House Vs. Hurricane Interview

Big Day Out, Adelaide, January 25th 2013

With guitarist and vocalist, Ryan McLerie and Drummer, Sam Osborne

SC411: Great show today, how are you finding the Big Day Out tour and which bands are you keen to see?

Ryan McLerie: First of all thank you. Um, yeah we’ve been having a great time, just doing a festival like this that’s sort of more on the commercial side of things is just a lot of fun, like a lot of people that wouldn’t normally get to see us and stuff, so… yeah, we’ve been having a ball!

Sam Osborne: And Big Day Out really look after their artists in terms of, you know, their backstage setup and catering, and all that kind of thing…

RM: It’s been really easy.

SO: It’s a nice environment to be in.

SC411: And there aren’t many heavy bands like you guys at Big Day Out.

RM: I think there’s only-

SO: Every Time I Die, um…

RM: Against Me!…

RM: Yeah, there’s not really that many.

SC411: Have you seen any of the other acts, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers or The Killers or anyone?

RM: Yeah, we watched them…

RM: I think my favourites have been really like Childish Gambino, and like… I love Crystal Castles so I’ve watched them every night, it’s been sick. And um, yeah there’s heaps of sick bands playing…

SO: The Killers are obviously awesome-

RM: The Killers are great.

SC411: I hear a new album is in the making – how far do you reckon you have to go until it’s finished?

RM: Oh, we have a fair way to go, we only just really started writing it in the last sort of month or so, so um, yeah still plenty more work to go, but it’s good to get a head start. We only released our last one earlier this year, so-

SO: Actually last year-

RM: Last year, sorry. Yeah, it’s been sick, we’re just keen to um, yeah in our down time use it well, and get writing and stuff.

SC411: How do you find the recording process?

SO: It’s awesome!

RM: Our last album was great!

SO: Especially working with someone like Machine…

RM: It’s really easy to do when you’ve got someone who you’re working with who’s actually like awesome and encouraging. It makes it a lot easier.

SO: We’ll have to work with him again.

SC411: Would you say all the members get pretty equal input into the making of the album/song-writing?

RM: Yeah, like we sort of-

SO: Song-writing not so much…

RM: It’s more like… our other guitarist writes most of the stuff and then we all sort of arrange it and structure it together as a group, mainly. Me and Dan [singer] both write our own vocals and stuff so songs do get changed a fair bit once they’re in the group environment, I guess.

SC411: What can fans expect from the new album?

RM: Um, probably just… it’s not really that far in-

SO: We haven’t really sorted out an idea yet.

RM: Yeah, it’s just kind of just starting.

SO: It’ll be similar to our old record, I mean it’s seemingly a bit more dynamic in these early stages, but it’s hard to say.

SC411: Still in the works.

SO: Yep. Very early days.

SC411: Individually, do any of you have any other projects going at the moment?

RM: I’m jamming with some friends at home but it’s not anything worth talking about really [laughs]

SO: I’ve been doing a few things for many years, just for fun.

RM: We all have our stuff on the side that we do, but this is obviously the main band, so yeah.

SC411: Any plans for the next eleven months of 2013?

RM: Ah yeah, we’re gonna keep writing, we’re gonna hopefully get over to the US and UK and Europe before the end of the year. Nothing planned at the moment so we’re just trying to nut it all out and get all that organized, and…

SC411:On your own tour?

RM: Ah we’ll probably be jumping on someone else’s tour, we’re not quite big enough to do our own tour there yet.

SO: We’ll see!

RM: We’ll give it a shot.

SC411: Is it true that you all have a House Vs Hurricane tattoo?

SO: It’s true!

RM: It’s true.

SC411: Where might these be?

SO: Mostly on our ankles.

RM: Where’s yours? Mine’s there [shows his ankle].

SO: Yeah, that all happened in an afternoon, about 3 months ago.

RM: It’s kind of the logo off our last album, so we’re just like… we never really had a solid logo before so we could never do anything, like I’m not gonna get the band name tattooed on me. That was his [Sam’s] first tattoo!

SO: Yeah, that was my first tattoo, my only tattoo still. [laughs]

SC411: Any plans for another one?

SO: Yeah, I mean, not plans as such but yeah.

SC411: You’ll have to join another band!

RM: Do another album! [laughs]

SO: Yeah, yeah, when I do Big Day Out with another band I might get one! [laughs]

SC411: You guys are really active on Facebook and Twitter – what do you prefer, meeting fans at gigs or talking online?

SO: Well basically I’ve never touched internet social media, ever.

RM: It’s pretty much one of us that does it all, so we – I don’t even have a login, I’m terrible! I much prefer for someone to come up after and be like ‘hey awesome show!’ and I’ll be like ‘yeah!’ and we’ll have a conversation in person, as opposed to like… being a keyboard warrior. But it’s still good, like we’re definitely grateful that he does it because we’re all too lazy to do it! [laughs]

SO: We all talk about doing it, but there’s only one of us doing it!

SC411: Which one of you does do it?

SO: Our bass player, Dylan. The tall guy.

SC411: Funniest or weirdest moment so far on tour?

RM: Just hanging out, like we went and stole some um… me and Dan, our singer, on the first day in Sydney we went into Red Hot Chili Peppers backstage bit, before they were there, and they had like… this special tea that you drink for your throat, and you can only get it in America and they had it, so we stole some of that. There was no one there, so we were like bang! Taken.

SC411: So when the Chili Peppers have sore throats, we know who to blame!

RM: Yep, blame us!

SC411: For people who haven’t heard your music, how would you describe it?

RM: We’re like a heavy band that does singing and screaming and… I don’t know! We just like to party and have fun on stage and… come see us live if you can! Or get our latest album, Crooked Teeth.

SC411: It was a really energetic show today, you looked like you were enjoying yourselves.

RM: Thanks! Yeah, we have heaps of fun, that’s why we do it!

SO: Sack recording and… yeah, we like shows.