| | | |  | you don't know us and we don't know you, that's what makes a one night stand so great. “Righteous, thrilling, scary, loud - The Scare made my dick damn hard.” James Jam, New Music Editor, NME "Dirty,deranged and damn right raucous, they are as intense...
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| Interview | After getting off to a late start, then missing both a bus and a train into the city, and having to get a large pierced and tattooed guy named 'Ezzah' to unlock a public toilet entrance for us, my friend and I were finally in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, where I had arranged to meet Sam Pearton, the drummer for punk-rock quintet, The Scare. They're here doing one of four Queensland based shows tonight, at The Troubador. As we walked up Brunswick street, it was dotted with dressed up fans, some in top hats, capes, and gaunt face paint. Sam sauntered up the street cheerily, and waved to my friend and I. He stopped briefly to talk to friends sitting, beers in hand, in Ric's Cafe beergarden. A moment later and he's with us, I suggested going inside where the loud music wouldn't interfere with the recording, and he agreed totally. We took a table in the corner of the downstairs seating area, and he explained that he only had ten minutes or so, as he had slipped away from sound check, but was more then happy to answer any questions I would fire at him, so took full advantage of it.
Access All Areas.net.au: How old were you all when you knew that music was going to be a major part of your life?
Sam – The Scare: I think we were quite young, Brock, Liam, Kiss and I have been playing music together since we were about 14. It kind of started as a distraction from school and we pretty much played just to piss people off and make noise because we lived in a small town on the Sunshine Coast.
Access All Areas.net.au: What's your favourite thing about the your debut album, Chivalry?
Sam – The Scare: I think it's kind of, it's diversity, we could really take our sound anywhere from here. We always wanted to write a record that, you know, you couldn't catergorise too easily - especially after our first one. I want to chose the direction now and, I think the best thing about this record is that it was really organic from the start.
Access All Areas.net.au: Say, an alien, came to Earth upon hearing the album, and demanded you described it to him, what would you say?
Sam – The Scare: Something along the line of, "You'll probably understand it more then most humans would."
Access All Areas.net.au: What do you hope people will get from the album, and what demographic were you aiming it to reach?
Sam – The Scare: I think we were just aiming at our own personal tastes, and I hope just putting it out there and hoping, you know, a fourteen year old or a fifty year old who's listened to punk-rock for thirty years will feel a similar connection.
Access All Areas.net.au: My Dad likes it, and he's fifty.
Sam – The Scare: [laughs] Awesome, So does my dad!
Access All Areas.net.au: What kind of music were you listening to when you were a teenager.
Sam – The Scare: Um, a lot of kind of punk stuff you know? Bands like The Stooges, The Birthday Party, and a how different array of music really. We've always had, and tried to keep, our influences open, it's like the best of any genre - I mean, I listen to hip-hop, soul, fucking mo-town, garage. I find it all pretty relevent.
Access All Areas.net.au: Did it influence any of the writing of The Scare's material?
Sam – The Scare: Yeah, totally. It's just the body of knowledge that we're working on. We've grown to be a loud, aggresive band. We are the bullshit.. [laughs]
Access All Areas.net.au: What was it like working with Scott Horcroft? [The Sleepy Jackson and The Presets]
Sam – The Scare: Yeah, good. Scott's one of my best friends. Yeah it was good, you know he's got his tinge on the album too, like a lot of the noisy stuff. He's quite an interesting guy, and something that comes across in his production.
Access All Areas.net.au: Cry Junkie, was my favourite from Chivalry, what was the inspiration for that, and for your other songs?
Sam – The Scare: Oh awesome! Uh, Cry Junkie is written about basically being down and out. Lyrically I think it's about, it's based on Kiss [Reid], but it's also written about a bunch of other people we know who have been in fucked up situations and yeah, I think it's kind of like a teenage anthem almost. The other songs are all quite personal I think, there's a few songs that are kind of written about situations and a lot of the lyrics are just about Kiss being, you know, himself.
Access All Areas.net.au: You're a band that uses two drummers?
Sam – The Scare: In the UK, we have two drummers, but for Australia we haven't found anyone that I like enough.
Access All Areas.net.au: Why two?
Sam – The Scare: Just, there's a lot of extra percussion on the record, like a lot of tambourine and cow bell and extra floor toms and stuff. And when we're playing at festivals like Reading and Leeds [Carling Weekends] and such, it's just big and you know, we like to be loud, and it's just crazy.
