Area 7’s “Chuck T” took time out from the band’s “Double Cross Tour” to chat to AMN’s Paul Dwyer about their 20th anniversary in the industry, how it’s changed over time & Soundwave 2015.

Paul – Thanks for taking the time to chat to us. Mate, it’s been 9 years since your last release “Torn Apart”, so my first question would have to be; what have you been up to?

Chuck – Well we’ve done a couple of gigs here and there, but a lot of us, myself included have had kids over the journey, so we’ve been investing more time in the home-front so to speak. You know, we took a bit from our partners over the years while we were touring, so we’ve been giving a bit back over that period, but the kids are getting older now, and we’re finding it a bit easier to tour again, so when the 20th anniversary milestone came up, we thought “yep, we’ve got to get out there again.” The Living End tour happened a few years ago and for Soundwave to come our way now is just incredible & perfect timing for us. We’re stoked.

Paul – Area 7 have been in this industry for over 20 years. As a band, have you changed over that time? If so, how are you different now to your 90’s self?

Chuck – Well for me, personally, I was far more intense about music in the early years! It always felt to me that you only had a limited amount of time and a limited opportunity to make your way in music if you wanted to be in a serious band and you wanted to be relevant, you only had a small window of opportunity, but as time has gone by, I realise it sort of more the opposite! I mean, if you just keep doing it because you love it and slogging away, opportunities actually come your way. If anything, doing the Soundwave tour has proven that, you know, I would have NEVER predicted 10-15 years ago that this far down the track, we’d still have fans that come to see our shows in droves and be relevant enough to be on a tour like Soundwave, so I think I’m a lot more relaxed from that point of view. Musically, I’m a lot more mature & I think you just learn to accept your quirks and limitations and go with it!

Paul – So obviously back when you guys started out, things were a lot different to what they are now, what do you think about the industry itself at the moment and the rise of these reality talent shows like “Australian idol” & “X Factor” etc?

Chuck – Well I think the thing about them is not so much about the presence of those shows, it’s the absence of other things like pubs & gigs & some of the more “do it yourself” performances and recordings that people used to put out, so talent shows have been around for a long time, it’s not new, I mean even ‘The Monkees’ were largely put together by a TV show. Having said that, what DIDN’T happen in the old days, was it was never at the cost of people going down to their local venue & seeing a band. What worries me more than anything is the number of live venues we see closing down & the expectation that ALL music has to be highly produced because then you get things like auto-tune creeping in so I’m not as bigger basher of those shows as some of my peers may be, but what I do worry about is the lack of local venues and local music, I think that’s a bigger concern.

Paul – You opened your “Double Crossed 20th Anniversary tour” last week in Sydney, how was that?

Chuck – Oh man, that was AWESOME, just fantastic. The way I think about the tour we’re doing at the moment is that it’s a really good warm-up for SOUNDWAVE, you know we’re playing a lot of obscure tracks that we haven’t played for a long time & we had a packed room in Sydney, it was great. The fans are so dedicated and so hard-core about our music, so we’re looking forward to the other shows and we’re working really hard on what we’re going to do for SOUNDWAVE, so it’s just a great way to do it, doing these shows leading up to the big festival. …but it IS really different these days, I must tell ya; when you get on stage now, there’s already 2 or 3 videos uploaded to the web & a million photos, I mean you can’t get away with anything! I saw someone had filmed a song we do where I go to the front of stage to do a guitar solo and it was immediately up on Facebook & I thought ‘my god, If I knew that was gonna happen, I might have been a bit more nervous about it,’ but I suppose you don’t want to be!

Paul – Soundwave 2015 has an amazing line-up with some massive names playing. Is there anyone in particular that you’re pumped to be working alongside?

Chuck – We’re on Day 1 with Faith No More and Soundgarden & because of our generation, obviously they were massive when we were doing the circuit. I’ve never seen them but I think in the context of SOUNDWAVE, they’re going to be awesome. I’m really looking forward to seeing “The Bennies” They’re another Melbourne punk band that we’ve played with a lot and they’re just so hot at the moment, they’re growing as a band they’re gonna go far …and bands like “New Found Glory” “Atreyu” & “Fear Factory” I mean they’re all very good. I’m mainly focused on the day that we’re there because unfortunately we won’t be able to see the other day.

