SCANDAL TREE - Nothing To Lose
Words, banner and logo by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Wednesday 12th October 2022
Brissie Rockers Come Out Swinging Against Domestic Violence
Having undergone a lineup rebirth in the shadow of COVID, Brisbane rockers SCANDAL TREE have reemerged with a new EP of old-school rock ‘n’ roll, Layin' Down Your Cards. Ahead of their upcoming White Ribbon benefit raising money and awareness for domestic violence, we spoke to drummer Rip…
I don’t know why, but when I did the logo for you guys, I was under the impression that you guys were a punk band, so when I heard the EP, I was like, [surprised expression] “Oh…”
Yeah, a bit more hard rock … Pete, he did the poster up for the Bring the Light Festival that I’m doing for White Ribbon in November, and he thought that was the case too! [Laughs] A lot of the bands on his label are punk. I guess Alley Creeper throws you off the mark a little bit, because Alley Creeper’s a little bit more punk. But other than that, we’re more hard rock-y. It’s more of that, I guess, real 90s influence. We sort of like SOUNDGARDEN, I’m very heavily [into] ALICE IN CHAINS … We’ve all sort of amalgamated in this weird sort of fashion, and come up with this sort of thing that you hear at the moment. Yeah, a bit of punk, but it strays more down a hard rock sort of line. I gave Pete a little bit of a sneaky listen, and he was going, “80s old-school rock”, and Kris Peters from HEAVY Mag, he was just saying it’s good, old-school fuckin’ rock ‘n’ roll. [Laughs] It’s just good stuff. You’re tapping your feet and bopping your head to it.
The groove is undeniable man. You’ve done a great job. The band recently experienced a rebirth of sorts … Tell me about that.
Adam was coming from Mackay. He was the rhythm guitarist. He was coming all the way from Mackay just to rehearse with us. It was difficult to actually just rehearse for gigs, because I was pumping out gigs every two weeks, right? I just wanted to get us out there in the scene and do stuff. I’m pumping out gigs every two weeks, and I’m saying to him, “You’re okay with that?” And he’s trying to run a hotel or a business in Mackay, and he’d come down for gigs, and it just created a whole heap of pressure for him. Then COVID happened, and he was very anti-vax, which is kind of shit now, because it’s all gone … it doesn’t matter anymore. Whereas then it was thumbscrews-down, you’ve got to be vaxxed or you can’t go into venues, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. He eventually just said that there was too much pressure on him from the home front, as well as you can’t get in to play anywhere because of the COVID regulations, and then Jase, who was the bass player/vocalist, he had relationship issues too, because he was in two bands. So he was with us as well as his other band, SKY VALLEY. So, being the way I am, I just focus on the one band. I’m promoting, managing, throwing gigs, just doing it as one. It’s hard to have two … It’s hard to juggle that. Plus, you’ve got kids, family, your job and everything else. To actually have the two bands is difficult. So he found that with his part, because he was doing two nights a week jam with us, he was doing a night with SKY VALLEY … We both worked at BWS at the time, so they expected two night shifts a week, and I was organising gigs, so he was never home. So six nights out of the week, he was never home, so it was creating all this pressure, so something had to give somewhere. He was with SKY VALLEY before he came to SCANDAL TREE. They’d been mates for years. It was just a natural progression for him to actually move and be with those guys.
In the Australian scene, who are some of your favourite bands?
AIRBOURNE, straight up. ROSE TATTOO is another one. We like a bit of ROSE TATTOO. THE POOR. We actually had Damo … he’s in DREAMKILLERS at the moment, and he was saying, when he was listening to some of the tracks … he was saying he was getting THE POOR vibes … SCREAMING JETS, man. A bit of the JETS … and recently THE MARK OF CAIN, who you went and saw. I remember them from years ago.
Of all the songs on the EP, what do you reckon came together the easiest? And what were the more challenging?
We had a pretty good rapport, but I mean, Alley Creeper came together pretty quickly – it’s just that straightforward punk. It was just 4/4, 4/4 … the only thing that gets us a little bit is this one little bit where it sort of bridges out a little bit longer than the rest … just to add a point of difference. Something that was a little bit more difficult … I do know the guys are struggling a little bit with Nothing to Lose, because initially, when we did Nothing to Lose, it took us a little bit to actually get the timing and everything right, because if you go a smidge too fast, it’s too blurred … you lose the essence of the song … and if you’re too slow, it just bores the pants off you. So you’ve got to find the right timing to hit it at for it to actually work, otherwise it’s just a fucking mess … The new lineup at the moment, we’re trying to get that sort of pace right, so they’ve sort of gone, “We’ll put that on the backburner for a little bit, until we can understand it a bit better.” But Nothing to Lose was one that took a little bit to pull together. I actually had a bit of trouble with the timing of some of the chorus bits and things like that, so I would say that that one, from a structural and playing point of view, is the more difficult one. It still is at this point in time. If you don’t get it on the money, it sounds like shit. [Laughs] It’s like Melanie Griffiths said in her write-up when she first wrote about it, she said that the recording and everything was spot-on, because if you don’t have it to that click, and you don’t have it driving at the right pace, the wheels fall off the cart, and it loses its impact.
What plans do you have to tour this EP?
So we’ve got the White Ribbon thing … I’ve got a show on at O’Skulligans to help launch [the EP]. Next year, I want to actually try … this is getting ambitious … I have been in talks with people on the northern [end], so Darwin and all that. I’m looking at trying to get us out of Brissie. We’ve been in Brissie too long. We need to get out. So I’m looking at trying to get us on a northern tour. Because we’re independently managed [laughs] it’s a little bit different. If you had a touring company or whatnot, then you could palm it off to them, and they can pull it all together, but it’s just the logistics of trying to coordinate all the dates so everything falls into place.
The main thing is, if you get a chance, that White Ribbon show … There’s some good bands on that lineup, all willing to give their time freely … to help raise money. The Back Room, hats off to those guys and their team. They’ve thrown down, letting us use their venue, their lovely venue for nothing. They’re supplying the backline, the soundy, door people, stuff like that. We’ve got a food truck coming out, because they don’t have a kitchen there, right? [Laughs] I didn’t know that! So old mate said, “We’ll go and sus out a food truck,” so we’ve got a food truck coming out, and they do that American-style food. Who doesn’t like a bloody brisket burger, right? [Laughs] Young Henrys … I’ve got to give them a shoutout. I think, coming from a booze background myself, I was at BWS for over eleven years, running stores and stuff, and Young Henrys is one of my favourite drops, so it’s good to have them onboard, helping the bands out, supplying the riders. They’ve also got a special up at the bar that they’re going to put on to help raise some more money. I’m just looking to make this a big one, a cracker. It’s sad that we’ve got to have something like this, to create that sort of awareness in the DV sort of thing. My wife, she comes from a DV background, Grant’s wife comes from a DV background, Matty’s comes from a DV background, so we’ve got a fair bit of passion for it. So we’re just hoping we can get some people there and bring that awareness, and make it a huge night.
SCANDAL TREE play the Bring the Light Festival at The Back Room in Brisbane on the 26th of November, and their EP launch at O’Skulligans in Brisbane on the 17th of December.