Fear of Comedy - The FearReturns

Sat 17th Oct, 2009 in Features

Fear of Comedy Interview

First, a caveat: when Fear of Comedy and I meet, we do not do so as strangers. We’ve known each other for years. I’ve shared lodgings with various members, went to university with the drummer, am godfather to the bassist’s firstborn. This isn’t me namedropping, though; in the interest of preserving whatever tattered shreds of journalistic integrity I may yet retain, I feel it’s only fair to clue you in at the outset: I know these boys.

And let me tell you, they’ve been through a lot over the past few years. Out of the gate they were one of the hardest working bands in the Perth scene, fusing horror stylings with post-punk influences in countless memorable live gigs, culminating in a successful eastern states tour. Roughly a week after that particular jaunt they split, brought to ground by personal acrimony and the relentless pressures that all working bands are subject to. That was two years ago.

Then, quietly, the boys patched up their differences and began to play once more. A gig here, a gig there. A heartbeat later, they announced that they’d be supporting Marilyn Manson at his Perth show, easily the biggest show of their career so far. That’s pretty heady stuff for a group who had previously called it quits. When I met with frontman Laith Tierney, guitarist Nathan Christensen and drummer Liam Dunn over a few drinks at 399, one question was at the forefront of my mind…

How the fuck?

Laith laughs. “Is that a question?”

Yes it is. How the hell did you guys score the Manson support slot, because I’m mystified.

“Okay, here’s the deal. First of all, we announced that we were getting back together, just by perthbands.com, and sent out a few press releases. Then a band called Friends of a TV Evangelist from Melbourne came over in August, they were doing a secret show at a venue called 208, which is run by the guys from Extortion, and we thought, let’s do it, let’s play with these guys, and we suited them, we did it. That sort of leaked out that we were playing on that, but we didn’t make a big deal of it, it wasn’t really a return show, our inner circle knew, I guess. After that, I dunno. We got asked to play the Night of Horror Film Festival, and we announced that we’re playing Sin on the 31st, and I guess from that, a promoter called Heath was asked his opinion on who would fit the bill, and he recommended us. And yeah, that was Monday night. That brings us to the now.”

Nathan, where were you when you found out?

“I was in Richmond, which is in sunny Victoria. I was just starting to settle in there when Laith called me and said, dude, we’re doing the Manson gig, you’ve earnt this, come back for it. And I couldn’t really say no to that. I think at one point when I was fourteen, I’d written in my journal, “play with Marilyn Manson”, so…”

Small dreams, really.

“Small dreams that I now regret, yes.” He laughs. “Don’t put that in there.”

Laith laughs again. “How quickly you regret mentioning that was in your diary!”

And how quickly did you get back to Perth? What’s the time lag between finding out and getting here?

Nathan drags on his hand-rolled cigarette. “That was about… well, see, I’m a free spirit, Travis, as you well know. I think it was about two weeks later? Three weeks later? I ended up back in Perth to start rehearsing. And that was about a month-”

“Start of October,” Laith interjects.

Nathan nods. “About a month before we did the gig. Yeah, about three or four weeks of rehearsing, and then we played the gig. That’s how it went down.”

You’re a fairly cynical soul, Liam, What was your reaction? Because you sure as hell didn’t see this coming.

“I absolutely did not see this coming,” says Dunn. “When I got the message from Laith that we’d been approached to support Marilyn Manson, I basically messaged back “Are you fucking kidding me?” I was at work feeling sorry for myself, and I just thought, “No, this has gotta be a joke.” I mean, we’d been a band for a couple of years and then broke up for a year –
“Two.” says Laith.

“For two years, and then we get back together, and then the next day we get approached to do this huge international support. It came right out of the blue and just didn’t seem real at the time.”

Laith continues: “I think initially he thought it was too good to be true. It’s strange; when I got the message, it was a text message, and I’d been talking to Josh from the Painkillers who said “Oh don’t worry, something will come up.” And I was thinking, “Yeah, I hope so.” The next morning there’s a text message, and I’m hung over as hell, it’s 8 o’clock in the morning and there’s this message from this guy Nick, who’s with (tour promoter) Michael Coppel, and it says “Would Fear of Comedy be interested in supporting Manson?” I just rolled over and went back to sleep! I didn’t recognize the number, so I thought it was a joke. I woke up a few hours later and made a phone call, then got on the phone to everyone else, and everyone just went “No, you’re fucking kidding me.” No one really believed it. It sunk in over the next few days, once we started seeing contracts and paperwork to sign.”

Says Dunn, “I think for me it didn’t really sink in that it was going to happen until I saw it in print, in the newspaper and Xpress and things like that, where it actually had our name in print, and it’s like – œYep, that’s Fear of Comedy, it says it right there. F…e…a…r… so on and so forth. If this is a joke it’s extremely elaborate.’”

Nathan picks up the thread. “The interesting thing is, two years ago we were sitting there watching MM, thinking to ourselves, – œMy God, we could fucking do this.’ And absolutely laughing it off as – œAs if!’ And two years later it’s reality.”