Paul – Well you’re no stranger to the festivals, are you? You’ve done a few big ones in the past. Do any stand out as a highlight?

Chuck – We always enjoyed doing the falls festival & Offshore festivals in Victoria, they’re great. The Vans Warped tour was awesome because it was a real level playing field, where all the bands that played were all treated equally and we almost had like a random order of line-up, so for a band like ourselves, that were relatively new to the circuit, we could play effectively a headline spot and then you’d have a band like Pennywise playing the middle run just because it wasn’t about ‘who’s the biggest band’ so you really got a great opportunity to have a good crowd watching you, you know, they didn’t have to come early and watch the whole line up so probably Vans Warped, but it’s hard to pick just one, I mean you can’t take any of those big festivals for granted, it’s always a privledge to play them, but yeah Warped would be my highlight.

Paul – Are we going to hear any new stuff at Soundwave?

Chuck – Aahhh I don’t think so, it’s unlikely because you know, we’ve got our… well I wouldn’t call them hits, but the songs that everyone wants to hear & personally I believe that if the people want to hear the songs, you play the songs. …We might play a couple of the more obscure songs… We are talking about recording a couple of tracks that we’ve had in our back pocket, but they’ll more than likely be everyone’s favourites.

Paul – Yeah I’ve heard that you’ve been recording and may release an EP or album that you’ve been working on sometime in the future?

Chuck – …might not be an album but maybe a handful of tracks, probably just a digital release. It’s pretty hard for us to do a full album logistically, you know – a 7 piece band, it’s a lot of work and a lot of money… but maybe bite size chunks, you know, if we can do a few tracks here and a few tracks there and piece it together, it’d be good.

Paul – Yeah how do you go with that? 7 people in a band is quite a number!

Chuck – hahaha – yeah it’s not easy, I mean we all get along really, really well, so that’s not a problem at all, but with 7 people, you are effectively touring two bands! It’s like having a piece and a 4 piece band… so, it doubles the cost! It doesn’t double the amount you get paid, you know, whether you’re a 3 piece or a 7 piece band, you’ll still have the same money coming in, but double the amount going out, so it can be really hard to make it sustainable.

Paul – Fair enough. Something I had to ask you about is my favourite video “Nobody likes a Bogan” I just love it and think it’s hilarious …How close is the character in the video to the characters of any of the members of Area 7?

Chuck – hahaha, well that’s funny, because it is sort of an amalgamation of myself and Steve-O, the lead singer! He came from the western suburbs of Melbourne and I came from the eastern suburbs and we both had different upbringings but there was a fair amount of bogan in both of us… so, um That track was never meant to be anything other than a track that we play live now and then, we recorded it as a b-side, ended up making the album and then a lot of the radio guys listened to it and said “You gotta do that song” so all of a sudden the track that we had no plans for became a single and probably what we’re most well-known for, but at its heart, it’s meant to be a fond song, talking about our upbringing. I had the VK commodore for example, that’s actually my car, so we’re not having a go at anyone.

Paul – Haha it’s a fun song and I think a lot of people can sympathise with it, I know I can! So mate, you have a few dates coming up, that we’ll put up on the website, they’re pretty spread out and I suppose you answered the question as to why earlier, to spend time with the family?

Chuck – Yeah, look what we used to do, especially when you’re selling a product or an album is you go to all the regional & coastal towns on the way between Queensland and Sydney and Melbourne and Adelaide but now we’re playing more or less for a hobby and we don’t want that having too much of an impact on our personal day to day lives so we just do it as a weekend thing, we might take a Friday off and go away for a couple of nights, but we’re not going to do 2 weeks straight and that’s why Soundwave is perfect. It’s absolutely perfect. It’s a few weekends, everything done for you, it’s awesome!

Paul – Sounds good. Well before we wrap it up, is there anything you wanted to say to your supporters and fans out there?

Chuck – All I can say is we’re really flattered and complemented by fact that people have stuck it out with us over 2o years & the soundwave festival’s only happening for us because the fans campaigned for it directly, so just thank you to everyone & we’re looking forward to seeing you at Soundwave and any of our shows in the future.

Area 7 will play the following dates for their “Double Crossed Tour” tickets from the venues, and SOUNDWAVE Festival in 2015

September 19th The Corner Hotel VIC

October 17th Enigma Bar SA 

October 24th The Southern Cross Hotel QLD

October 25th The Prince of Wales QLD