Here Comes The Rooster have been making waves on the local scene, chalking up some sweet gigs in 2019. With a name like that you could be forgiven for thinking they sound like a certain 90s Seattle band, but in actual fact their sound sits somewhere between Pink Floyd era psychedelic and 70s surf rock ala early Midnight Oil with a very distinctive Australiana feel. Now having just completed their self-titled EP at Poons Head Studios, Here Comes The Rooster are celebrating with a launch party at Lucy’s Love Shack on Friday, October 11 with support from Ella Munro, Filth Wizard and Seiche. ANTHONY JACKSON had a chat with lead singer, key songwriter, and ruler of the roost, John Sears to find out if he is the cock of the walk.
Congrats on the recording of the EP, this is your second now, how has the sound and direction of the band changed from the first one in 2017?
The first EP I suppose felt as if each song could have been by a different band and in all honesty, it was rushed. We really invested a lot more time and effort into getting these songs ready to record and feel like it has paid off.
When I first pulled the band together, the key idea was that we didn’t force ourselves into a genre. We wanted to build a set like a pack of Arnott’s classic assorted. There is no reason you can’t like Monte Carlo’s and Kingstons. If you like shortbread creams though you are a real piece of shit.
Having no real limitations/direction/any idea what the fuck we were doing gave us a chance to really find our own sound, it just took us a while to get there.
The line up has changed a bit since the first release. How did you get the new members together and settle on this current flock?
I’d previously played with Tristan (guitar) in another band for about five minutes. I really clicked with Tris playing and loved how his guitar lines always put the song first. When the spot came open, he was my first call and I managed to bullshit him enough to get him on board. He’s stuck with us now.
Chris (drums) came on board through an ad. He caught my eye by sending through a demo playing a Jane’s Addiction song (vintage Jane’s Addiction shared the same producer as Alice in Chains – Ed). I think he couldn’t be assed lugging his kit to other auditions so just accepted the first offer he got. He’s stuck with us now.
The outward image of the band seems almost tongue in cheek and satirical though the songs and subject matter are strong and sincere, almost political. Is this a deliberate juxtaposition or is it something that just hatched organically?
I think they are just separate things. On stage we just really want to entertain people, and being slightly self-depreciating and irreverent is probably the only way I know how. It would be much cooler to be serious. I am not cool. Or hot. I’m like the temperature you would wash your dog in. Your dog doesn’t want a hot bath after a hard day, but you don’t want to freeze the bugger. I am tepid personified.
Tell us about the process from the start of writing this body of work through to the studio recording, finalising the tracks to its release?
When the new guys came on board last June we threw away all the old HCTR songs and started again. We wrote about 10 songs to get us gig ready but decided early this year to nail down our picks for an EP. We locked ourselves away with the 4 songs, stripped them back and re-wrote them realising that in the rush to pull the live set together, we probably hadn’t taken the songs to their full potential.
We recorded our songs with Rob at Poons Head who is an absolute bloody legend. He has amazing patience (important when I was throwing tantrums when I couldn’t nail my vocals) and his experience really guided us through the whole recording. He gave us some great ideas that really changed and enhanced the songs. Height felt like a different and much better song largely due to his suggestions. Most importantly, Rob recognised and nurtured my untapped talent as a tamborine player and my tambo solo on Sway is probably the highlight of the EP.
I’d booked the launch date before we even went into the studio in order to keep us focussed (in hindsight, probably a dick move on my end). It ended up being a real race in the end to have the songs ready in time.
The launch next Friday looks to be hoot, a great venue and some killer supports, tell us a bit about the bands and how you went about choosing them for the launch?
I kind of didn’t want to disappoint any of the bands we play with regularly by not asking them to be on the line up so my logic was to not ask any of them and grab some cool bands we hadn’t gigged with before. That way, all our band friends can feel equally jilted.
Seiche is a cool ambient electronic band which I thought would be a cool way to get the night started. More importantly, Tris does production for Seiche and I thought it would be funny to watch him stress over pulling a double shift. I’ve known Clay from Filth Wizard for years and have and have seen his new venture a few times and love their grungy energy. I assume he is also pulling a double shift somewhere in Perth in one of his eleventy bands. Ella Munro is an absolute freak of a musician and I’d been wanting to play with her and her band for a long time now.
What’s next for the Rooster?
We’re back in writing and gigging mode now. We have 2 new songs for the launch and will be looking at locking in some time to record our third EP mid next year. Waiting to hear back from Dylan about a slot on Recovery.
