City Riots

Camden Barfly

City Riots are a 4 piece hailing from down under and who over the last couple of years have been spreading their vibe at home and away (sorry couldn’t resist).

Recently they self funded a mini UK tour before embarking on a 2 month tour of the States, which came about after Martin Elbourne (former agent to the Smiths and New Order and Glasto booker) requested they play at this years Great Escape Festival in May.   This they did and playing twice during the festival they created a buzz in their own right amongst the bigger homegrown talent on offer. 

Back home they have already notched up a number of high profile support slots with bands including the Gold Coasts finest Operator Please, and Midnight Juggernauts as well as releasing their self titled EP back in 2006 and are currently in the process of recording a new single whilst in the US on their tour.

We caught up with them in London after their show at the Camden Barfly, which was a delectable indie-pop showcase involving huge melodies, synths and classic beats. 

Ricky – Lead Vox and Guitar

Dan – Drums

Johnny – Bass and Vox

Matt – Organ and Synths

4TR - How was Brighton and the Great Escape?

Ricky – It was cool, it’s a very cool place. There were so many great bands as part of the Great Escape so we weren’t really sure if anyone would really notice us.  But it was amazing! On the Thursday we played at the Brighton Coalition and the room was full.  We were first on so we were really happy with that.

4TR - Who played after you?

Matt - A band called Boxcar Rebellion who were so good!

Dan - And the guitarist was from Adelaide as well, small world.

Ricky - Then there was another artist from Adelaide, Sarah McLeod.  She was in a band called Superjesus who were pretty big in the late nineties back in Australia, but the band broke up and now she is doing a solo project.  So she played as well which was which was funny because as a kid I used to listen to her band growing up.

4TR - So One Night Only headlined the Brighton Coalition that night, what did you think of them?

Dan – [laughing] Well I tell you one thing we took seriously about them and that was their bus, it was absolutely huge.  I mean they are only like 17 but they had people running around and cleaning up after them, it was unbelievable.

Ricky – We benefited from them though as there were loads of young girls there to watch us play as well while they were waiting for them to headline, so I think we got some new fans.  It was fun and then on the Saturday it was a place called the Pavilion Theatre which we were lucky to play at ‘cos it was a really nice venue.

Johnny – Yeah and One Night Only played that night as well headlining and you know it was cool.   Just being able to play twice during the festival was incredible for us. 

Dan - There were so many good bands there, we wished we could get around and watch more during the weekend but we were so tired after our own gigs that we didn’t do as much as we wanted. 

4TR - So what has the reaction been to you guys over in the UK?

Dan - Yeah we have had a really good reaction from people so far.  Tonight plenty of people stayed around to watch after the other bands played even they didn’t know who we were and plenty of people were sort of applauding and some were even dancing [laughs]

Ricky - That’s gotta count for something hasn’t it, its better than getting stuff thrown at you.  I know Martin Elbourne who helped to bring us over was in the audience on the Thursday in Brighton which was really good because I know he likes a drink, so we managed to drag him away from the bar to come and watch us play which was a big honour and very cool.

4TR - Where are you staying while you are here?

Ricky - Well we are on a very tight budget here.  We are currently living in a 2 bedroom tiny little place in Kilburn that a family friend of ours who has gone to Paris for a few days has let us stay at, so we have pretty much taken over.  She was under the impression that there were 2 of us but there are actually 5 of us, so she doesn’t know yet [laughing].

Dan - So we are all sleeping in the kitchen and the bathroom, we are all kind of like squashed everywhere.  She also has 2 housemates, one of them is French and when we rocked up with all our gear she was like what the hell is going on. So it’s a very tight budget. 

4TR - Do you have a label?

Ricky – we recorded a 5 track EP a couple of years ago and that got put out in Australia through a distribution deal, no label or anything, and we have had 2 subsequent singles since then just released through i-tunes, so all our tracks are downloadable but we have not had a release in the UK yet.