Access All Areas.net.au: You've toured with likes of The Blood Brothers, Kisschasy, Silverchair, The Gallows and We Are Scientists. What was it like for you to play with such big bands?
Sam – The Scare: Yeah, yeah. It's always good, you always learn something from touring with other bands.
Access All Areas.net.au: Who was your favourite to tour with?
Sam – The Scare: I like Gallows out of those, definately.
Access All Areas.net.au: You've played big UK festivals such as Reading, Download, Leeds, the Kerrang tour, and at Leeds you launched the NME/Radio One stage with 'Eighty Eights'. How did you feel being asked to open the weekend?
Sam – The Scare: I guess hounored, you know it's not often that a small band from Queensland, Australia gets to tour the world, and play at the biggest festivals, and yeah, we were all pretty happy!
Access All Areas.net.au: I've been to Download and Reading, and the atmosphere differs greatly between the two.
Sam – The Scare: Oh awesome! Yeah, it does totally.
Access All Areas.net.au: Which was your favourite one to play?
Sam – The Scare: I guess Reading is probably more us, Download was a little bit.. I think some kids who listen to metal and stuff can relate, but maybe, like our crap and stuff is more orientated with the Reading crowd... But Download was fucking fun! We had such a good time.
Access All Areas.net.au: Did you get to hang with Manson in the end?
Sam – The Scare: No! I didn't get to meet him, but yeah, we all love Marilyn Manson.
Access All Areas.net.au: I only ask becuase I found an NME interview with Kiss, in a toilet, at Download Festival 2007, where he slurs "I only came to see Manson, I just want to hang out with Manson, that's it."
Sam – The Scare: [laughs] Yeah, that fucking interview was horrible!
Access All Areas.net.au: Could it be becuase, he was pissing in a sink at the time?
Sam – The Scare: Yeah, yeah! [laughs] He got in trouble for that.
Access All Areas.net.au: I heard a rumor, that while at Leeds, you stole Absinthe from Ash's dressing room, while they were on stage. Did you do it becuase they pissed you off, or did you just really want their booze?
Sam – The Scare: No [laughs] our guitar tech Tom, walked on to their bus while they were playing and said [he musters up a fairly decent British accent] "I'm gunna fix some drinks for Ash while they're on stage," and he grabbed a carton of Carona and two full bottles of Absinthe. Then Kiss and I were doing an NME interview the next day, and Kiss told NME, and NME told Ash, and Ash confronted me about it and said that I was a "fuck-head". It was pretty funny, I was like "Dude, you're in Ash, for fuck's sake.."
Access All Areas.net.au: Would you do it again?
Sam – The Scare: [without hesitation] Yeah!
Access All Areas.net.au: Who would you say, are the best band, drinking buddy wise?
Sam – The Scare: Die, Die, Die - from New Zealand for sure, they're really good friends of ours.
Access All Areas.net.au: And who would you like to drink with that you haven't already?
Sam – The Scare: Marilyn Manson. [laughs]
Access All Areas.net.au: How are you liking living in sunny Birmingham?
Sam – The Scare: Uh, it's ok, we got really down a few times, but it's fun. We really didn't live there this year, more last year, we spent more time in London this year.
Access All Areas.net.au: I'm from England, so I know the worst of it. But, in all honesty, what do you think of it?
Sam – The Scare: I love it! I like London a lot, and I like the rest - but I just, love London. I mean, we're all suffering from it, and from missing our friends and stuff being everywhere. And like, we're from this town, but I don't feel like I'm from this town at all.
Access All Areas.net.au: What's your favourite part of London?
Sam – The Scare: I like the East. I really do, I think it's just a very great place.
Access All Areas.net.au: What about the 'Warm Beer' belief, that Australian's seem to have?
Sam – The Scare: The beer's not that warm! Fucking hell.. [laughs] You can get cold beers there, definitely.
Access All Areas.net.au: Do you prefer touring in England? There are only five main cities here, and limited venue choices, it must get really old really quickly?
Sam – The Scare: Yeah, I hate touring in Australia. Well, I don't I hate it, but I mean, we're on tour, and I've been doing nothing! All week we do nothing, we went to the Gold Coast yesterday, and then we're doing these four [Queensland] shows, so we got picked up and we just go and it's easy and silly. And the rest is part of a big fucking like, hanging out and being with my girl in Sydney, which is amazing, but she's in a band too, and I just get bored so easily! And I feel like all I do in Australia is social arranging, I'm not complaining but, eating lunch and talking to idiots from labels, it's just silly. Over in the UK, it's just us five versus the world! Here, Kiss is just hanging out with his girlfriend all the time, Wade's got his own shit going on, so does Liam and Brock - We're all very seperated, whereas in the UK we're like [he punches his hand into fist and clenches it]. It's pretty awesome.
