Infectious Grooves To Kick Off Their Australian Tour…
It all starts tomorrow in Melbourne tomorrow with the legendary Infectious Grooves kicking off their Australian tour which includes appearing at BluesFest. The funk-metal super group are also playing massive headline shows in Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney! Boasting an all-star lineup of incredible players, Infectious Grooves are set to unleash an insane performance that sees them play their first shows globally in five years and their first in Australia since playing at Soundwave Festival in 2008, sixteen long years ago!
The 2024 incarnation of Infectious Grooves is more potent than ever. Featuring original members, Suicidal Tendencies front man, Mike Muir, and guitarist Dean Pleasants who are both fresh from a sold-out tour of Australia last November that celebrated the fortieth Anniversary of Suicidal Tendencies debut album.
They will be accompanied by none other than founding bassist of Infectious Grooves, Robert Trujillo who is making a long-awaited comeback to Australia. Trujillo’s last visit was over a decade ago with his warlord band mates in on of the biggest bands on the planet—Metallica! Adding extra groove on guitar will be Dave Kushner, best known for being part of the platinum selling super group Velvet Revolver. Dave is also part of the OG Infectious Grooves team having appeared on the track, Punk It Up from the bands debut album. Anchoring the whole thing down is drummer Jay Weinberg, making his first live appearance after ten years with the iconic metal band, Slipknot. It was a huge privilege speaking to Jay Weinberg about joining Infectious Grooves and the journey to get to this point. Hi Fi Way speaks to Mike Muir about the tour and what it means having Jay Weinberg in the band.
It definitely feels like a really exciting time for Infectious Grooves at the moment?
Oh, yeah. It went from a couple years ago in 2019 was the first show that we did in a while headlining a festival in Brazil and then we were supposed to do some festivals in the summer of 2020 in Europe and of course COVID happened. All those got cancelled, then obviously Robert’s schedule’s very busy and stuff, and everybody’s schedule, but especially his, so we didn’t have a chance to do anything. He came over and said, I got this one window that we could do something. Realistically we couldn’t book anything later, even if it’s quite open because something might always happen. I said, yeah, let’s use it and go to Australia. Obviously, we were just there and stuff, but it was really cool. We had to put a lot of things together really quick, because usually in the timeline you need a lot more time to set things up. But by just being there and by doing the shows ourselves, we were able to make a lot of connections and try to get people to pull a lot of strings and do it. We ran into problems that Brooks, our normal drummer, he got more dates for Avenged Sevenfold, so he couldn’t do it. Then we had to figure out a drummer and fortunately we contacted Jay. He wasn’t supposed to be able to be even playing this soon because he had surgery. He said everything was going really well and we got him and then we started practicing, then we’re like, let’s do a song. We went in there and recorded a song on drums, recorded it and finished it up, and Robert’s finishing up a video, not for the song, the other long form video. We’re doing a lot of things and it’s been a lot of fun.
There is a lot of excitement and momentum with these shows particularly with Jay being added to the band and that Suicidal Tendencies are doing a super set in there as well. Can you believe how the momentum is building?
Well, it’s worked out great because of that, the origins of Tye getting into Suicidal, which is we’re really excited about and especially like I said going in the studio recording a song and playing with them. It’s got us really excited and he’s super excited and we are like talking about how much fun we are having in Australia. He is like, dude, we should play some Suicidal songs and we’re like, yeah. Going to Robert, when Suicidal opened up a show with Metallica at a football stadium out here, Robert came out and played a song with Tye, his son who plays bass with us. We’re like, yeah man, we should do that. So Robert’s going to play a couple of Suicidal songs because first time I went to Australia was 1993, that’s when we were opening for Alice In Chains and it was a great experience. We all love Australia, obviously. My three boys were all born in Australia. I was a permanent resident there, and actually one time spent a week in Adelaide during the Fringe Festival. That was just coincidence though. Long story short, we’re on the Soundwave Festival and my first son had an ear infection. He couldn’t fly. So I went to Perth and then we had to stay there until he could fly. We were there and it was like forty something every day in Adelaide. I don’t want to talk crap about any place, but probably not the most fun place to spend when it’s forty, forty-five there.
What does Jay bring to the band that you didn’t necessarily have before or was it a changing dynamic you were after?
It’s definitely a changing dynamic. I feel very fortunate because even if you just go to Infectious, don’t even bring Suicidal into it, originally we had Steven Perkins from Jane’s Addiction was playing with us, and then we got this seventeen-year-old kid called Josh Freese that came in the band, then as you know, Josh is in Foo Fighters now was in Guns ‘n Roses, played Sting, everybody played on a million different records and all that. After Josh, we got Brooks Wackerman, and Brooks was fourteen years old when he started Infectious Grooves. It’s not so much the age, it’s just crazy great musicians and been fortunate to play with a lot of great musicians. The first we opened up for Slipknot, the first tour that Jay did. I was familiar with Jay and being able to see him in the sound checks and watching him, I was just going like, this dude’s gnarly.
