Alkaline Trio

Thu 9th Dec, 2010 in Features

Alkaline Trio are not rookies, they’ll be punk veterans of 15 years next year, but the band’s bones haven’t started to crack yet. Not by a long shot.

2010 has been another busy year for the band. They’re back on an independent label Heart and Skull. They’re recording music at home in Chicago where it all started. And they’ve released an album, which they’ve toured with the drive of a bunch of rookies.

Though they were last in Australia for Soundwave in 2009, they are heading back to Australia for the inaugural No Sleep Til Festival in this month. It is rare to see them back so soon, but it’s a testament to their current level of enthusiasm. “We always look forward to coming down there,” drummer Derek Grant explains, “everything about Australia is great… this festival in particular is really interesting, there’s a really crazy line up so it’s going to be a good time…It’s going to be a bit mixed, we’ll probably play just a couple of new ones… after seven albums it’s difficult to please everybody but we’ll be playing a lot of the favourites.”

Grant’s had the Alkaline Trio gig for seven years following some time with Suicide Machines and as a guitarist for Face to Face, hell he even toured for Good Charlotte once. He’s the band’s longest serving drummer, a talented musician and wise head about punk music. All this considered; he seems like the right dude to ask about the tired old punk vs commercialism thing. The trio have copped some flack in recent times after switching to a major for the recording of the Agony and Irony album. Their return to independence has won them back some cred with the purists, but the fact their latest album was sold through Target for $7.99 still left an impure taste in a few mouths.

“I dunno there’s obviously some politics involved or whatever but it’s such a crazy business that I don’t involve myself in the politics of the music industry,” Grant explains. “Getting the music out there to the masses is the most important thing and in a lot of places Target is where people go to buy music… you kinda gotta get the music out there wherever you can.”