interview with Motherslug
What´s the name of your band? Motherslug
Can you tell about your band? Five piece stoner doom band from Melbourne, Australia formed in early 2012.
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?
Nick drums - Ballarat (regional Victoria)
Cyn - bass - South Korea
Matt - guitar - Western Australia
Cam - vocals - Melbourne
Danny - Gold Coast, Queensland
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? To play Doomsday Festival, a local festival of stoner doom bands with an international headliner. We achieved that on Oct 4th 2014 when we played with Beastwars and Windhand - next stop Roadburn!
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Sabbath, but slower and heavier.
Where was your first gig? Cherry Bar in AC/DC lane, Melbourne
Where was the latest gig? A venue called Yah Yahs in Melbourne for Doomsday Festival.
Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? So far most of the music has been written by Nick and Cam writes the lyrics
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? Most gigs are all original material but we have performed a couple of covers to add a bit more audience interaction into our live show, particularly if we are playing to a crowd that has never seen us before.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We have a self titled EP released on 12th December 2012 (that was supposed to be the day the world ended) and a single Three Kings In Darkness released on April Fools Day 2014
Do you have any clips on YouTube? We have a couple of live clips and a couple of photo montage clips, you can find them here https://www.youtube.com/user/MotherslugBand/videos
Best/worst gig you've played?
The best gig so far was at Brewtality Festival to a sold out venue and we were on fire, the crowd dug it and we were on a (natural) high for days afterwards.
The worst gig was at a place called Rock Dungeon. During load in Matt's distortion pedal fell through a hole in the floor never to be seen again. Nick overestimated his ability to consume copious alcohol before a gig and the set was an absolute trainwreck - people still dug it which baffles me to this day.
What places will you be playing in in the immediate future? We head to Brisbane on November 8th to play with Lizzard Wizzard, Hobo Magic, Inwoods and Black Deity, Metal Fiesta 6 in Canberra in November 22nd to support Prong and back in Melbourne Nov 23rd at Green Lane Festival with Watchtower, Dreadnaught and heaps of other bands.
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? Recently it would be Hobo Magic but the best band of all time would be hard to decide because I have seen so many - Parliamant, Marianne Faithfull, Laurie Anderson, Rowland Howard, Rollins Band (End of Silence tour) and the original line up of Beasts of Bourbon.
Is it always the same songs live? We have eight songs so far and a live set usually consosts of four or five, so we tend to shuffle them around and maybe throw in a cover every now and then to keep it interesting for our regular punters.
Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? We toured three states for our launch of Three Kings, which was about 3,000km of driving, the distance from Stockholm to Leipzig
How big crowds do you usually play for? The numbers vary greatly from empty rooms to full venues (200-300 people)
Where do you usually play? The Bendigo Hotel (metal capital of Melbourne) and The Brunswick Hotel are our regular venues and we play Cherry Bar a bit as well.
What are your sources of inspiration? Science Fiction and Fantasy novels
What's the first step when making a new song? The riff
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? CD is/was the worst format forced on an unsuspecting public so I will happily dance on the grave of compact discs. I love downloading music, it has given me and all of our fans around the world instant access to music at the lowest possible cost. Particularly since we are on the other side of the world (to most people) shipping costs for cd's and vinyl are huge.
What would be your dreams for the band? I would love to see Motherslug get some national airplay for our upcoming album which would mean more punters at the gigs and in turn means that we could tour more broadly in Australia and eventually overseas. The dream is to get to Roadburn and tour Europe.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? I love the limelight, I don't suffer stage-fright or nerves but have come close to having a guitar headstock take out an eye when we are all throwing ourselves around the stage.
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? I am an animator and visual effects artist currently working on video content for live performance and music videos. I used to work on feature films and games.
How often do you rehearse? not enough
Where do you rehearse? We jam at my place when we are in writing mode and at Hydra studios when we are getting ready for a gig.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Trippin On Evil is a band favourite and Symptoms of the Human Race is a live favourite.
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? I don't think we will ever support ourselves from our music but we get such a buzz out of playing live and when there is a big crowd all banging their heads and getting into it the high we get from that is enormous and can last for days afterwards.
Do you have any webpages? We have one in development but you can find all of our info and music on facebook
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Don't be a dick!
Describe your show, visually and musically Lots of hair, fog and low end.
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Getting people to put the bong down, get off the couch and come to a gig.
What is your favorite crappy instrument?
I love the ukelele
What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? Any time that we have to organise artwork for a release or merchandise, no one can agree on anything!
Whats your Pre-show ritual? About a week before the gig I sing every night and do some jogging to build up my fitness. The day of the gig I do a vocal warm-up before I head to the venue and about an hour before we hit the stage I drink heavily and maybe partake in some other things.
