Hatching a brilliant GetawayPlan

Fri 16th Jun, 2006 in Features

When The Getaway Plan’s vocalist, Matthew Wright is asked how he gets original song themes, he suggests that one should “use a thesaurus”.

As this reply may suggests, the Getaway Plan is a fresh-from-the-garage band. The five boys Matthew Wright (vocals) Clint Ellis (guitar) Aaron Barnett (drums) Benny Chong (guitars) and Dave­­ Anderson (bass) all agree that doing what you love while you’re young is nice work if you can get it, and since they made their getaway from suburban Victoria, they are proof that you can get it if you try.

But every kid with converse clad feet and sprayed-on jeans has a dream to take their bands out of the High School hall and around the country, to play every venue from the humble Wyong Youth Centre to the UNSW Roundhouse. The band known as The Getaway Plan may not appear different to any other nineteen or twenty year old wannabe Mark-Tom-N-Travises but their enthusiasm to really live out their dream lifestyle is more than just a fantasy of a teenage boy with an overgrown fringe, lube his left hand, and something else in his right.
“If you think about it, it kinda makes sense to say the band is a getaway plan from a real nine to five job,” reasons Clint Ellis through his classically placed lip piercings.

Ellis still admits to being a “check-out chick” as his day job. Despite the band selling over 3000 copies of their debut E.P: Hold Conversation. “It’s good for us to have that type of grounding.” Wright laughs.

Pretty typically, the band was nudged along the way by Boomtown Records producer Phil McKellar, and the scratchy demos soon transformed into banging bellows combining the new fashion of rasping emo vocals with basslines reminiscent to skater-punk anthems.

These boys are all under 21, and they “really want to go overseas with the band” despite the fact that in most of the civilised world they are still viewed as kids.

Yet, these “kids” have amused the same audiences as emo idols: Taking Back Sunday, Unwritten Law, Alkaline Trio, Eighteen Visions and Aminty Affliction. 

The Getaway Plan surely look the part. “we’re all vegetarians” says Wright as he pulls up his comfortably fitting size 28 skinny leg jeans. Ellis swipes his fringe out of his eyes and tells me that “people are listening to the music. Not really to us. Everybody brings their own meaning to things, no matter who you are. Emo or not.”

So why do The Getaway Plan get a chance to proclaim their seemingly cliqued song themes to a seemingly cliqued audience? “Not many people think these days, that music is actually about music,” points out Wright.  All the band agree that it’s not about how cool you can look on stage but how different audiences receive the messages that the music sends.

“We love all age shows,” admits Ellis. “We dig the kids, they are so much more receptive. They can’t just go get another beer while the support band is on. They don’t feel the need to analyse the music and stand there making judgements. They just have fun to what they hear.”

This sounds very similar to something one of the Wiggles would say.  And that’s what this band try to deliver to their audience. Good clean fun – tainted with screams for good measure.

“Our music mainly talks about how shit some relationships and circumstances can be. Things everybody our age can relate to. That’s about as angry as we get. We don’t really talk about suicide or anything,” explains Wright.

“It’s not often we get interviewed, we felt like such rockstars when we played the Roundhouse,  they gave us a room and drinks and a little balcony to chill out on” Wright brags. “But we way prefer rural shows. Playing for Taking Back Sunday was the best thing we’ve done as musicians. To have our music heard by that many people was more than what we dreamed of. Amnity Affliction was straight after. Most of the shows were in small rural towns. Amnity Affliction were awesome guys. We made some really good friends. It was the best time ever.”

For people recollecting the most fun they’ve ever had, these emos seem highly subdued. They seem to sink into the seedy youth centre upholstery and lack the energy of a bunch of rockers who plan to go out on stage and raise the rooftops. You’d think that heir straight-out-of-school success (something that every emo aspires to reach by age 20) is definitely something this band should be grateful for.

The Getaway Plans’ website clearly proclaims that: “The true Getaway Plan experience, lies in their live show. The band is relentless with their energy, and perpetually entertaining”. It’s no false advertising. As the sweat trickles from each band member’s forehead it is obvious that this is how the boys show their gratitude. As the veins pulse upward through the strumming and beating arms of these musicians it’s easy to see that this really is, as Wright describes “doing exactly what we love.”

And the audience love it too. The girls at the front whose mums’ won’t let them dye their hair black, their overweight- scrunchy haired mates behind them and the energetic bash team that is the rest of the pit all scream upward, getting as exited as the band themselves. They’re having fun to the music, they’re having fun in the scene and they’re having fun proving they’re proud emos.

“The band started for fun and we wanna stay for fun,” confirms Ellis. If the band continues to go on tour with such superstar acts as Silverstein and Some Girls, then there is no way that the fun and emo fellowship is going to fade. The Getaway Plan has worked.