Access All Areas.net.au: What UK band do you really like at the moment?
Sam – The Scare: Um, I like a band called Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man a lot, they're our top friends on MySpace, and they supported us in May, they're very interesting, almost like an indie System of a Down or something, if you can picture that; his voice is very like Serj [Tankian]. The guitars are very space age and they're very cool and they have lots of big, gang vocals and they're really, really great guys too.
Access All Areas.net.au: What would be your ideal line up, for an all English show be, taking into account the partying afterwards?
Sam – The Scare: Probably Gallows, a band called Bee Stung Lips, from Birmingham. God, that's a tough one.. Maybe The Horrors guys, they party alright..
Access All Areas.net.au: Are there any British accents, that you really can't stand, or really can't understand?
Sam – The Scare: British accents... I really don't like Leeds, I don't like Northern accents, they really fucking drain me silly, I can understand them, I just, it's just really like a kind of dirty accent, and Birmingham as well. I like the Cockney accent, you know the, "Fookin.. Fookin 'av it.." kind of one. [laughs] I dig Scottish and Welsh accents too yeah, I like them in general.
Access All Areas.net.au: What question do you hate being asked most in interviews?
Sam – The Scare: [taps hands on the table] Uh, that question! [laughs] Nah, no, I don't know.. We kicked out our keyboardist a few years ago, and that was a re-occurring question for a long time, and uh, personal stuff we don't like talking about as well.
Access All Areas.net.au: How would you sell your new album, in ten seconds, if you weren't aloud to talk?
Sam – The Scare: Think.. Think... Think... How do I fucking answer this?!
Access All Areas.net.au: You use your words.
Sam – The Scare: [laughs] Ok, uh, maybe Kiss bleeding from a gutter.. Like, bleeding from his head, into the gutter, with a big billboard behind him, with our logo and "The Singer Died Tonight For This Record," written on it in big letters.
Access All Areas.net.au: Why Kiss dead, why not you or one of the others? Or is it self sacrifice?
Sam – The Scare: Yeah, it's like he killed himself to sell the record! Like Jesus killed himself becuase of Judas, connection shit like that..
Access All Areas.net.au: Finally, and this is entirely hypothetical of course, but if two brightly coloured haired girls asked if you could somehow sneak them back into England, for Download Festival 2008 to see you play, what would you say?
Sam – The Scare: [laughs] Sure! If you guys are ever there, I'll get you the tickets and you can come hang out, you just have to get there.
Access All Areas.net.au: We have this on tape now, do you mean it?
Sam – The Scare: Yeah of course, becuase I'm nice!!
The Scare's debut album, Chivalry, is an album you will no doubt feel indebted to play at the loudest volume you can. Prepare to have your doors bashed on by family or housemates that don't appreciate Kiss Reid's howling vocals, or Sam's thrashing percussion, as 'Eighty Eights', 'Copycat Victims', and 'Cry Junkie', are just three of the 11 stunningly well crafted tracks, that leave you wanting more of this "Small band from Queensland, Australia."
Interview by Daniella Gopsill |
| Biography | you don't know us and we don't know you, that's what makes a one night stand so great.
“Righteous, thrilling, scary, loud - The Scare made my dick damn hard.” James Jam, New Music Editor, NME
"Dirty,deranged and damn right raucous, they are as intense as they are brilliant live. Ones to watch" DAILY STAR
"the scare are like the best pill ever, in a way who wants to be at a shitty "post-punk is vital" kinda gig when you've already had a far bigger and better dick?- Berko "STATIC"
“…barely controlled venom favoured by Cave in his own drug-fuelled days in fronting The Birthday Party. Tempestuous stuff highly recommended…” Disorder
“The Scare… musical equivalent to Russian Roulette. Illicit, exciting and fucking dangerous” Rock Sound
“…sweat, spunk and blood-lust…under their recklessly entertaining exterior, the quintet do have real songs (good ones, too) but primarily The Scare are clearly hell-bent on making the kind of first impression that requires psychological treatment. See you on the couch, then.” NME
“Think At The Drive In fronted by a Nick Cave-Cedric Bixler hybrid. They’ll make you dance, then steal your wallet “ Music Week |
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