The Spitfires

Wed 19th May, 2010 in Features

It’s a fidgety, slightly nervous Sean Regan is sitting across the table with his coffee. But Regan is the frontman of the upfront, opinionated Perth group The Spitfires’, so what’s he antsy about? A national tour, it would seem. “Whether it’s confidence or stupidity, I’m not really sure! It’s kind of scary…no matter how confident I am and no matter how much people say ‘we want you over there’ it’s niggling down in the back of my mind [that] this is crazy going on a national tour!”

Regan is crazy to be doubtful. In a whirlwind two years, The Spitfires have built up a reputation in Perth as the punk band to beat – and it seems like the East Coast has cottoned on to their tight, powerful and gritty sound as well. He tells of their recent mini-trip to Canberra “we got a very good response from the crowd. Fortunately, we do get noticed wherever we go, not for any novelty reason, but people just seem to like the music.”

It is that enthusiastic response to the new EP Dead? Good! which has prompted the trio to party through Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Just don’t mention Adelaide’s absence from that list, “Jesus Christ! The amount of shit I’ve had about not going to Adelaide!” So, give the kid a break. With the very rock ‘n’ roll excuse of “I just couldn’t get time off work!” Regan offered a sincere apology – “we promise we will do Adelaide! We apologise.”

South Australian mishaps aside, Regan and his band of merry men – wild bassist Paul Bovenkerk and super drummer Alex Hay – are looking well forward to what he describes as “the best time in our music career; when it doesn’t matter how bad we do [because] we’ve got nothing riding on it. There’s no label to tell us what to do, we do whatever the fuck we want really.” And it is exactly that, very punk, DIY ethos which people love about The Spitfires. It’s fast, loud, full of ‘tude and fun – what it is not, is messy or sloppy. As Regan so elegantly puts it, “we might be DIY, but we don’t wanna be shit.” Touché.

A Liverpudlian chatterbox who has quite a way with words, Regan’s mouth is as quick to coin a phrase as it is to get him in a bit of hot water. Of his recent rant about the state of the Australian music scene he explains that “it got heated…and sometimes you’ve gotta let off some steam because we work our nuts off doing this music thing and it can sometimes be quite tense.”

While he won’t go further to stand by or retract his comments, he does has some bridges he wishes to mend. “Luke Steele [of Empire of the Sun], if you’re reading this – I love you really, man. And I really respect, sort of, your…thing. It’s not what I wanna do, but, you know…well never be as famous as he is. And on the other hand, we’ll never have to work crazy hours or dance on stage with an elephant, or whatever.”

Clearly, Regan is a walking sound byte. However, even more so than what he says, it is the sincerity in his voice and his complete conviction in The Spitfires’ validity that is the most engaging of it all. Not backing down from criticisms he had made of major Oz festival Soundwave, Regan goes even further, saying “Soundwave and all these festivals would benefit from a few more of the ‘out-there’ bands, like us. With the festivals, they often take a good look at your CV. They wanna see that you tick boxes, or that you’re getting enough radio airplay and then on ya’ go.” And he’s right. Now that they are going national, a little bit of Spitfires sass can hopefully give the music scene the kick in the behind that it needs.

Dead? Good! will soon stand the test of the entire country, and the rave reviews from sleepy ol’ Perth won’t necessarily help too much. The Spitfires know that, and they want to see their EP stand on its own legs anyway – its success will herald a full length album in the coming year. So, from the horse’s mouth, what can you expect of the tour gigs on the East Coast? “We can’t do a three-minute Green Day pop song. We’re not good looking enough, I’m not a good enough singer. We’re just too dysfunctional for any of that. But come along and do a few stage invasions!” Now, that’s a good invitation if I’ve ever heard one.

The Spitfires will be touring their new EP Dead? Good! nationally at the following venues:

Wednesday 19th May – WAMi Festival Opening @ the Paddo, Perth
Thursday 20th May – Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane
Friday 21st May – Mum @ World Bar, Sydney
Saturday 22nd May – Weekender @ Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne