Boys On The Avenues

Tue 13th Sep, 2005 in Features

The scene begins in a Sydney pub one quiet Monday afternoon. A musician sits nursing his beer and reading the day’s news whilst the interviewer battles with setting up her Dictaphone. Andy Lawson, the guitarist from The Avenues does not need to be cajoled to speak about the band. With a tape rolling, Andy kicked off proceedings by saying in a somewhat camp voice, “Hello, hello.”

Let’s begin with another introduction to the band’s other guitarist, Cain Turnley. He once described touring as: “Some sort of legitimised fishing trip with your mates with more drinking and less responsibility.” Andy playfully questions, “How does he say that crap? Yeah, that’s pretty much what it’s like. Cain doesn’t have any responsibilities, gets very drunk, which you might say ‘He’s in a band, he’s meant too.’ And we have to drag him out of bed in the morning. So yeah, it has been exactly like that for Cain.”

Andy is referring to the band’s recent tour with Speedster. The touring schedule was somewhat gruelling with early starts, interviews and late nights. “The Speedster guys are just, it was easy for them, like they’d done it a million times and we’re just like ‘Arrrggghhhh, help!’ But no, it’s been great and they were awesome to us as well.” When times were tough, surely the guys could seek solace with a ciggie in the back of the van? “No, we don’t smoke in the car.  Our drummer hates it and three of us smoke and he doesn’t, so we’ve done the right thing. At times I’ve felt like killing him but that’s fine.”

Tom Craig, the band’s bass player, summed up their live shows as follows: “Cain will sweat more than any living animal known to man, Andy will be moving about so much, you think he’s got Tourette’s. I’ll be spread legged in the corner refusing to use any more energy on moving my body then is required and Sibbsey will be thrashing the drums to within an inch of their lives, with rhythm.” Andy adds, “We’re brilliant as well, some days. Some days we’re not.” With the current tour he claims, “It’s a bit of a reality shock going back to these tiny, little shows, where you can’t move onstage otherwise you’re standing on the drums.  The volume on your amp has to be at like one. But it was great, the first night was like ‘Oh God, what are we doing?’ And the second night it all clicked. You’re like ‘f**k we can do this. This is alright you know?’! I tried to rock out as much as I could, but I would have fallen on Sibbsey a lot.”

The boys have proved that they can rock out anywhere, especially after a recent stint entertaining the troops in Iraq, so how was this experience? “This is the question I don’t know how to answer. It’s an indescribable experience, really.”

Were the troops appreciative? “Very much so, they treated us like royalty. They got to be put in a pub situation, without beer, for like four hours and watch bands and go a little silly. We saw some crazy things, like Camp Victory, its three hundred kilometres, that’s how big it is. They’re living in Saddam Hussein’s buildings, basically. They’ve converted his palace, it’s the camp. All the buildings are these overdone, kind of spectacular buildings, all marble inside, chandeliers and stuff like that. I sat on Saddam Hussein’s thrown, which was kind of bizarre and good as well. And I got to fly in a Black Hawk across Baghdad.”

Did you get to fly the helicopter by yourself at any point? “No, no. Well you have two gunmen on either side so it’s pretty dangerous and they’re checking it out to see if they’re gonna get shot, basically. Flares came up on the helicopter at one stage, which is not a good thing. That means that something is locked onto your helicopter. But it can also be a mobile phone setting it off as well, as they tried to tell us. It doesn’t matter ‘cos we’re back and we’ve got all our limbs and we’re happy. We didn’t see any bad stuff, so that was good.”

The boys returned home rather exhausted and Andy says it was quite a mental strain. A much lighter subject is the band’s recent performance at the Xpress 20th Anniversary party. “That was awesome, it was really, really good. We went on first, which was strange. Twenty minutes we had, short and sweet. And then we got our first review in the Xpress for like three years which was incredible… I don’t know, every major show we’ve played has managed to miss getting a review so I feel sorry for whoever we’ve played with. We thought we were cursed or something, but we got a good review as well. It’s a bit of a Perth in-joke, there’s a few bands that don’t get reviews. Your Little Birdies, your Eskimo Joes, your End Of Fashions.”

Publicity is a powerful tool and Cain once told punters during a gig to vote for the band in the Triple J Net 50 because “God knows, we do.” Andy is often asked by the band to send notes to people on their mailing list to remind them to vote. “I always tell him I’ve done it, but I haven’t. ‘Cos he’s like ‘Can you send everyone on the email a thing to vote?’ And I’m like ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that. Yeah, yeah sure.’ Saturday comes and I’m like ‘Shit, I forgot again.’ But Cain probably does (vote). Cain’s a little twisted. He’s a little wrong.”

“Cain writes our bios for us so how did he describe us?” Cain described the band’s songs as “Immediate, fresh, and catchy as hell. Compelling and loaded with energy and confidence.” Andy adds, “I describe us as a pop band and that’s it. He loves his English, he loves the English language.”

Cain is obviously using his love of English to promote the band’s new EP, the 2EP, a limited edition tour disc, which combines all of the songs from the band’s first two EPs. When asked about recording the tracks at his house, Andy says it was, “Really long-winded and strange. There were never four band members in the same house together. We did it completely as a non-band, which was bizarre but it was just the circumstances. I hope it worked.  But there’s something to be said for playing in a room together when everything’s going right. It’s like the stars align or something. You don’t have to think about what you’re doing, it just starts happening. When we do the album, we’ll definitely be looking at that.”

The 2EP also contains the band’s new radio single Something Got Me Started, which Andy penned. “It’s just when you meet a girl and blah, blah. They’re all boy, girl songs in the end. It’s bizarre ‘cos I didn’t have a girlfriend for a while and then I met my current girlfriend and everything is really, really good. Now I have to pick up on the smallest, little thing and blow it out into something ridiculous. Or as I’ve started to do recently, I’ve been picking on other people’s relationships around me and making it look like I’m writing it, does that make sense? So giving it a little twist.”

It appears that Andy has turned all Dr. Phil on us. “I find it really hard, Something Got Me Started is the first happy song I’ve written.  I just play sad chords, generally. It’s what makes me tick.” With the new material for the album, Andy comments that the band is pursuing the use of darker undertones. “We wrote a song today and it’s not dark, I don’t know how you would describe it. It’s just got this weird mood to it, weird underlying moods and stuff.”

“Most people relate to sad pretty well.  I’ve always been a big fan. Apart from The Strokes, my favourite albums are sad albums. Oh, The Beatles are happy as well. The first half’s happy; the second half of their career is pretty dark. But the second half’s my favourite.” I have to agree with Andy about this but for the readers who prefer With The Beatles, let’s just agree that each to their own.

One of the band’s more light-hearted tracks on the new EP is Slow Moving.  Described in the band’s bio as a “Perfect example of The Avenues addictive and romantic rock sound with catchy vocals and karaoke inspiring lyrics.” Does the band have a favourite karaoke song? “I think I should read these bios before they go out (laughs). My favourite karaoke song would be Livin’ Thing. ELO, you can’t really go wrong.  Yeah I’m going with that, I’m running with it.”

Here’s a mental image for those playing at home, picture four boys in a smoky karaoke bar belting out “It’s a livin’ thing.” Obviously, the perfect karaoke track is one where everybody can sing along. “Dancing Queen is good as well, I’m a big fan of Dancing Queen. Everyone knows it, you can’t go wrong.” I tell Andy that I’d pay to see that. Andy replies, “Next time you come, we’ll do it. There you go- the challenge has been set. I’m fine, I know how to play it and I know all the words. Actually when I was a kid, my sister was a big ABBA fan and to back it up, it’s one of the most genius little chord progressions and melodies that I’ve ever heard in my life. I have a lot of time for ABBA.”

Going back to the smoky karaoke bar, you can easily picture the boys singing away and dancing. “Oh no, we’re gonna play it live. Yeah, the challenge has been set. You can tell everyone (laughs). ABBA, ABBA, ABBA.” I warned Andy that I would hold this against him, so punters it’s payback time. If you go to an Avenues gig, request Dancing Queen for me because Andy appears overly keen to perform this ditty.

The band is currently planning to record their debut album. During a recent interview, Tom tried to relay these plans to the band’s minder, Emma from their record company, Rubber Records. “It was live to radio and he (the interviewer) was talking about where we’re going to do our recording. And Tom’s just turned around and gone ‘We’re doing it in the Bahamas aren’t we Emma?’ And she’s just like ‘WHAT?’ We’re trying, he’s pushing. The budget’s gone up to 600 grand or so. For 600 grand we can get to the Bahamas, don’t worry about the recording gear. We’ll sort that out when we get back.”

Such an extravagant request reminds me of The Beatles asking the scriptwriters of their movie Help! if scenes could be added in the Bahamas and the Swiss Alps, because they wanted to travel there. “This is exactly what we’re talking about. If we don’t go to the Bahamas, we’re not going to sell a million albums, basically. And if we do, we are, it’s plain and simple. I’ll nearly put money on it. I’ll put ten bucks on it, that if we go, millions sold. If you’re listening Rubber get your shit together, I say.”

With all this talk of money I can’t help but be reminded of Tom saying that he hoped to sell as many copies of the EP as possible, so they could eat next week. “I just bought a beer so it’s going well.” Does Andy want to give people another reason to buy the EP? “Because you should. Because you get two EPs for the price of one and it helps a little Perth band who are dipping their feet in the ocean, there you go. And it’s brilliant.”

It appears that Andy is now doing his own reviews. “I nearly went into a David Brenner spiel. He’s just reading the bible and God’s always saying everything is good and wonderful and I wish I could do my reviews like God does. And that’s where the brilliant thing comes from. In-joke.”

The Avenues and their fans are one nice community. Before I prepared my interview questions, I asked people on their message board what questions they would ask the lads. User Dougiehuntingseason, mentioned that they would ask whose shout is it? “Cain’s, always Cain’s. Cain’s the whipping boy. If there’s anything bad to be said or someone has a dig, it’s always Cain. Even Speedster had a dig at him yesterday on stage. It was hilarious. They just told the crowd that Cain woke up in the morning and vomited in his hands. I don’t know how they found out. ‘Cos Cain was saying the night before that he’s going out, he’s going to have a big one and he’ll be fine. And it ended up in tears, basically.”

Random thoughts do transpire on stage. “The stuff that comes into your mind you probably shouldn’t say half the time, but you do. But Cain, we could go all day. Cain will tell you a story about anything. He’ll tell you there’s seventeen per cent of a cockroach in Mars Bars or something.”

It’s true that Cain makes some random comments. During one Sydney gig, Cain told the audience that Perth only has one big building. “There is more than one big building in Perth. He’s constantly coming out with these random facts that he’s fabricated in his mind. It’s a beautiful thing, it keeps life interesting, but it’s very strange. He knows he’s the whipping boy and he’s happy to take that responsibility and good on Cain for that. I’ll big him up for that. And then I’ll chop him back down.”

For now, the boys have ten to fifteen demos and have got the recording of their debut album as their main priority. The boys want to experiment a little with keys and other instruments, rather than just playing guitars. They also hope to get back to the East Coast in November. “That’s the plan at this stage and maybe make some money along the line. Get a nice APRA cheque or something, that’d be good.”

Does Andy have any final comments? Andy looks longingly at his empty glass and says, “Where’s my beer Cain, your shout, that’s it. I wish he was here, he was going to come down as well but he didn’t. ‘Cos I could have done with another beer. I can get one myself, but I prefer to make Cain do it.”

In the meantime, you can purchase the new 2EP. On the next tour, remember to request Dancing Queen so Andy can serenade Cain. And if you catch the boys at a show, be sure to approach Cain, pat him on the back and say, “Cain, it’s your shout.”