Johnny - Coming over here was purely off our own backs and our own money, we don’t have any label support yet.  The Great Escape is one of Europe’s best music conferences, so we are happy we got the chance to play there to all those people without having a label.

4TR – What would you describe your sound as?

Ricky - Its definitely pop.  We love good melodies so we are very melody based with our hooks or catchy links in our songs, so it’s definitely got a huge pop edge to it.  We have one song that is kind of mainstream but I think in general the guitars and the bass are kind of more edgy.

Johnny - Pop melodies but with the bass, which is pretty dirty sounding I would say.

Ricky – yeah it wasn’t intentional its just the way we write songs and we find it appeals to a large sort of demographic, you know the indie kids find something to relate to then the younger audience find something else to relate to, then more middle of the road fans also.  It has wide scope. 

4TR - A lot of great bands are coming out of Australia at the moment and most of them have mentioned the fact that the music industry there is tough to crack and its hard to get support behind music that is not necessarily mainstream.   Is that something you have found?

Ricky - Well back at home they have said our sound is too indie so we don’t really get played much on the stations, although Triple J gives good support.  I think the music industry outside of Australia is a lot more proactive, in terms of seeking out new artists and coming to gigs to find new bands and following up on new talent. At home we have found it a little bit more laid back.

Dan - They will wait for something to come to them rather them going out and finding it first. 

Johnny - Yeah they kind of wait for something to happen and to get a buzz about it so they then have no other choice but to follow up on it, rather than going and seeking something out themselves.  It gets a bit frustrating at times. 

4TR – and is it fair to say the Australian charts are imprinted off the American charts?

Ricky - Yeah, well it’s both America and the UK really.  Like if anything gets big in America or the UK then you instantly get it in Australia, you know what I mean?  It works both ways. 

Johnny – For example if the UK started creating hype about a band or the States did then Australian radio would be like yeah we will play that kind of thing.  Its almost like Australian artists have to struggle so much because the stations are playing other stuff.   

4TR - You don’t sound Australian Johnny, am I missing something?

Johnny - No I’m American, from DC but that’s a long story.  Australian bands have to fight so much for space in their own country that its stupid, and on the other hand and the up side of that some of the Australian bands are so good that its justification how much they have to fight, because once they get out they are a really great band.

Ricky – It’s an interesting environment because Australia really does look to countries like the States or the UK as indicators of what to play.  It’s a struggle over there.

4TR - Where would you like to see the most success?

Ricky - I would love the band to do really well in Australia, I think everyone would and beyond that everywhere else.  I mean like if we could get the UK behind us I think we would be incredibly stoked.  If we could get all of Europe we would be over the moon, we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves.  I guess anything that comes after home territory is huge you know. 

4TR - What’s next for City Riots?

Ricky – well we never like to wait around for thing to come to us, that’s why last year we also spent 2 months in the US purely off our own back all funded by our own credit cards, just to play festivals and conferences and gigs and just tour. 

Dan - This year we are playing a thing called Summerfest in Milwaukee, which is one of the largest independant festivals in the US, running for 11 days.  Huge artists are playing and we are as well which is very cool.

Johnny - We are moving up, we are playing better shows than we did last year, so hopefully that will continue and we will play better shows next year than we did this year.  I think the whole goal is everywhere we go to, to improve on what we have done before.  Its exciting times, especially the two-month tour in the States in June and July. 

Ricky – yeah and before that we go home to play City Hall in Adelaide, which will be so good.  After we get back from America we will have more dates to play and then we will decide what to do in terms of whether to do a full-length record or another EP.  Hopefully we are going to try and be back in the UK at the end of the year anyway, depending on what our financial and credit rating is, with our banks. We are definitely coming back.

Check out City Riots on their myspace page and their track ‘Only hate You Cause I Have To’ is one of our ‘change the record’ tracks of the week.

www.myspace.com/cityriots

Interview by Francesca Strange

Photography by Gareth Jackson – www.myspace.com/jacksonfoto

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