Short Stack are without doubt the MySpace kings. They’ve utilised the promotional tools available to them to get their personalities and music out to the right target audience…and it’s worked to perfection. They have just finished touring the country with Metro Station and The Veronicas and have also played alongside the likes of Good Charlotte and Simple Plan.
Band bassist Andy Clemmensen reveals how they have found such success. “We pretty much have no lives, so sit on MySpace all day.” Touring the country hardly classes as having no life, but the boys from Short Stack like keeping in touch with the kids who have made them what they are today. “It makes it more real to them. We feel like we know all of our fans personally and they feel like they are a part of the band – like we’re their own special kind of band.”
The Veronicas may be picking them up in limos to hit the clubs while on tour, but Short Stack were the ones voted last year’s Channel V Australian Artist of the Year. “They’re jealous. We were rubbing it in backstage before [saying], – œSo you guys were the Artist of the Year…nah, don’t think so!’”
On a more serious note, “We’re very humbled to be on a tour like this and everything we do we’re still amazed. We get our own little rider with free alcohol. It’s such a rush and a blast because it’s such a big thing for us.”
And in case you were wondering how they did beat-out the Brisbane twins for the Artist of the Year title: “We just paid like a whole bunch of Indonesian kids so it was good value for money,” he jokes. “Nah, we pretty much just told all our fans to vote for us. Just to even get in the top four was amazing. We’d be nowhere without our fans on MySpace and stuff like that.”
Gone are the days that saw Clemmensen, his step brother Bradie Webb (drums) and best friend Shaun Diviney (vocals/guitar) struggle to get female attention. The bassist recalls spending Valentines playing to thousands up in Brisbane. “We got a whole bunch of chocolates, girls announcing their love to us. It was a good day to do a show up there. There are lots of pretty girls up in Brisbane.”
While Clemmensen jokes that attracting girls was the reason to start a band, Short Stack were given opportunities right from the get go – starting with supporting Good Charlotte. “Shaun and Bradie were in year 12 at the time and I had just finished school. They had their English HSC exam on the Friday, then we had to drive up to Queensland that afternoon and did the festival with Kisschasy and Good Charlotte. And then we had to drive back for Monday’s exam. It was pretty hectic. They were studying in the car on the way up.”
Fast forward a few years and Short Stack are hanging with Canadian pop/rockers Simple Plan, who Clemmensen describes as “the nicest people we have ever met. They hung with us backstage; we borrowed from their dressing room and went clubbing one night and they gave us free drinks. We got along really well with Dave the bassist.” And the highlight from the tour? ”[Playing the] Hordern Pavilion! Six thousand people. It was one of the best sets we’ve ever played. I’ll never forget that. That, or getting really drunk with Dave and Pierre.”
It’s easy to see the fun these youngsters evoke and that they’re not ones to take anything too seriously. And there’s no reason to change with the attention that has come their way. “All we’re trying to do it just be ourselves. Everything is done by us – the Short Stack TV we do, filming ourselves dicking around, the MySpace and all the stuff we talk about. We probably have taken it a bit too far on some occasions, but everything we’ve done is something we wanted to do and find fun. We weren’t told to do anything like that. So what you see it what you get.”
Short Stack play the all-ages Princess Ball Tour this month.
Sat 14 Mar – Sydney Entertainment Centre, Harbour Lounge
Sat 21 Mar – The Princess Theatre, Brisbane
Sun 22 Mar – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
to listen to their music now on 