The Spitfires

Mon 5th Dec, 2011 in Features

After a quick clarification about which timezone we were both in, it was time to sit down and talk to Sean Regan, front man for Perth band The Spitfires. In the two hours that we chatted over Facebook while eating lunch, we talked about the state of world politics, Oasis, NME vs Pitchfork and the new video clip for single Smile.

“We filmed it at The Rosemount Hotel. They were extremely understanding and happy to help.” Regan said. “We spent a while thinking about a more traditional looking bar that would allow us to have a massive brawl. The Rosemount fitted the bill perfectly!”

Directed by Stefan Radanovich (Perished, The Debt), the video features the band getting drunk at their friend’s wake. Staying true to the band’s aesthetic, the video “builds the tension along with the music, then we have a WTF moment and it all goes to shit! We’re dead tough!” Regan quipped. “We had a pretty crazy director. We took the basic concept to Stefan and said he was free to run with it. I must admit I winced when I read the script!”

Regan warns “Still if you think this videos crazy the next one will melt everyone’s brain.” It’s a video about the royal family and “we shall not be treating them kindly!” While he couldn’t give much away, he did say that they will have to find a Nazi uniform for whoever will be playing Harry. “I’m a little obsessed with the Royal family. They’re very irritating.” When asked if he went to see the Queen and Prince Phillip when they were out here for CHOGM, Regan said he gave it a miss “I don’t think I’d be able to throw a sausage that far anyway.”

Regan was born and bred in Liverpool. The town most famous for being the birthplace of The Beatles. “I think it’s genetic for people from Liverpool to have moptops and be kick arse song writers!” Regan made the move to Australia in 2005.“I just wanted to help my family out. They moved here a few years before and needed help with a business they bought. I spent my first year here throwing newspapers through the night.” A few months ago, Regan gained his Australian citizenship. “I just want the citizenship so when somebody tells me to fuck off back home, I’ll be able to say that Australia is my home. It’s not easy being an immigrant, even if you’re as charming as me. Still thank god I got a plane over, wouldn’t like to be banged up on Christmas Island, I don’t care how festive it sounds!”

Sean Regan met bassist Paul Bovenkerk through the goth girl porn site Suicide Girls. “We were both cruising for smut one day and he was there talking about how music was the only true art form and that he owned a bass. Normally I’d run a mile but I took a gamble and he turned out to be relatively normal.” Together with new recruit Brad Stevens, they make The Spitfires. “Our newest recruit Brad was the drummer from the Bullet Holes, so once they disbanded it seemed natural that he should join given his experience with them.” For those wondering, The Bullet Holes had a political bend to them. “They were quite close to where we were so he fitted in very well. Not enough politics in music these days.”

2011 will long be remembered as the year of the mass Occupy movement and Julian Assange. “I think it’s the beginning of something quite big, but hard to know how it will turn out. The Occupy movement don’t have a lot of power and the governments won’t tolerate them forever. Democracy seems to have become window dressing for large corporations to run our lives so I think protest is now the only way some countries are going to affect meaningful change.” As to why this is happening now, “[there’s] more unemployed people, the internet has also massively increased people’s awareness of these issues. It seems the internet’s getting more powerful every day.”

In a small town like Perth, everyone is fighting to control the scene. In almost every way, it is very much the big fish in the small pond story. The Spitfires managed to get themselves into hot water after declaring Perth music as crap live on the radio. This ended with them being blacklisted. “Fortunately not everyone blacklisted us. There’s always people out there fighting the good fight. I can only advise people to remember Perth is one city and how you are perceived in the rest of the country can’t be effected by what the people of Perth think. I received that same piece of advice myself and it’s turned out to be pretty accurate.” Apart from that, “it still helps to have a following. If you can’t pull punters in your home city you need to work on your music, but yeah it’s a small pond and the big fish only do well here because of that.”

Living in Liverpool brought some advantages. Namely, seeing Oasis at Maine Road in 1996. “Absolutely mind blowing. I’ve never been to a gig that’s topped it. They were huge back then.” Recalling the downward spiral Oasis soon found themselves on, “I think Knebworth was the start of the downfall. It got too big, then after that it all slipped away. I get very pissed. I arrived in time to catch the height of it, but watched it all disappear.”

Music has changed a lot since then. There’s no voice of the generation and there’s no one particular band that stands out amongst the rest as the biggest or the greatest. The real meaning of a rock n roll legend has disappeared only to be replaced with whatever the media is trying to spin. “I think that it all came about when Radiohead released Kid A. From then on it became all about the production of the record rather than the content. It’s all about the scenes and sounds, getting the stamp of approval from Pitchfork.”

“I remember when [the NME] did the cover with The Vaccines. It said ‘Never mind the hype here’s… The Vaccines’. An obvious Sex Pistols comparison which they didn’t deserve. We just made that our UK tour poster, ‘Never mind The Vaccines, here’s The Spitfires’. Paul’s great at Photoshop though. He managed to perfectly replicate the cover of an NME mag right down to the position of the lettering. Seriously if you get our tour poster and the Vaccines NME cover they’re almost identical. We’ll probably get sued for it when we’re big enough. We actually had people in the UK thinking it was a real cover and boycotting the gigs!” Regan said. “I think a lot of people have lost respect for NME, though I hear they have a new editor who’s trying to turn it around. They should rename Pitchfork ‘music for shallow soulless wankers trying to get a shag for having eclectic taste in music.com’.”

The Spitfires have built a reputation based around their raucous and unpredictable live shows. As to which has been the greatest gig so far, “end of tour party in London this year, that one went off! It was a big deal for me returning to England to play shows. Playing music like we do we don’t always find the audience in Australia. Everybody here is quite content with life, whereas in England everyone’s up for a bit of aggro so our music went down very well there. We had some decent crowds but we’re very new over there. People were kind of ‘who the fuck’s this?’ Starting from scratch. It’ll be the same in Japan though our profile’s bigger now so it should be simpler. As long as the room’s full I couldn’t give a toss, but we’ve certainly had some memorable small shows.”

The Spitfires will be touring on the back of Smile around Australia before going to Japan in December. When asked about what Ragan was most looking forward to in Japan, he replied “Well, the robots for a starter! I saw robots on Youtube that could make Ramen.”