The Wollongong area has long been a breeding ground for top notch punk rock bands and latest addition, RADIO REJECTS is no exception. Hot on the heels of the release of a great video clip for new track "The Greatest" we caught up with the band's drummer Mat Brander.
At what point did RADIO REJECTS form and how did it all come together?
Radio Rejects started in 2018 when Smith (originally the bassplayer, now vocals) and I had just finished up with our prior band and we both coincidently moved down south away from the Wollongong. Whenever we had some spare time we'd jam in my garage. There was a show coming up and we decided to play a one off show with the songs we had been playing around on. These songs were just piss-take songs that we had so much fun playing around with, so we asked a couple of friends to make it happen for the show. We had a blast with it and decided let's see what happens if we play more and now here we are!
Would readers recognise the members from any other bands?
Yeah you'll recognise the faces from bands such as Deny and Defy, Steel City Allstars, Darkest Days, Colytons, Bad Earth, Kamikaze Harry, Strawberry Fistcake, Punch The Clown, Seven Margaritas and Cult Killers.
In your own words, how would you describe the sound of RADIO REJECTS and what bands are influencing this sound?
I think the best way to say it as we take the fun stuff from Descendents and Teenage Bottlerocket, the darker ones by the Misfits but still keeping a melodic hardcore element too with H2O / Dag Nasty style songs thrown in the mix. I think that's why we just call it dadcore! Ha ha
What would be a dream line up of bands to play with?
As from the band any of those above mentioned but personally my ultimate show to play would be Descendents headline, 88 Fingers Louie, 59 Times The Pain and Satanic Surfers. Actually, any band that Rodrigo Alfaro plays in. Still yet to see him play and hope it will happen one day.
You guys hail from the Wollongong area. How was the local music scene there pre lockdown? What sort of local bands do you play with and any you’d recommend people
check out?
Yeah there's a huge scene in Wollongong and such a huge range of great bands too in all genres. There's the usual suspects in Last, Topnovil, Rukus, UTI and Hoon. We've mostly played with Sydney bands like Two Faced, Automatic Heroes, Bad Earth, Rimmingtons, Crash and the Crapenters and Ess-Em. Also check out our Melbourne mates in All Hope Remains, Awake Now, Seven Margaritas and the lads from Donkey Vote.
You’ve just released a new track “The Greatest” via Riot Records. How did the recording and the addition to Riot Records all come about?
The Greatest is a song we went into Main St Studios with Adam kinda raw but come out of it very happy. Smith did most of it, but we all had a great input in the final product. It was just an added bonus to send it to the Blasting Room for mastering and Jason did a rad job too. With Riot Records they hit us up to join their roster and we were pretty shocked initially, but they've been great to deal with and we are super stoked with em! Thanks Mark and Jagger!
What’s the track about exactly and who let you paint their house in the video clip?
The Greatest is a song about being a dad and how stoked and proud we are of our groms. As all great parents are! A song I've always wanted to make and be able to honour my greatest achievement in my son Bodhi and watching the progression he takes in life. Hopefully he can appreciate it in years to come. Smith did an awesome job with the lyrics!
Adam from Main St is now doing film clips for bands as well as recording and made up the scenario with Smith as the 80s sitcom cheesy as theme to it which was hilarious to do. With the clip we were told the house was going to be knocked down and to do what we like to it. So we trashed it, graffed it and made a fun show of it too. Apparently that's not the case no more and it still stands and the owner is trying to sell it and is showing people the house with Beer Is Good on it's windows and a heap of holes in it's walls.
Must be a pretty weird time to release a new track and not being able to play a launch show?
Oh for sure! It's been good and bad though. With plenty of people stuck indoors it has worked out okay as more people are on their computers I suppose to check it out, but we're hanging to get to playing shows again!
What else is in store in the foreseeable future for RADIO REJECTS?
We've got a bunch of new songs we've been working on and siked to record them so we've got more songs for everyone. It's been hard with a few lineup changes, so now we've got that sorted we'll be locking in plenty of tunes. Hopefully once we can get out and about again try and get around the country too.
How can people get in touch or keep up with what’s happening with RADIO REJECTS?
There's the main Radio Rejects socials on Facebook and Instagram and the Greatest clip is on YouTube to go check out at your leisure. Also check out all the major streaming sites like Spotify etc.