Violent Soho are considered one of a new vanguard of Australian guitar bands taking it upon themselves to save Aussie rock and alternative music. In fact, if you ask around, the Mansfield boys are leading the charge.

But according to frontman Luke Boerdam, the band have had a powerful ally that not only helped fuel their own success, but that Boerdam claims is helping create the alt-rock revival that many say is going on Down Under.

“Triple J really opened up the playing field for alternative bands,” he recently told Mixdown. “For a station to really neglect a genre when they’re pulling people into venues, I don’t think that’s right.”

“But I think basically with whoever’s been involved in the past year, bands like DZ [Deathrays], [The] Smith Street [Band] or us are on a whole new level. Venues are starting to fill up and it’s kind of proving that there’s something here.”

“And it’s not just these bands; there is a f**k-load of them. Even on the hardcore side of things like Parkway Drive, they’re basically selling-out venues that are so much larger than some of the artists that get played way more just because it might have a radio-friendly sound. It doesn’t really seem right.”

The frontman admits there was a time when he felt that the genre of alternative rock had been left for dead in favour of electronic music, but he’s now more optimistic and he credits the visceral experience of seeing a band live for keeping the genre vital.

“I honestly thought that there was a time where people thought this whole genre was really going to die out and we’ll all just be listening to electronic music,” he told Mixdown.

“I just think it’s still got such a pocket, because there are still the live shows. It’s pretty energetic and it’s something you can really connect with. It’s very raw.”

[include_post id=”484547”]

Speaking to Tone Deaf back in March, Boerdam recounted how Violent Soho’s overnight success was years in the making and that before the breakthrough success of Hungry Ghost, the band had resigned themselves to a life of working man by day, rock star by night.

“When we made Hungry Ghost, just the fact that we were making music and still touring, whilst working our day jobs, that was success to us,” he said. “We were just happy to keep working jobs and putting out records. That’s when it exploded.”

“We were all getting older and we’d given most of our twenties to the band and there was no guarantee on how long we were gonna stick around. And I just remember thinking we have to do a better record.”

“So with Hungry Ghost it was more, for me personally, just proving a point that this band could make that record. After all this work, this is it, we’re laying it on the table.”

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine