Project Description

Interview with

Rufio MacRae

from

PRESS CLUB

by Vicky Hebbs

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Praise for PRESS CLUB

It would be easy to pigeonhole the group to a fast-moving punk act, but right from the start, Late Teens proves that there’s a whole lot more to Press Club.” The Music

The face-blasting first offering….a raw, but clean, capture of energy and the band’s clear no-bullshit approach. What a bloody exciting introduction. Rolling Stone Australia

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How did the band come together? When did it become a serious concern?

We’d all been playing around together in various groups for ages. Frank and myself started playing together about fifteen years ago, I met Natalie studying music a few years out of high school and she was in a social circle of musicians which Greg was also kicking around with. We were putting a fair bit of effort in from the get go. We wrote and recorded our debut LP Late Teens before we had even played a show.

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You started as a band just last year and have already released an album and had one headline tour – that’s insane! What’s this year been like for you? 

It’s been a pretty flat chat year to tell you the truth. We had already played forty shows by May and have spent a large amount of our lives on the road or on lockdown in rehearsal studios getting shit done. It wears you down a bit being stretched so thin, but saying that I could stay on the road for years. The shows are a great pay off for all the grinding.

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You have another pretty big headline tour coming up – what are you most looking forward to while on tour?

We’re all really keen to get back to some of the towns we visited earlier on in the year and we also get to play in a few places that we haven’t crossed off the list yet. We’ve been working pretty tirelessly at writing a heap of new material too, so to finally get to unleash new music on to real, Australian audiences is gonna be a real highlight.

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Is there anything you’re not looking forward to so much? 

What’s the most times you’ve eaten McDonald’s in a week?

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What was it like supporting The Smith Street Band for 35 shows on their national tour?

It was a pretty wild ride. We got a chance to get our music in front of so many people and see so much of Australia that a lot of us hadn’t even visited before. At the same time it could be pretty gruelling at moments, but again, to play to such large, engaged and excited audiences makes it all worthwhile.

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I’m sure many of us Killers fans loved the cover you did of ‘When You Were Young’ for Triple J’s Like a Version. Have you always been big fans of The Killers? 

I personally went through a bit of a Killers phase when I was 18 for a few months. I wouldn’t call anyone of us ‘die hard’ fans or anything though. It’s a ripping song, and we had played it a few times at shows for kicks so it seemed like the right choice.

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Who are your other musical influences? 

Thin Lizzy, The Replacements, Husker Du, Dio, Flamin’ Groovies, Primal Scream, Oasis, Cheap Trick, Sheer Mag, Thin Lizzy, Pixies, Anthrax, The Nerves, KISS, Violent Soho, Peter Tosh, Buzzcocks, The Ruts, Blue Oyster Cult, Motown Records, David Bowie, DEVO, Weezer, Wipers, Dilla, Barrington Levy, Eugene Levy, Robyn, Oblivians, The Fall, Royal Headache, The Smiths, Bad Brains, The Who and Thin Lizzy.

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What inspired you to write single, ‘Headwreck’? 

It was the end of a long song writing session one Sunday in Brunswick East and two of us hadn’t slept from the night before so we we’re pretty ready to call it quits. Someone played the riff and it just snowballed into the skeleton of the song as it was recorded on the LP. After a few more sessions tweaking the vocals and some of the form and dynamics it was done. It came together really simply. I think there’s an obvious Husker Du thing going on though. We were all listening to them a noticeable amount ‘round that time.

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If someone had never listened to Press Club before, what song of yours would you recommend to them if they could only listen to one?

Headwreck is probably the song that encapsulates our songwriting pallet best. That’s also why we chose it to be our lead single. We wanted the song to let music lovers know what we were about, and what to expect from future releases.

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You just announced you’ll be playing Manchester Punk Festival – which artists will you be keen to see live while you’re there? 

We’ve been flat chat back here at home so haven’t really had a chance to dive into our PREFERED MUSIC STREAMING SERVICE and check out the other acts on the bill. There’s dozens of groups playing though. I’m sure we’ll get into a heap of ‘em when we’re there.

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If you could pick absolutely anyone to bring on tour with you, whom would you pick and why? (Dead or Alive)

Phil Lynott (Alive). Because I don’t like the idea of lugging the corpse of a deceased rock star around the largest island on planet earth. If he were alive he could use his own limbs to move about and wouldn’t smell anywhere near as horrendous.

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What are your plans for the next year, after the whirlwind year you’ve already had?

Obviously we’re going to be over in the UK in April so it would be good to see a run of dates built around that. Then we’ll get back to playing shows. Wouldn’t rule out another Australian Tour. I want to go to New Zealand and Asia too. But who knows really? We can plan all we want but in the music game things can so quickly change. It’s all at the mercy of what offers come our way.

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Finally, this is a paragraph dedicated to some quick discovery. Really corny, but for the fans, can you tell me your favorite album, artist, movie, place, drink, meal and person (living or dead) and some brief reasons why? Answer some or all please?

Album: I Against I – Bad Brains. Because it covers so much sonic ground, has incredible musicianship, wicked songwriting and such fabulous cover art.

Artist: Thin Lizzy. Listen to Cowboy’s Song 25 times in one day and you’ll understand.

Movie: Apocalypse Now Redux. Only complaint is that it’s run time is a little short.

Place: Zipolite, Mexico. Three reasons.

Drink: Guinness/ White Russian. They don’t curdle in your stomach together quite as much as one might think.

Meal: Seafood Curry Laksa. Wouldn’t mix it with the aforementioned combination.

Person: Our manager Danae, (she was living last I checked) for organising this beautiful little correspondence we got to share in, init.

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Sayonara,

Rufio MacRae

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PRESS CLUB

TOUR DATES

Saturday 3rd NovemberThe Brisbane Hotel, Hobart TASTICKETS
Sunday 4th NovemberTil The Wheels Fall Off, Launceston TAS – SOLD OUT
Thursday 8th NovemberSooki Lounge, Belgrave VICTICKETS
Friday 9th NovemberThe Tote, Melbourne VICTICKETS
Saturday 10th NovemberKarova Lounge, Ballarat VICTICKETS
Sunday 11th NovemberWhalers Hotel, Warrnambool VICTICKETS
Saturday 17th NovemberLoch Hart Music Festival, Princetown VIC
Thursday 22nd NovemberTransit Bar, Canberra ACTTICKETS
Friday 23rd NovemberThe Lair @ The Metro, Sydney NSWTICKETS
Saturday 24th NovemberThe Cambridge, Newcastle NSWTICKETS
Sunday 25th NovemberNorth Gong Hotel, Wollongong NSW – FREE ENTRY
Thursday 29th NovemberCrowbar, Brisbane QLDTICKETS
Friday 30th NovemberMiami Shark Bar, Gold Coast QLDTICKETS

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NEWLY ADDED SHOWS

Saturday 1st December – The Rev, Footscray VICTICKETS
Sunday 2nd December – Wrangler Studio, Footscray VIC – Under 18sTICKETS
Saturday 8th December – Stonecutters, Adelaide SATICKETS

www.pressclubmusic.com

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Press Club

 

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AMNPLIFY – DB