MusicJournoJust Say Go
September 9th 2006 10:50
This is an interview I did with Allan, who does vocals for Queensland hardcore band Just Say Go.
MP3s...
Hear some songs - click to hear Just Say Go.
What bands were you guys in before this?
Troy has done a bunch of bands in the past including Theory of Flight, BA Baracus, and Existence is Dead. He also Currently sings in a side project called Furious Styles. Crispy was also in BA Baracus and currently plays in From These Wounds, he also played in Theory of Flight and Bielke Peterson Youth. Gareth started drumming in Forgotten Pride, then went on to play in Together, At A Glance and Live today. Nathan currently plays guitar in Furious Styles. I started singing in At All Costs back in high school, then played guitar in At A Glance then went on to Together, after Together broke up i started live today with my good mate Simon. I also played guitar in xThe Warx.
How did the band come together?
In 2002 or 2001 sometime i met Crispy and Troy and started talking about doing a band like GB and Youth of Today but a little more melodic, unfortunately i lived an hour and a half away from the guys and we couldnt find a drummer so the idea faded into the background, in the meantime Crispy started Wounds and Troy started Existence is Dead. Fast forward to late 2003 and Existence is Dead have just split and Crispy is keen to do a side band, and my brother gareth is keen to play drums, so from there we jammed and wrote Glory Days and Stand As One in our first practice. We were meant to jam on Competition by GB but no one learnt it.
How does this band compare to your previous bands?
I think with bands in Brisbane it can be really hard to get a group of people together who all want the same musical results and show the same amount of commitment. With past bands we have had member changes, style clashes, message clashes, personality clashes, but besides that all my past bands have been a whole bunch of fun! With JSG we all had the same goal in starting this band and i was able to really open up to any perspective with my lyrics because the guys in the band were all open to anything i had to say. When Nathan joined the band, he was already into our older stuff and in the process of writing the new CD he has brought forward ideas and written really awesome stuff to compliment Crispy's guitar work. I think this band just gels where past bands have been a little more scattered.
And the bands you were influenced by were…?
Gorilla Biscuits, Insted, Youth of Today, Chain of Strength, Bold, all the late 80's melodic fast hardcore, then the 90's revival bands like In My Eyes, Time Flies, Hands Tied, Ten Yard Fight, Reach The Sky, Release, Mouthpiece and a few good Euro bands like Reaching forward, Pointing Finger, Mainstrike, Sportswear.
What inspires your lyrics?
I tend to think a lot, about a lot of stuff, and if there is something i think about enough to put it down on paper i do it. Some of my newer lyrics have been about image and self worth, the rotations in the hardcore scene that see older kids moving on as they mature (not saying there's anything wrong with that), vegetarianism.
I’ve heard people describe your lyrics as ‘cheesy’ at times, perhaps
harkening to how positive it all is… do you do this consciously?
I have also heard people describe my lyrics as cheesy, I dont intend for them to be cheesy, but i think cheesy seems to be ok with most people. I write what i want to say and sometimes its simple, sometimes it is semi intelligent, but it is all just my thoughts, maybe i have cheese on the brain?
Do you think it’s important to be positive?
I think its important to take positive meaning in the ups and downs of life, some kids caught on to the term "posi" up here and got lip tattooes and walked around with permanent smiles being overly cheery and hugging each other lots and it just seemed weird, like the stepford wives but in hardcore apparell. I think you have to take life as it comes, and when shit gets heavy, dont spend the next month thinking about how shit life is, take what you have learnt, spend your downtime thinking about how you ended up in a bad situation and do your best to stay ahead in future. Thats my call on positivity, its kind of weird because i can be a really negative kid, but i find that in negativity there is more positivity then there is in a skin stretching grin.
Which came first, the band name ‘Just Say Go’ or the song ‘Just Say
Go’. Which one is named after the other?
We got the name after we thought of Get Up and Go but it was too similar to the Get Up and Goers who are a band from Europe, so we thought of Just Say Go, then after we got the name we wrote five songs and wanted to do an intro to our live set, so we wrote the song and "Just say Go" fitted as crews and i built the song around that. The lyrics are about pushing negative shit out of your life as in just say "go" to negativity.
What’s the Brisbane scene like these days?
The Brisbane scene has kind of faded a little with a few bands breaking up and a few less kids at shows, we still have awesome bands like Draft Dodger, Dick Nasty, Against and Wish for Wings keeping hc moving up here so hopefully in time we'll see a few new kids and hopefully some old kids coming to more shows.
How often do you guys play Byron Bay, what’s that like? How does it
differ from Brisbane?