Laith:

What’s strange is, two years ago we were in our prime, watching that Manson show in 2007, going “This is where we’re gonna try to get, guys.” We saw The Spazzys were supporting, and we’d working our asses off for two years, thinking – œGod, why don’t more local bands get the internationals support slots?’ Then we break up at the height of our hard work. It’s so ironic and bizarre that it happens two years later after we’ve split up. For a promoter to book us… they don’t know if we’ve lost it. They don’t know if we’ve gone soft, gone clean, y’know? Everyone was shell-shocked and excited at the same time.

Take me through the build-up.

Nathan:

I think we took it really seriously. I came back a month before, and we rehearsed hardcore. For three weeks it was twice a week, and for the last week it was every single day. And that’s a lot. You get pretty exhausted, but by the last day we really had it sorted. And we’re trying to bring in Conrad, who’s our new keyboardist, and going essentially – œHere’s ten songs you’ve never heard before. You’ve got a month to learn them.’ And he did, just simply because we all worked really hard at it and took it seriously. He was really on top of his game as well, which was awesome.

Laith:

We didn’t take it lightly, that’s for sure.

Liam:

Yeah. It’s been rather intense actually. When things transpired and we couldn’t rehearse sometimes, that felt good, because we were able to get a break and let the work percolate a bit, and then next rehearsal we’d be even more fired up. We tried to fit in a rehearsal on the day of the gig, but I think we were trying to over prepare, and we didn’t really need it. We were just bang on, perfect, as best we could be, and I thought we were absolutely amazing last night. I just think that everyone brought their A-game. It’s such a huge… it’s Challenge Stadium, for crying out loud! There was no choice but to be super ready.

Was there ever a point when you thought, – œShit, we can’t do this. We’re out of our depth?’

Nathan:

No, not really. When we were jamming and I was trying to get back into it, I was amazed at how quickly we gelled again. Sure, two years had passed, but we still knew so well how each other played that it was quite natural. It’s good that the older members of the band gelled so quickly because we were able to help Conrad more efficiently.

So do you no longer feel you’re in a niche? Do you feel you’ve broken a bit wider?

Nathan:

We’re no longer playing the same gigs to the same crowd that we always did every week. We’ve had the opportunity to showcase what we do to a whole bunch of people who will never have heard of us. And the response has been really good. And now we’ve got to capitalise on it.

Liam:

I remember from years and years ago, an international band would come, and they’d have a band from Sydney or Melbourne who tours around the country with them, and then there’d be a local band that played in each state before the national support band comes on.

Laith:

And the bands would have airplay or CDs out. Signed bands with distro and that. People who are actually going to pull a crowd. The Spazzys were a national band that had a record label behind them, their own promo and their own exposure, regardless of who they’re supporting. They don’t know that we’re going to bring in tickets; they just know they’re booking a local band that haven’t played for two years. We’re grateful to have been on the ticket. It’s just surreal and bizarre.

It must have done wonders for your confidence, how you approach an audience.

Liam:

Absolutely. It’s given us a great incentive. This is what we were working towards two years ago, and now, the minute we get back together it’s happened. It boggles the mind.

Nathan:

It also feels like something we’ve worked so hard for that it’s kind of like our reward? When I got on stage I was a bit nervous and shit, but it felt like it’s legit. We deserve to be here because we’ve put in the years of just gigging locally and trying to work our way up that hierarchy. It’s bizarre that there’s been a two year break, but it felt real natural, like a reward for everything.

Like you’ve earnt it.

Laith:

Yeah. Part of the break-up was just how hard we worked, the stress and the tension and the time and money and everything we put into it.

Liam:

We worked 50 weeks in the year. Basically two weeks off where we didn’t play a gig. It was insane.

Laith:

I think when we did our APRA return for 2006-2007, it worked out that we’d played at least two to three times a week. For a year, playing more gigs than there are weeks in the year.

There was a bit of a panic over the equipment. Tell me about that, because it could be a useful lesson for anyone who finds themselves in this position.

Nathan:

I think we’ve prided ourselves over the last five years on being, definitely, a band that had the shittest equipment out of any band in Perth. I was playing the spoons at one stage because I didn’t have a guitar.

Laith:

Those spoons were good, though. Good spoons.

Nathan:

The electric spoons, man. I can rock the electric spoons.

Liam:

They’re commemorative.

Nathan:

My Nana’s real pissed off. I stole six of her spoons, man.

Laith: She was in the SS.

Nathan:

Yeah, they’re Hitler youth spoons. It was a combination of things. Like, we had to hire some shit, but there was a huge outpouring of local bands that we’d played with and friends of ours who said – œYou can borrow my guitar, you can borrow my amp’. We ended up borrowing amps from… who was it? Pete?

Laith:

Pete from ZXspecky gets an honourable mention for helping out Adams with the bass rig. The legendary James Baker assisted Liam Dunn here with the drum kit. He’s a solid character, that man.

Liam:

Absolutely.

Laith:

And friends of ours helped out with guitars and stuff. I mean, we haven’t played for two years; we haven’t built up a band kitty. In fact, we broke up in the red.

Nathan:

We were always in the red.

Take me through the night.

Laith:

We get to Challenge about four o’clock. We load in, and then… there was a little bit of a freak-out over where’s our dressing room? Where do we put our gear? Are we gonna get yelled at? We don’t have passes yet. These people are looking at us like we’re weirdos.

Nathan:

Yeah, gigantic American security guards just going “Who the fuck are you?” And I turned up with my MM lunchbox and they thought I’ve gotta have some knives and shit in there, trying to take Mazza out. (Bass player) Liam Adams had a classic moment where he was standing on stage trying to figure out where his amp was gonna go, and he was looking for a pass-out, so he could get in and out of the place, and he asked a security guard without looking, and when he looked up, Manson’s standing there with his fist out, and says “You just run into this really fast.” So, you know, Manson’s obviously a witty guy.

Laith:

We’re used to 15 minute changeovers at the Hydey. The Homicides have set up and finished, they get all their crap off, and we set all our crap up, the audience is there watching us set up, and they’re all our mates. This was like, the techs set up offstage, Manson finishes sound check, we go round the corner to go the toilet or have a smoke or get a beer or something, we come back and all our craps on stage and we’re ready for sound check. All right! Okay!

Liam:

And after the show, we pulled everything offstage, and I’m starting to pull the drum kit apart and haul it away, and my tech’s like “No, go sit down and have a beer, I’ll do this.” So I go to walk off and grab a drink, but I had to come back and help. It’s like, that’s what I do! I have to put the drum kit in the car! That’s what happens! I can’t not do that! It feels weird to not have to do that. I couldn’t even let that go.

Nathan:

I must admit, I got used to it very, very quickly.

Laith:

It kinda creeped up on us. At 7:40 we’re at the side of the stage, and it’s – œOkay, we’re on!’

No nerves?

Liam:

Oh yeah, there were nerves, but the nervous energy just becomes fuel. And I knew I’d get all wound up ready to go, and then it’d be over. And it was, it just went by so quickly.

Nathan:

I was remarkably calm. It was probably the two dozen Quaaludes I had. In reality, I think I had maybe two beers.

Laith:

The rider went pretty quick.

Nathan:

Yeah, I had two beers and the rider went pretty quick. Explain that, you fuckers.

Laith:

The contrast between sound-checking to an empty venue and then an hour later going on stage to…. the floor was full when we went on. The stands weren’t, but the floor was. The lights are down, we’ve got a full lighting rig and all this amazing equipment we’ve been loaned and borrowed and hired, there’s people there, some we recognize, that we can see. It was great looking out and going hey, there’s him and him and her – fantastic! And then the first song, and you realise – it’s begun. It has begun! We are playing now. There’s no going back, this is it. It’s show time, boys. And there’s people there! The first song ends, and right! Okay! And there’s a cheer! Sure, it’s not a deafening cheer like Manson’s…

Nathan:

There was like a second of silence and then this roar from the crowd. It was fucking crazy! A thousand people cheering – it was bizarre.

Laith:

If twenty people dug it, I’m happy. So we flew through the set, it felt like five minutes, and it was over too quick. Just feeding off the energy, I wasn’t nervous because I knew… I love that shit. I fuckin’ love that shit. And as soon as we stepped out, it was like show time, here we go, it’s on. I like to put on a show, I went there with the plan to win people over, not by being something we’re not, but by being ourselves and amplifying it. I think playing music is all about amplifying your own personality.

Where to next?

Nathan:

God knows.

Liam:

The moon!

Laith:

The sky’s the limit.

Nathan:

We’ve got four shows planned over the next month. Then I go back to Melbourne.

Laith:

Yeah, we still don’t know what’s happening there.

Nathan:

This is such a big deal that changes everything, we’re just gonna go with what happens. Whatever comes our way, we’ll take. I’m just leaving it up to fate at the moment. That’s all I can do.

Laith:

I plan to push this with every fibre of my being. This I feel is an extension of myself that I really wanna take somewhere. Soon we’ve got the One Movement Fringe Festival, that boggles the mind because we’re playing in Wolf Lane in the city, on the street. We’re let loose in public, out of our cages, on the streets of Perth. During a music industry festival where there’s potentially a lot of A&R and record industry types roaming around checking out bands. Who knows what can happen from that? Maybe there’ll be somebody looking for music for film, which is something we’d love to hit. Potential record deals, more international support, maybe touring overseas… And then we’re finishing the month on Halloween, at a massive venue like Gilkinson’s. That’ll be great. So, where to? Well, the sky’s the limit, but it’s all up to fate I guess.

Liam:

We’ve got momentum now.

Laith:

The potential is unlimited. The willpower is there, the ambition is there, we’ve just got to capitalise on it, and hope it carries over. Just keep building it.

We finish our beers, smoke a few cigarettes, and chat for a while. The boys are both excited and reflective. The future seems bright. If there’s any justice, next time they’re at Challenge Stadium, they’ll be headlining.