Not that long ago if you went to a Red Riders gig you might well see singer/guitarist Alex Grigg with his eyes squeezed shut, crooning into the mic while the rest of the band adopted various uncomfortable positions around the stage. In fact legend has it that Grigg and Co. played their entire first gig with their eyes firmly closed. Not so these days, “Lately I’ve been able to actually look at the audience,” smiles Grigg. Recently signed to Ivy League and with a debut full length CD Replica Replica to promote, the band are off around the country for their first headlining tour, eyes wide open…
“It used to be ‘always the bridesmaid never the bride’” quips Grigg, “finally we have our own bouquet.”
“It should have been called that,” chimes in pal and fellow Red Rider Adrian Deutsch, “the Always the Bridesmaid tour…”
“We could start each gig throwing out a bouquet to the audience,” continues Grigg. “Then they get to have their own headlining tour…”
The duo are pretty chuffed to embark on these headlining gigs around Australia with their band. With album Replica Replica released in October of last year, there has been plenty of time for punters to wrap their head around the new songs. “It’s pretty cool,” says Grigg “we’ve been doing all these supports so we haven’t had a chance to tour it (Replica Replica). But it will be cool ‘cause now people have had a chance to hear the album – they’ll be singing it back…”
Not that the audience haven’t been singing it back before now… over the last year or so Red Riders have built a solid reputation for their melodic pop songs that merge elements of noise with lyrical trickery and sweet melodies. There was a time you’d go to a Red Riders’ gig and there would be plenty of room to swing the proverbial cat…not so now.
Grigg recalls the tipping point for the band: “I think it happened when we got on the radio for the first time…that started the swing.”
He believes the moment the band finally realised they might actually go somewhere occurred at a local Sydney gig. “Probably about the sixth or seventh show at the Lansdowne”, begins Grigg. “We stopped playing and there was really big applause. That was like getting from three people at a gig to a room full of people.”
“It was funny,” adds Deutsch ”’cause we were all suffering from food poisoning – and Matt (Chapman, bassist) was wanting to throw up – and it was a decent sized gig – there were about 200 people.”
Last year’s Big Day Out was also a highlight: “That was before the album came out, says Grigg, “but people were singing back the songs to us. And then Homebake last year and Big Day Out this year – it was like at both those shows we were headlining our own stages – the Hopetoun stage at Homebake and at Big Day Out we headlined the V stage. At Homebake we were up against silverchair and SFK. And at Big Day Out it was Jet, Little Birdy, Hot Chip, The Streets; and we were like ‘oh no, no-one’s gonna come and see us’. Both times we came out on stage and there were big crowds and people were singing – and it was like ‘wow people like us – we have fans’.”
“Some people in this country even like us more than silverchair,” laughs Deutsch.
So we’ve established they now have fans – what has this meant for the band in terms of performance levels and musicality? According to Alex it’s served up an increased sense of confidence. “We don’t feel like we have to impress people so much – we can be more relaxed when we play. So we end up playing better – you get more musical about what you’re doing – it becomes about instinct and getting back to the square root stuff – we’re far more relaxed – there’s a confidence that you can portray more.
“It’s like ‘Ok we can do this – we can play this song and it’s not gonna fall apart’. You feel a bit like, ‘look these people are here ‘cause they like us’ – it’s not like this is the first time they’re seeing us and we have to impress them or they’re never gonna see us again…”
Not that the boys are going to slack off on their live shows – which are often touted for their high energy and noise factor. “It’s gonna be cool headlining places we’ve never been before,” says Grigg. “I love playing live. It’s so immediate – it’s such an immediate affirming thing… You know if you’re getting it right. Whereas an album seeps out into the world…”
As for the album, (which marks the bands first release with a label) Replica Replica keeps on going strong, although Grigg admits he had few expectations for the release; “Not to say that I had negative expectations – but I didn’t think about it that much – but it’s going well – it’s cool. People are hearing it and enjoying it.”
He describes Replica Replica as “very minimal and quite straight ahead mainly”
As opposed to the band’s live shows which are “a bit more noisy and abrasive”.
He explains: “When we’re making stuff I don’t really think about what we’re doing or what we sound like. We seem to veer between this poppy element that we love with melody and chorus and then this noise angle that we love that is something a bit more strange and angular. There are all these nice pop songs but then there’s always some part that goes off in a strange direction.”
With the album put to bed and a tour in the works Grigg and Deutsch admit what they are looking forward to most of all is starting work on their new album. No sophomore blues for this duo…
According to Grigg being signed to a label has afforded them more time to “focus on the creative”.
“We want another album out by beginning 2008 – so we have to record at the end of the year. So we’re going to have a demo slumber party tonight… We’re gonna make popcorn and talk about cute boys,” he laughs. “When we started we used to demo a lot of stuff together and we haven’t done much of that lately – we wanted to get back to that.”
“We used to record the two of us in my flat in Newtown on my computer,” adds Deutsch “and we just used to see what happens – and we haven’t done much of the in-the-bedroom-just-the-two-of-us thing in a while.”
“It’ll be good to get back in the bedroom and experiment” adds Grigg.
Indeed…
The Red Riders kick off their Replica Replica tour at the Rosemount in Perth on Feb 16 – for the complete list of tour dates click here