We have only played in Byron Bay once, we were meant to have a show last thursday but due to flooding down there the show was canned. Byron is a good little scene, lots of really young kids who come out to every show with rad bands coming up like Powerslam, Neck Up, Live from the Crime scene and 50 Lions. Byron has a much younger scene compared to Brissy, there are a lot more teens, which i think boils down the the fact that Byron HC is Strictly AA, which is rad.
Are all five of you edge? Do you think it’s important to present an
unanimous front on something like this?
Troy, Nathan and I are all straight, crispy and Gareth are both mad drinkers who party hard.
You guys have a lot of energy when you play – is it always this way? I think when it comes to edge, a unanimous front is a good way to push your message, but with Just Say Go i think the diversity in beliefs helps to put out a message that is open to interpretation and rather then a "do this or we'll kick your ass" mentality, it's moe like "hey we got this idea about this issue, we'll tell you but you make your own mind up!"
You guys have a lot of energy when you play – is it always this way?
No, some of our early shows i was a statue on stage, i'm not the most confident person when it comes to standing in front of a bunch of people and going nuts, it took a show where i had been caught up in some ongoing bullshit and felt really angry and thought "fuck it, i am going to show these people how angry i am at them" and it settled my nerves a little and helped me move around a bit more. Since then it has kind of stuck that i skip around stage and the guys wiggle their guitars behind me, when the music is fast and your in tune with it you feel like putting out energy, especially when there are kids in front of you feeding off that same energy.
Has there ever been a time when you haven’t been able to muster the
adrenalin?
Not often, I always seem to go home as knackered as i can, it was kind of a standard i set in my head to make sure i am not up on stage making it look like i am moving lots by doing some routine. If there are times when i dont feel i can muster the energy, it normally fades by the end of the first song in our set.
Tell me about your various CDs/plans to record further?
We have finished recording a CD due to come out on Resist Records on March 13th called Revive. Its 12 new tracks. As for future plans after this release, we have nothing planned as yet.
How did you guys come to Resist? Did you start with them or did you
guys hook up after you had been around for a while?
We started out with Round 3 Records in Brissy who put out our EP (one chance to live) and shortly after put our name down with Common Bond Records, but during the recording process the band/label relationship with CBR wasnt going too smoothly so both the band and the label decided to split and we started looking for another label. We sent Graham a copy of the mixed CD and he was keen to put it out.
Any plans to tour outside of QLD any time soon?
We definitely wanna head down south again and hopefully head to Perth in the near future, we have a few small trips yet to be confirmed but we will definitely be on our way soon!
Just Say Go - website.
MP3s...
Hear some songs - click to hear Just Say Go.
What bands were you guys in before this?
Troy has done a bunch of bands in the past including Theory of Flight, BA Baracus, and Existence is Dead. He also Currently sings in a side project called Furious Styles. Crispy was also in BA Baracus and currently plays in From These Wounds, he also played in Theory of Flight and Bielke Peterson Youth. Gareth started drumming in Forgotten Pride, then went on to play in Together, At A Glance and Live today. Nathan currently plays guitar in Furious Styles. I started singing in At All Costs back in high school, then played guitar in At A Glance then went on to Together, after Together broke up i started live today with my good mate Simon. I also played guitar in xThe Warx.
How did the band come together?
In 2002 or 2001 sometime i met Crispy and Troy and started talking about doing a band like GB and Youth of Today but a little more melodic, unfortunately i lived an hour and a half away from the guys and we couldnt find a drummer so the idea faded into the background, in the meantime Crispy started Wounds and Troy started Existence is Dead. Fast forward to late 2003 and Existence is Dead have just split and Crispy is keen to do a side band, and my brother gareth is keen to play drums, so from there we jammed and wrote Glory Days and Stand As One in our first practice. We were meant to jam on Competition by GB but no one learnt it.
How does this band compare to your previous bands?
I think with bands in Brisbane it can be really hard to get a group of people together who all want the same musical results and show the same amount of commitment. With past bands we have had member changes, style clashes, message clashes, personality clashes, but besides that all my past bands have been a whole bunch of fun! With JSG we all had the same goal in starting this band and i was able to really open up to any perspective with my lyrics because the guys in the band were all open to anything i had to say. When Nathan joined the band, he was already into our older stuff and in the process of writing the new CD he has brought forward ideas and written really awesome stuff to compliment Crispy's guitar work. I think this band just gels where past bands have been a little more scattered.
And the bands you were influenced by were…?
Gorilla Biscuits, Insted, Youth of Today, Chain of Strength, Bold, all the late 80's melodic fast hardcore, then the 90's revival bands like In My Eyes, Time Flies, Hands Tied, Ten Yard Fight, Reach The Sky, Release, Mouthpiece and a few good Euro bands like Reaching forward, Pointing Finger, Mainstrike, Sportswear.
What inspires your lyrics?