He’s a great drummer and I appreciate that, especially drums and bass, I really appreciate that more than a lot of other things but I never really thought of it in any sense of shape. But my middle son, when we found out Brooks couldn’t do it, and he goes, what are you going to do? I’m like, I’m not sure Robert’s going to come think of some people. I’ll think of some people and he goes, is Jay one of them? I hadn’t even thought of it because I knew he had surgery, but I didn’t even think about it and my son kept going, oh, you should, you should, you should text Jay, call Jay, get his number. He kept asking if I talked to Jay yet.
It ended up that we were like thinking about it. I think that’s where I want to start is see if he if he can do it, and he’s available. Like I said, he was not supposed to be playing that quickly in his rehab, but he’s way ahead and he said give me a couple days. I got to go to my physical therapist. I have another appointment. They’re going to do evaluation and we’re almost going like, oh, it’s not me, it’s not you kind of thing. He came back and says he really wants to do it and feels great and he’s going to be out there. He goes, let’s get together and it will be your call.
We got together and he was playing and I was just going, man, I felt like a little kid, you know, where someone’s just jamming so hard. I was just really appreciating all the things that he did musically and the excitement. He started like moving and, all the great things about music that just moves you and makes you happy, and makes you feel like you got all kinds of energy. I think that’s definitely going to come across because he has a crazy intensity and coupled with some mad skill and the perfect combination. He’s super excited and we’re all excited. So, I think it’s great.
With the video that Jay put up on Facebook, you could see that energy that he brings and it just seems like everyone seemed to walk that much taller.
They say a lot of the time the drummer drags the bus, you know, that’s the expression. I think for, especially when you have been doing shows or whatever, and some people say, oh, it’s a side project or whatever, we always try to avoid that, but get people that have names from the bands together and it’s usually like it’s a party in there, they got the fake smile but they’re not really serious. I think Jay has got a definite pride, intensity and conviction and that comes across when he plays and the purpose. It’s going to be a great time and it’s going to be the best party that people didn’t even expect, but it’s just going to honestly blow people away. It will be whoa, I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s not about being nostalgic, it’s going out there with a purpose and a message. I think that’s great for Suicidal to get in there to show that the differences, but in the same sense, the similarities of conviction and music and doing what you believe in and doing it, whatever you do, do it the best way you can possibly do it.
What’s the longer term vision for Infectious Grooves? Are there plans for an album?
Definitely, that was one of the things when I talked to Jay about the Suicidal thing we talked about and it’s great obviously to hear him play the old songs, but both expressed very strongly that we want to start, the quote unquote the new chapter. I think that it’s great because he has a great understanding of what Suicidal is, great understanding of like when he was young, thirteen or fourteen and first heard Suicidal, you know, the feelings that you get from that knowing the band, but being exposed to it and trying to do that same thing, have that powerful impact and not really concerned about what’s happening at this moment, not really being concerned about what genre it fits into or what is the popular thing or the trend.
We’re really excited about doing a new record, I didn’t think we would ever make another record just because I consider it painful making records, all this stuff that goes around to it. I love making music, but all the other stuff. There’s a definite super excitement and the same thing with Infectious going in there and recording a song. We really want to do another record and show people what it is.
Touring Infectious Grooves creates endless possibilities making each show a unique experience. Is that the intent?
That’s one of the things we’re doing. It’s definitely going to be a one-off experience and something that we hope that years later, it’s funny because the first time we played Australia in 1993, so many people talk about that when they were sixteen and went to that show, and they remember, and they go, man, that made such an impression on me. That’s what we want to do with these shows. Have a situation where they go, oh, you would never do nothing like that again, but that’s so great and they tell their friends they missed it. That’s what we want to do and the other side on a selfish side, my three boys were all born in Australia, a permanent resident there, I lived there, and it means a lot to me. With the Suicidal tour we just did, we had issues with promoters and trying to get it done and basically there were some things said that wasn’t appreciated. I said, fuck you, we’ll do it ourselves. Fortunately I have a lot of friends there that were like dude let’s do it and jumped in and we want to do a lot of other things. So this is another step in my selfishness because my family’s coming, my kids, my two youngest boys, they haven’t been to Australia since they were born, so they’re coming and doing the whole tour.
It is great when you have that definite family thing and that’s what we’re trying to bring across Australia where doing this, we call it CycoSTralia, doing the Suicidal tour and a bunch of projects in the future that are different than what normal music or promoters do. This is a great opportunity for us to change the predictability of the way or the pattern that a lot of people do things.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch Infectious Grooves on the following dates, tickets HERE…
