it anymore and the fact that independent artists John Butler and The Waifs are doing so great as well it’s good to see people can do it by themselves and make a career out of it.
Butterfingers: We’re still Independent, we’re still signed to Road Trash which has been our label ever since the start but we’ve licensed to Festival [Mushroom Records] at the moment, so we’re kind of half way in between. We still do what we want and not we’re not restricted and they’ve got a bit more push… so we’ve got the best of both worlds.
Access All Areas.net.au: How has the band progressed in the time you've spent together?
Butterfingers: Our first ever gig was basically acoustic, maybe one hip hop track in the end and everything else was melancholy and slow and morbid and that’s completely different to what we are doing now. I definitely think that our musicianship has changed, and especially Damo, our drummer, he’s one of the only drummers that I’ve ever ever seen…. like we play with a sampler, right, and there is a whole bar loop that he has to play in time to but we don’t use a clip track. Like see drummers you would usually see with headphones on – whereas we’re all completely organic in the way that every sample get’s triggered by Olly. They kind of play together, and we just have to stay in time. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that ever!
Access All Areas.net.au: Any words of wisdom of your own which might be passed on to up and comers?
Butterfingers: The biggest question I always get asked is “how do you guys get where you are” and “we wanna do what you do” but I think the main thing is to be prepared to tour because we started touring when we had no airplay. We drove to Melbourne for a gig we booked and it was crap, no one was there, we didn’t make any money in fact we lost lots of money, we learnt the hard way but that’s what you have to do – go everywhere so everyone hears your name until you get to a point where you get momentum going. It doesn’t matter what city you live in you’re not going to get heard of unless you tour.
Access All Areas.net.au: How does it feel to have the support of Triple J behind you? How important has this been to your progress?
Butterfingers: It’s so important. The touring is one side but radio airplay is as much help to us as anything. If it wasn’t for them, we’d probably still be struggling so they’ve been crucial. If it wasn’t for them we’d still be no where.
Access All Areas.net.au: What can you tell us about the Figjam release?
Butterfingers: Yep its kind of like first verse of a recap of things that happened to me during our first album… my house burnt down, I lost my job and its basically looking back at that and looking at how now everything is going well at the moment for me. An into the chorus it’s like I get cocky at it to the point where the fans hate me and stab me [laughs]. I know it happens to lots of people where its really easy to let it get to your head.
Access All Areas.net.au: Finally, what inspired the name Butterfingers?
Butterfingers: I don’t know – I just had a list of band names that I thought sounded really cool and we had a band meeting and went through the list and that’s the only one we could agree on. |
| Biography | After a manic start to the year with festivals, sacrilegious rock singles and record deals, Brisbane Hip Hop degenerates - Butterfingers, have dropped a new instalment of cheeky tunes that will keep you warm during a cold, cold winter in HELL! ‘FIGJAM’ is the star of the 4 track single with a lowbrow punch to the face and enough hooks to send Dr. Dre into therapy. This song is impossible to resist and provides a tempting little preview of the new Butterfingers album that is sure to blow some musical minds wide open.
Brisbane’s hip-hop trail-blazers, Butterfingers, comprising of members Eddie Jacobson: vocals, guitar, samples; Olly Thomas: percussion, samples, vocals; Dave Crane: bass, vocals; and Damien Green: drums, vocals; have already begun their assault on 2005, kicking off the year performing at the Big Day Out nationally.
From their humble beginnings in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley nightclubs, Butterfingers have been going from strength to strength as they forged a name for themselves with their infectiously manic and unconventional Hip Hop/Rock sounds
Butterfingers have been blazing a trail through the Australian live music scene for over three years now. An opening spot on the main stage of Livid 2003 earned Butterfingers a whole brand of new fans and kept their existing ones captivated with a selection of songs that would feature on their long player debut, Breakfast at Fatboys. The more consistent and widespread the touring became, the bigger and more responsive the crowds got and in 2004, life on the road became a constant.
Over the last 12 months the band has played alongside acts such as Spiderbait, Regurgitator, Machine Gun Fellatio, Koolism, The Herd and Downsyde as well as headlining the notorious 2004 Valley Fiesta where they were shut down after 3000 punters tried to make their way into the Valley Mall to catch a glimpse of Brisbane’s favourite new band. The bands 2004 touring schedule culminated with a national tour with Machine Gun Fellatio in November and performances at Woodford Folk Festival and The Falls Festival. To top off a manic year Butterfingers were nominated for an ARIA award in the Best Independent Release category.
The band will head back into the studio shortly to record Album #2 with acclaimed Australian producer, Magoo. The album will be released nationally on Valley Trash records through FMR. |
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