Bible Bashers

Sat 5th Jun, 2010 in Features

Laith Tyranny and Byron McLeod Robertson of the Bible Bashers, keen to spill some ink about their upcoming EP launch, joined me in my kitchen for quick chat and a beverage. Laith had chai tea while Byron favoured lime water, and you’d think such innocuous choices of refreshment would put the lie to the Bible Bashers’ reputations as drunken swamp-punk reprobates. But you’d be wrong, and the conversation soon took a turn for the dark and disconcerting…

How long have you been together?

Laith: Two years.

What was the driving force behind your formation?

Laith: The Break up of Fear of Comedy and the break up of the Beverly Killbillies. Whilst shopping in Coles in Inglewood I bumped into Lewellen, who’s our guitarist, he was shopping with the wife and kids I believe. We talked about starting a band. I talked about the same idea with John, our drummer, a few times. We started jamming upstairs from Chainsaw Horror…

Yes, I recall.

Laith: And we basically wrote all our songs at acoustic jams at our houses and at Chainsaw Horror, making godawful noise.

Which I could hear, from this house, that we are in. (Absolutely true: you can see the former site of Chainsaw Horror from my house, and you could sure as hell hear the Bashers jamming)

Laith: Excellent!

Byron, when did you sign on?

Byron: They had a bass player previously, Nathan, also from Fear of Comedy.

That would be Nathan Christ.

Laith: Yep.
Byron: and things got short, and he didn’t want to play in the band any more, he had other things he needed to do. I think he moved just shortly after to Melbourne. So Laith called me up and I’d liked the band, I’d seen them do two shows before and I was really excited about the new sound and wanted to jump on board.

Okay, and what are the influences for the Bible Bashers? Musically and culturally?

Laith: I suppose John writes the majority of the lyrics. He’s got a fascination with the dirtier, grimier, side of things.
Byron: The scum of life.
Laith: Yeah, the scum of life. I think there’s a fair bit of Australiana – if that’s not a dirty word – to his writing; the mongrel dialect. As far as musically, punk and rockabilly and blues. As far as bands go we’re somewhere between AC/DC and the Beasts of Bourbon.
Byron: A lot of my bass is surf rock inspired. I tend to just go with that.
Laith: Definitely a lot of surf guitar. All the song writing is pretty rudimentary, it’s pretty simple stuff. That’s why I compare it to somebody like AC/DC, ‘cos it’s not rocket science.
Byron: That said, you add a whole lot of fuzz onto it, and suddenly you’ve got rocket science.
Laith: It’s all about the dirt. You just dirty it up.

What differentiates The Bible Bashers from your other musical projects?

Byron: I also play in Cal Peck and the Tramps, that’s a personal love of mine, but so are the Bashers. The Bashers are just another way to let loose and just absolutely run riot with your playing. I guess I can be a lot looser on the night and not worry about the outcomes., but the Tramps… almost professional, is a word I would use.
Laith: I guess that goes the same for Fear of Comedy as well. Both the Tramps and Fear of Comedy are kind of more professional outfits and their songs are more, not serious, but more about our lives rather than tales of drunken madness and sexual deviancy, which is the Bashers’ forte.
Byron: With the Bashers, I think our whole approach is we want to tell a story, whatever that story gets perceived as.
Laith: There’s definitely a lot of theatrics going on. I’m just interpreting John’s twisted mind. John needs to see a shrink.
Byron: He’s messed up. He really is., He’s something from the Twilight Zone.
Laith: Between the pig fat trick, which is an epic tale which leaves a lot to the imagination, and songs like Wine Haemorrhage, John’s just… weird. But we love him.
Byron: We love him.
Laith: And that suits us just fine.
Byron: John’s got a lot of beasts, put it that way. He’s got a lot of demons – Laith: (interrupting) Drunken demon monkey beasts.
Byron: …that just need to come out in the form of lyrics, and they do. And we do our best to spew ‘em forth to the audience.
Laith: We are a vehicle for John’s madness. We take his words and we turn them into equally disgusting, disturbing songs.