Project Mayhem

Sat 31st Oct, 2009 in Features

Perth band Project Mayhem will launch their self-titled debut album at the Amplifier on November 7. FasterLouder caught up with Benny Mayhem, Jesse Deviant and Hugh Drockstar (also known as Ben, Jes and Joe) to talk about the new record.

So lads, shall we talk about recording the new album?

Joe “The actual recording was really good fun, we spent about two weeks in the studio”

Ben “Though we all had colds”

Joe “Yeah we all got sick…”

Jes “I didn’t get sick… you guys did””

Ben “It incubated in the studio… Fully sick”

Joe “Great fun”

Jes “Yeah… we spent about three quarters of the time working with Max from Cellar sessions… the rest of the time with Al Smith”

Al Smith from Begerk?

Jes “That’s right… we had a hand in producing and Al helped us get the sound we wanted, get the saxophone sounding good…”

Who played Saxophone on the album?

Jes “The man right here Joe”

Joe “I think I got away with it”

Ben “I don’t think you’ve played sax in about six years?”

Joe “Well not properly… I teach it but I don’t really play it that well… or that often”

Ben “You just get away with teaching it?”

As long as your students never question you you’ll be fine… tell us a bit about the launch, not just bands on the line up?

Jes “We rose the bar pretty high with the boat from the last launch so we needed to find something to top that… make it special… spend a large amount of money for no real good reason…”

Joe “except for the pursuit of a good time”

Jes “…exactly, I’ll certainly be having a good time”

And what have you got lined up?

Joe “It’s a Carnivàl theme, we have a sword swallower called Matty Blade, a magician… Cam McAzie the Badpiper from the kilted generation”

Ben “Kind of a punk bagpiper”

Jes “We saw him at Southbound and he impressed with his Mohawk and kilt so we thought we’d use him for the launch… always thinking ahead”

Joe “We’ve also got FAIM Project, Black Buzzard and The Floors playing”

A good selection of local bands… What are your feelings on the Perth music scene at the moment?

Ben “I think it’s great, I’ve had so much fun since winning the next big thing, it’s opened our outlook to the different scenes especially events like In the Pines where everyone’s into different things yet we get to work together for the day”

Jes “Perth loves a festival but you see a lot of bands in Perth in the pubs playing to very small crowds”

Joe “That’s the sad thing but the bands are good”

Jes “Everyone wants an event to go to”

Joe “We have a long association with the local scene and we love it to death, we’ve all been going to shows since we were 13”

It can be tough for Perth bands being so isolated.

Jes “You kill your crowd bashing Perth week in and out, we played every week in the first year and watched our crowd grow and subsequently start to shrink through doing that”

Ben “It’s the hardest thing, You can’t just get in the van and drive to the next city, getting on a plane is expensive”

Are Project Mayhem looking to play over East soon now that the album’s complete?

Ben “We’re just in the process of looking further afield, starting to put the feelers out, hopefully within the next few months”

Jes “We don’t tend to rush these things though, we’ve been jamming since we were 16…”

Ben “We might have a hit when we’re in our 80’s”

You’ve been getting a lot of good shows thrown at you since winning the Next big things, Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg…

Ben “We’ve been really fortunate in the last year or so, we’ve started to pick up some good shows”

Joe “The Hardons… we’re very excited about that”

Jes “We weren’t meant to be doing anything a month before the launch but we couldn’t really say no”

Project Mayhem boys can’t say no to hard ons?

Benny “Now lets not take this out of context”

They’re a band that have been going for over 20 years now, can you see yourselves doing this in 20 years time?

Ben “Fuck Yeah”

Joe “I think I’d be insane if I didn’t”

Ben “You’d want to feel we can keep getting better and better… We’d like to be a band still creating new stuff in twenty years”

Joe “It’s a passion that becomes an obsession, I know that I’m obsessed, I know you’re obsessed and I know Bangers is obsessed… It’s like a drug addict that needs his fix”

Ben “…except it’s more healthy for you”