Violent Soho are no strangers to the tour van. In the excitement surrounding the release of their last album Hungry Ghost the Brisbane band went on multiple Australian circuits. They've played in Brooklyn, New York and Gosford, New South Wales, but never New Zealand. Which is odd considering player Luke Henery is a Kiwi and guitarist Tidswell grew up there.
Thankfully the band are rectifying this omission later this week, with a show at Auckland’s the Kings Arms. This is ahead of their appearance on the 2016 Laneway tour, which include another appearance in Auckland.
The band are currently writing and recording their as-yet-untitled fourth album. We had a chat to frontman Luke Boerdam about the process of recording at home, playing festivals, and the politics of social media.
Noisey: Hey Luke. Where are you right now?
Luke Boerdam: Just at home; sunny old Brisbane. Just doing some more writing.
For the new album?
Yeah, still writing. We take really long recording sessions. Some bands laugh at us for how long we take to record, but it's just part of what we do; taking our time.
The last record was done with Bryce Moorehead; are you working with him again?
Yeah, definitely. I've always joked that Bryce is kind of like Steve Albini. He's super quiet; the most chillaxed dude you'll ever meet in your life. He literally organises his diet; weighs his food in front of you and refuses to eat sugar. Just a really ethical guy who I'm in awe of, but it's just the way he lives his life. I wish I had that willpower.
He's got such a good vibe for us in the studio. He just takes everything super slow and gives everyone space to think about what we're doing. The thing we love about Bryce is it's never stressful in the studio with him, it just feels more effortless when you're working with someone like that.
You have been announced for Laneway. How do you like playing festivals?
We love it. I mean, it's hit-and-miss; if you get on a lineup where you've got friend's bands around then it's just awesome. And this lineup blew our minds. We didn’t expect METZ, DIIV and Smith Street; we could not be more stoked on this line-up. It can be a bit dire though, I must admit. The last Big Day Out that we played, when it was going under; that was a little bit sad. [Laughs] We played first in Adelaide and I can remember thinking “There's not enough people here; this is really dead”
I remember going to Big Day Out as a kid, and it was like a dream to play Big Day Out. It was “The Australian Festival”; it was the one, fucking Nirvana played it. And then we finally got to play it on this last run and I remember Pearl Jam were playing and I just walked straight to the front without effort. And I was like “Fuck, this is done. It's not going to happen again.”
So thank fuck for Laneway! And Groovin' The Moo, and all these awesome festivals that have popped up. I mean, obviously they've been around for years and years, but I feel like Laneway, Falls, Splendor, are now carrying the torch for these iconic Australian circuits for international bands to come in. And it's so good for local bands to get spots on these festivals.
So the upcoming show at the The Kings Arms will be your first New Zealand show?
Yeah. We've always tried, and something always happens. So we've finally locked it in and we're finally going to go across. It's pretty funny when you think about it, because Perth is further away than New Zealand, but somehow we've managed to do Perth like ten times, but not once in New Zealand. So we're pumped to finally get there.
Our bass player was born in New Zealand and James grew up there so they go back now and again. But I've never been. We're really pumped to finally try and build something there and turn it into a part of our touring circuit. We're really making it a priority for the next record to make it over there as much as possible.
You guys have a pretty open dialogue with your fans; is this something that just comes naturally?
Yeah, I think that's just the nature of things. We've never planned it out, but what's stopping us? If people are into the music and writing to us then let's write back. We just feel like if someone's going to take the time of day to listen to our music, let alone jump on Instagram and say hi, then we just feel compelled to write back.
Violent Soho play The Kings Arms in Auckland on Oct 30. Tickets here.
Violent Soho are also appearing at Laneway Festival 2016.
'Hungry Ghost' is available through I Oh You.