Interview by Kris Peters
Sometimes playing nice doesn't get the desired results, especially in music.
To really get to know yourself, your bandmates, and your audience, stepping into a studio and cutting some tracks with more polish than Mr. Sheen is often a band aid fix to a bandage problem. Any inconsistencies and/or inadequacies can be ironed out with creative technology and by the time you make it to the stage in a live environment, you are not only suffering from an inflated ego, but, more importantly, the sudden knowledge that without studio gadgets you're actually not very good.
Newcastle noise merchants FIST decided to do the opposite, knocking out hard yards on the touring circuit and playing more than 70 shows in front of new faces before offering up their first studio single KA-BOOM (MTHRFCKR). And if this one song is anything to go by, their bold move has paid off.
KA-BOOM (MTHRFCKR) is being premiered via HEAVY at 5pm AEDT on Wednesday, January 15 before being officially released through other channels two days later. The song hits with the subtlety of Thor's hammer and is a welcome breath of savage air that hopefully will continue long into the coming year.
Pretty much everything FIST has done so far is the opposite to what you would read in the modern age "How To Make It In Music" guide. But also, pretty much everything FIST has done so far has proved you don't need to follow rules. There are no rules in music. Isn't that part of the magic of the industry?
HEAVY spoke with FIST pumper Josh Morgan to find out more and start by thanking the band for a late sonic Christmas present.
"It's a very late Christmas present," he countered. "It should have been out a year before, but we're finally getting into it. We did a live album so we could try and get as much out of those songs as we can before we have to actually pay all the money to record them (laughs)."
In the full interview we talk about the band's different approach to establishing a fan base, if it worked, the benefits of road testing songs for a prolonged period before committing them to file, why they chose KA-BOOM (MTHRFCKR) as the first song to record, what to expect musically, upcoming shows, censoring your own music to an extent so as not to offend people and more.