I tend to think a lot, about a lot of stuff, and if there is something i think about enough to put it down on paper i do it. Some of my newer lyrics have been about image and self worth, the rotations in the hardcore scene that see older kids moving on as they mature (not saying there's anything wrong with that), vegetarianism.
I’ve heard people describe your lyrics as ‘cheesy’ at times, perhaps
harkening to how positive it all is… do you do this consciously?
I have also heard people describe my lyrics as cheesy, I dont intend for them to be cheesy, but i think cheesy seems to be ok with most people. I write what i want to say and sometimes its simple, sometimes it is semi intelligent, but it is all just my thoughts, maybe i have cheese on the brain?
Do you think it’s important to be positive?
I think its important to take positive meaning in the ups and downs of life, some kids caught on to the term "posi" up here and got lip tattooes and walked around with permanent smiles being overly cheery and hugging each other lots and it just seemed weird, like the stepford wives but in hardcore apparell. I think you have to take life as it comes, and when shit gets heavy, dont spend the next month thinking about how shit life is, take what you have learnt, spend your downtime thinking about how you ended up in a bad situation and do your best to stay ahead in future. Thats my call on positivity, its kind of weird because i can be a really negative kid, but i find that in negativity there is more positivity then there is in a skin stretching grin.
Which came first, the band name ‘Just Say Go’ or the song ‘Just Say
Go’. Which one is named after the other?
We got the name after we thought of Get Up and Go but it was too similar to the Get Up and Goers who are a band from Europe, so we thought of Just Say Go, then after we got the name we wrote five songs and wanted to do an intro to our live set, so we wrote the song and "Just say Go" fitted as crews and i built the song around that. The lyrics are about pushing negative shit out of your life as in just say "go" to negativity.
What’s the Brisbane scene like these days?
The Brisbane scene has kind of faded a little with a few bands breaking up and a few less kids at shows, we still have awesome bands like Draft Dodger, Dick Nasty, Against and Wish for Wings keeping hc moving up here so hopefully in time we'll see a few new kids and hopefully some old kids coming to more shows.
How often do you guys play Byron Bay, what’s that like? How does it
differ from Brisbane?
We have only played in Byron Bay once, we were meant to have a show last thursday but due to flooding down there the show was canned. Byron is a good little scene, lots of really young kids who come out to every show with rad bands coming up like Powerslam, Neck Up, Live from the Crime scene and 50 Lions. Byron has a much younger scene compared to Brissy, there are a lot more teens, which i think boils down the the fact that Byron HC is Strictly AA, which is rad.
Are all five of you edge? Do you think it’s important to present an
unanimous front on something like this?
Troy, Nathan and I are all straight, crispy and Gareth are both mad drinkers who party hard.
You guys have a lot of energy when you play – is it always this way? I think when it comes to edge, a unanimous front is a good way to push your message, but with Just Say Go i think the diversity in beliefs helps to put out a message that is open to interpretation and rather then a "do this or we'll kick your ass" mentality, it's moe like "hey we got this idea about this issue, we'll tell you but you make your own mind up!"
You guys have a lot of energy when you play – is it always this way?
No, some of our early shows i was a statue on stage, i'm not the most confident person when it comes to standing in front of a bunch of people and going nuts, it took a show where i had been caught up in some ongoing bullshit and felt really angry and thought "fuck it, i am going to show these people how angry i am at them" and it settled my nerves a little and helped me move around a bit more. Since then it has kind of stuck that i skip around stage and the guys wiggle their guitars behind me, when the music is fast and your in tune with it you feel like putting out energy, especially when there are kids in front of you feeding off that same energy.
Has there ever been a time when you haven’t been able to muster the
adrenalin?
Not often, I always seem to go home as knackered as i can, it was kind of a standard i set in my head to make sure i am not up on stage making it look like i am moving lots by doing some routine. If there are times when i dont feel i can muster the energy, it normally fades by the end of the first song in our set.
Tell me about your various CDs/plans to record further?
We have finished recording a CD due to come out on Resist Records on March 13th called Revive. Its 12 new tracks. As for future plans after this release, we have nothing planned as yet.
How did you guys come to Resist? Did you start with them or did you
guys hook up after you had been around for a while?
We started out with Round 3 Records in Brissy who put out our EP (one chance to live) and shortly after put our name down with Common Bond Records, but during the recording process the band/label relationship with CBR wasnt going too smoothly so both the band and the label decided to split and we started looking for another label. We sent Graham a copy of the mixed CD and he was keen to put it out.
Any plans to tour outside of QLD any time soon?
We definitely wanna head down south again and hopefully head to Perth in the near future, we have a few small trips yet to be confirmed but we will definitely be on our way soon!
Just Say Go - website.
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