The Trivs Ready to Launch 'ForYour Health'

Sun 3rd May, 2009 in Features

Local Canberra band The Trivs are releasing their independent EP For Your Health next week, and FasterLouder sat down with Bones (guitar) and Gaff (drums) over cheesecake and coffee to talk about the band, the EP, and nightmares about working at a supermarket.

For those who have been living under a rock, The Trivs have been forging their way into the Canberra scene in the past year or so, supporting such bands as The Mercy Arms, The Skybombers, and The Dirty Secrets, as well as headlining their own shows and acquiring a very dedicated fanbase.

Next Friday 15 May, they will be releasing their new EP recorded late last year at Glebe Studios. “We worked really hard, and backed ourselves, and made something we’re really proud of”, says Bones.

“We worked with Dan Nash [Senior Engineer at Glebe], who made the whole thing so pleasant, and made us sound, uh, better than we would have without him (laughs)”. “We were in the studio for four days”, continues Gaff. “Of that, two were recording, and the other two were mixing.”

To support the EP, the band has planned not only the launch at ANU Bar, but also a launch in their hometown of Dubbo a few days beforehand. “Dubbo actually gets to hear it first! It wasn’t actually how we planned it, but it kinda just worked out that way. We’ve still got a lot of Dubbo love happening, our families and stuff, they’ll buy [the EP]!” jokes Gaff.

In fact, it’s a culmination of events that lead the band to relocate to the relative – œbig smoke’ of Canberra from their early formation in Dubbo.
“Originally it was Miller [guitars/vocals] and I,” says Gaff. – œWe’d heard a lot of metal and punk bands playing in Dubbo and we thought that we could do better. It was really terrible at the start, we thought it could just be us two and that it’d be awesome, but it turned out not to be as awesome as we thought, so we recruited Bonesy. Then we moved here in 2007.”

The move forced the band to change their lineup however, and settling in took some time. “We left our old bass player in Dubbo, which made the early gigs here a little lacking,” continues Bones. “I moved down here to study, and Miller moved for love and work.”
“I moved for, uh, still not really sure!” says Gaff.
“You moved for IGA!” jokes Bones.
“Yeah, I was working at a supermarket for a year, which was hell,” continues Gaff. “I had a nightmare about working there last night even. I was back there again, like I needed the money or something! Working there made me realise what I wanted in life (even more laughing), and so now I’m studying.”

In Canberra they found Byron, their current bass player, and started to gig at local bars and found themselves with a dedicated fanbase pretty quickly.

“I remember one gig we were playing at Bar 32 last year,” says Gaff. “We had an awesome lineup of supports, but we didn’t get on until midnight, so I thought the night had already peaked, so I didn’t get my hopes up, but when we started, just boom! More people came in, and this was a Thursday night! It just got me really excited, because there was such a good crowd all night.”

This wasn’t the first time that The Trivs had found themselves playing to an unexpectedly excited crowd either.

“We won a band comp in Dubbo in 2006, and we were the only band wearing colour, pretty much,” says Bones. “It was quite amazing because there were literally 800 people there, and it was pretty overwhelming. Our jeans weren’t so tight back then, but we had our jeans on and our t-shirts, but we’re coming on against all these metal bands with extreme technicality. I just remember looking into the crowd and we had 30 or 40 friends who had come out to support us, and they were all up the front, but slowly as we were playing they got pushed back and all these metalheads were up the front headbanging to us and going nuts! They were just having a really good time, and that’s the best thing, people having fun.”

The guys are quick to throw themselves behind other local acts as well, and have picked a fine bunch of supports for their EP launch including Rubycon, and The Rusputniks.

“Another good band is Fun Machine, but they’re breaking up soon,” says Bones. “They’re amazing, but their lead singer/songwriter is heading to Hungary for a year, so that’s sad. The Canberra music scene, I think, seems to be going really well. We’ve got a lot of diversity, and we’re all doing what we’re doing really well.”

“We’re trying to get more gigs in Sydney and Melbourne too,” says Gaff. “We’ll hopefully head down [to Melbourne] to play some gigs with The Smoke, who are another amazing band from Melbourne.”
“Our aim is to keep getting better, and to put ourselves in more positions where we can be heard, and put ourselves out there as much as we can,” continues Bones.

Aside from some amazing supports acts, the band might also have some surprises in store.

“There might be a broken guitar at the end of the night,” says Bones. “I’m arguing strongly against it, but who knows? In the heat of the moment, we might lose a guitar.”
“We’ve got a ranga as a lead singer,” continues Gaff. “Red hair, tempers…”
“They can’t be trusted! He’s a volatile man!”
“It’s always been a liability, we’ve always been struggling with it (laughs).”

For those who hadn’t noticed the subtle hints, The Trivs launch their EP For Your Health on Fri May 15 at the ANU Bar. The doors open at 7.30, and they strongly recommend you get there early to support the other bands, and to buy their EP for the low price of $10, of course.