Bodyjar To Rock Froth & Fury
‘We concentrate on ‘No Touch Red’, ‘How It Works,’ and ‘Plastic Skies’, that makes up the bulk of the set list. We try and just play the songs that we think people want to hear as energetically as we can for a pack of old farts. But we really have a fucking good time when we’re doing it, which is I think the most important thing. That’s what you get from it. You see four, well, three old farts and a fresh bass player, we’re just really thankful that we get the chance to do it.’
Tom Read from Australian skate punk legends Bodyjar is comedically effusive, self-degrading and insightful as one has come to expect from a band that have been at the fore front of culture changes in the history of the Australian musical landscape. Talking before a return to Adelaide at the Froth & Fury Festival next month, Tom sat down to discuss the bands history and eventually offer some career advice to his wife.
‘I was a massive Bodyjar fan back in the day and when I heard that Ben Petterson was leaving, I was like, ‘this is my big chance!’ I went and tried out and here we are twenty five years later. We did a bunch of ‘No Touch Red’ shows not that long ago and Ben came back and did some songs and when he turns up, it still feels like his band to me. Twenty five years and Shane’s (Wakker) the same. Shane’s probably ,must be nearly at least twenty years, and we both are still like the new kids. We’re the new guys. We’ll always be the new guys.’
After surviving the millennium bug that ended the world in 2000, Bodyjar dropped How It Works and duly arrived on Tony Hawks Pro-Skater series, exploding across multi entertainment universes.
‘I assumed that it had been like that forever for that band too. I arrived, we signed a deal with EMI and it sort of just went from there. We were staying in nice hotels. It was all aeroplanes, hotels, riders. I mean, we weren’t making any money, but we weren’t sleeping on floors or driving. It was pretty surreal. It was an amazing, amazing time. Especially now to look back now we all have jobs and whatnot. It’s amazing to look back at that time of life and be pretty thankful for it.’
Fast Forward to 2024 and despite having an output that rivals Guns N Roses with two albums released in nineteen years, 2022’s New Rituals was still an angry, political led middle finger to authority and at notable points, the Australian Government.
‘It was a really political record. There was a couple of songs that weren’t political. They didn’t make the record because the vibe was already there. We were angry. It was Scott Morrison a clock. There was just shit happening everywhere. We stared recording the album and Covid hit and we couldn’t finish the record. By the time it came out, it was weird and sort of freaked out that people thought that we’d written a record about Covid restrictions and shit like that, which was not, it was all written before that. I feel like it lost its impact because of that fucking Covid.’
There is new music in the pipeline – ‘we’ve probably got a good ten songs’ – that will be less politically charged however life can get in the way on them being recorded. There is always one thing though Read comes back to. That’s having fun with his band mates.
‘We try our best. The fact that we can keep playing and it doesn’t cost us money, we get to go out for dinner with my band mates, which is the best thing about going away. We play a show. The show only lasts an hour. We go out to dinner, we have a few beers. It’s just so good to hang out with your mates, get away from the kids, get away from reality, which is what fans do when they come to a show. You just want to get out of reality, don’t you? We get 24 hours of that every time we do a show, which is so good. I love it. My wife doesn’t, but whatever, she should have been in a band!’
Interview By Iain McCallum
Catch Bodyjar at Froth & Fury Festival at Harts Mill, Port Adelaide on Saturday November 9. Tickets from MoshTix…
