Tired Lion are one of Australia’s favourite rock acts, having played with the likes of Violent Soho and Dune Rats as well as making a name for themselves embarking on their own huge headline tours. Years of hard work culminated with the release of their debut album Dumb Days last year, and after a well-deserved break they are returning to the stage. You can catch Tired Lion as they headline the free entry 6006 In The Park event this Sunday, January 28 at Woodville Reserve, North Perth. KIERRA POLLOCK chatted to frontwoman Sophie Hopes ahead of the show about the importance of events celebrating Perth, touring, Dumb Days, and special plans for the show.
Tired Lion have played a few shows that celebrate Perth or Western Australia, are these shows important to you guys?
Yeah for sure! Obviously, we love our home town and if we could we would just stay and play shows here all the time. When we get the opportunity to play an awesome line up in Perth it’s always super fun and it is really important because the hub of the industry isn’t located here so people tend to forget about us a little bit. These shows have always been some of the most fun because we get to hang out with all our friends and bands that we love.
You guys had some pretty cool shows and things lined up over in the UK earlier in the year, what was it like getting to play on the other side of the world?
It was exactly the same except it took a hell of a lot longer to get there. We’ve done it a few times now, but it is cool to see people on the other side of the world singing along to our lyrics and they know who we are, so that makes it a pretty special moment. It’s crazy how good the response is going over there actually, we have a really killer team.
It seems that artists seem to release albums very quickly these days, but you guys drew out the process, do you think this has payed off?
I hope to think so. I think if you rush into something and you don’t try and improve or you don’t try and make it your very best then it might be a bit of a waste of time. I know in my heart I wanted to release something a lot sooner, but I’m happy and the band is happy that we waited it out and made sure we were 100 percent set on the album before throwing it out there. Its something that you have to listen to and that’s against your name for the rest of your life. I think, well I hope, its paid off, but we were all really happy with waiting and if we’d released anything sooner, who knows, it could have been a whole different vibe.
Dumb Days is an excellent album, one of my favourite tracks is I’ve Been Trying, could you tell me a bit more about it?
Initially that song was a pretty chilled song, because the start is more stripped back and emotional. We were sitting on that song for a few years and we just had a riff and we had lyrics and then Luke (Boerdam, Producer) came along and said, “You know what would be really rad, if we had a heavy ending,” and Matt came up with that riff and since then the song kind of progressed into its own new life. Instead of having it as a stripped back song, it turned into something really different. We would chuck that one into sets before we released the album to gauge the crowd’s reaction. I’m glad you like that one, it’s one of my favourites, and I think it strays from that single mentality. It’s not just verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. I think that does really reflect who we are as a band. We love rock and we love being emotional and we like stripping songs back.
I also really love Japan, it’s one of the best album openers I’ve heard in a while, was that an easy decision to put that track first, and what’s the story behind that track?
I think instantly when that song was jammed after the pre-production phase we were pretty set on having that as the opener. It’s one of my favourites on the album as well. The track is about how, other than tours, I don’t really get out of the house much, I kind of stay indoors and work on music and other art and stuff and my ex-boyfriend now was saying I should get out of the house more often. I was just kind of angry and wondering why everyone saw that (staying in) as wrong, and wondering why I had to do what everyone else wanted me to do.
Someone described it as a bit of a hissy fit, but I was just doing what I wanted to do, and I don’t see why you have to please other people by sticking with the norm and doing what they want me to do. It’s me being frustrated at the fact that I’m not a very social person and I don’t like going out every day and going to restaurants and shopping. I like art and my music and I was frustrated at the fact that I couldn’t fit into the little pocket that society wanted me to be in. It was just me venting at the time, like “ugh you’re so pathetic, wanting me to go out.”
Then I started reflecting on the things that I see when I do go out of the house, “Mally shops and kids on computers.” There’s this Mall next to the Galleria that’s all run down and I just remember walking through and thinking, “How are these shops all still open, there’s no one around buying things” it really confused me. There were these kids sitting on their games in the middle of the store, and I was just over analysing everything. “Drunk people sleeping in cars, mosquitoes biting their arms,” I used to go to this Vietnamese place and I saw people sleeping in their cars in front of the pub from the night before. I guess the song is just all an over analysation, I don’t think it’s an unrealistic view on the world though.
I’ve seen you guys live quite a few times, and you are always brilliant, anything special in store for this 6006 In the Park show?
Ooh I don’t know. Maybe we should create a 6006 represent t shirt or something, nothing that I can think of now. Maybe I’ll bring my dog because she’s never watched me before.
