Red Ink are about to hit the road on the back of their storming new single ‘What My Friends Say’, taking in much of South East Australia in what is their biggest Australian tour to date. Hailing from Frankston on the very edge of Melbourne’s South, the band have been making serious inroads over the last year, drawing ever increasing crowds and along the way playing with the likes of Biffy Clyro, British India and Miami Horror. They’ve also graced a few festival stages of late, including Peats Ridge, Stereosonic, Playground Weekender and Portsea’s Hot BBQ. However, singer and guitarist John Jakubenko reveals to Jim Murray that although they love Frankston, they get their biggest crowds in inner city Melbourne and Sydney.
New single ‘What My Friends Say’ is a fiendishly catchy slice of pop rock, which appears heavily indebted to some particularly Australian influences of the same ilk, ranging from the Models to INXS, and perhaps even Icehouse? Jakubenko agrees. “Icehouse have very much shaped the way that Brendan plays his guitar. There’s so much in music—you can look at any decade, any band, in any country and you can find something to be inspired by. But we love the late 70’s, like all the way from like Skyhooks through to early INXS, even.”
However, that’s not to say they’re caught up in a time warp by any means. He declares “We kind of take input from everything. Our bass player has got the largest scope of musical influence—the rest of us kind of channel small pockets of music. But yeah, the Australian music is definitely what we’re kind of trying to put our finger on at the moment. This single is very much down that alley, but we’ve got a lot of stuff coming up that we’ve just been really recently that we’ve been getting really excited about that… you can just hear that… there’s something about Australia music … bands like Midnight Oil are clearly Australian. But then you’ve got other bands that have an Australian element to them that don’t sound “oi” you know… I love Midnight Oil, but they’re very Australian so…
Asking the kind of music that influenced him growing up, and the kinds of band posters he had on his bedroom walls as a teenager prompts a pause before he decides to let it all out. “I don’t want to answer this question” he laughs. “I’ve grown up loving pop music… so if you asked any of the other three boys they’d have really good answers… but I grew up loving Kylie Minogue … I love U2.”
Indeed, the chiming guitars of the Edge and the urgency of Bono’s vocals before U2’s output turned in to a big stinking pile in the late 90s can be heard on the single as well. Jabukenko agrees. “Yeah well War’s my favourite album.” Warming up to the inherent contradiction in the biggest band in the world’s output, he reflects “Yeah well the thing about U2 is, like, people go “Oh I love U2” or “I hate U2” and you’re like “Which U2?” ‘cause, there’s eight different U2s, you know, every album. But the early 80’s kind of stuff had a real attack to the guitar … it was almost punk rock, but it was appealing to mainstream. And that’s kind of where we like to sit, you know, we like that attitude.”
He reveals that his passionate vocal delivery can get him just a tad too fired up at shows “I’ve been known to spit on people at shows, which I don’t even want to do again. Every time I do I get bottled. But I accidentally do it, because we’ve got a little bit of that kind of “stick it to you” attitude. But then, we also like to appeal to the masses.”
Having attended a number of Red Ink shows over the last year, it’s clear that the band also have an unusually large female following for a rock band. [Take note boys!] The singer admits that’s the case with the fans at their live shows. “Our music’s fairly girly, I suppose. But you know… boys will follow girls into a pub, any day of the week … it’s a proven theory,” he says with a cheeky smile. “It’s about melodies as well, like girls… well I’m married, so… women just like to sing and feel a song speak to them, and you know, some artists can do that, but there’s a lot that can’t. But some can, and Jezebels and Kimbra are ones that can.”
Being married ensures that there will be no tour shenanigans on their upcoming tour, but is it their biggest to date? Jabukenko confirms it is. “The one we’ve got coming up is yeah, probably the biggest schedule we’ve had—we’re pretty much playing a show a day, sometimes two a day. But for a band that no one’s ever heard of,” he says in a self deprecating fashion, “we’ve done a lot of touring. But shenanigans, as you said, we’ve seen plenty of that on the road. Not usually by me… actually, never by me… I’m quite the… I love my wife and I love being married. But yeah, being in a rock band you do see some stupid things and you have the choice to be stupid or be smart and more often than not my judgment’s good.”
That’s not to say that they’re playing I Spy in the van and knocking back cups of tea after every show – mischief has been known to occur. “There’s lots. Um… Our drummer’s a nudist… Not literally a nudist, but he’s very much into public nudity, so any time we’re in Sydney he’ll usually be naked. He’s got a girlfriend now, but when he was single we could have given you a million stories. He’s a good looking boy, and he drums… anytime we go into a studio, the producers get really excited about Aaron, because he hits the drums so crisply… like he’s a very good player; he’s trained hard under some of the best, but somehow on stage he just has a sexual energy, which I think is the most important energy from a rock band. Those American punk and emo bands have energy, but there’s nothing sexual about it and it’s like “man, man, man.” But you’ve got to have that kind of sexual energy and he has that dripping from him, so he does well on tours.”
With their hordes of female admirers, it does pose the question – have they picked up any weirdo fans along the way – female or otherwise? “Yeah I think every band has. Every band’s got that one or two people that come to shows often and you just know to avoid them. But then, with some of those people, they’re nevertheless amusing to have a conversation with … we grew up in Frankston and a lot of our fans have come from there but have spread out as well, so we’ve got all different characters around the country that keep us entertained.”
Speaking of Frankston, apart from the Pelly Bar, it appears that there isn’t much of a live music scene in the area. Does Jabukenko know of any happening places those in the inner suburbs don’t know about? Unfortunately there aren’t any, he concedes.
“We’re ashamed of live music in Frankston; we’ve had to go elsewhere. If we were doing commercial house we’d be thriving, if we were doing emo punk we’d be packing out the Pelly Bar, but we’ve never done well in our home town, ever. We’ll pull more people in Melbourne than we will in our home town, and our fans will drive to Melbourne, because there’s never been an investment in good original… actually no, that’s a lie… my Dad speaks of seeing AC/DC at the Frankston Hall, and you know, my dad tried to beat up Skyhooks… my Dad was a punk,” he reveals.
“But you know, there used to be such a vibe in Frankston, I think that seems to be dead. They’re trying to pick it up, like the Pier Hotel has everyone from Wolfmother to Electric Mary playing there. But very few shows go down in history there.”
Considering the skyrocketing rents of inner city Melbourne forcing creative people further and further out, would he like to see Frankston with its great views and beaches become a creative hub? Jabukenko concurs. “Yeah, and I would love to see that happen again. I would love for Frankston to become a booming hub of creativity. Frankston’s beautiful, I love it down there. It’s where I live… I walk like 20 metres and have one of the best views in Melbourne, but there’s a stigma attached to it, you know.”
Alas, despite all the touring that they do, the tour bus for Red Ink is a pretty tame affair, the front man admits. “Our drummer’s right into The Mighty Boosh and all that weird kind of stuff… I don’t like that stuff. I like pop culture. So I’ll watch Gossip Girl or something… and video games. We’re the most un-rock n’ roll rock n’ roll band that ever existed, you know. We don’t have groupies and heroin … we just have videos. So we’re pretty nerdy. I ‘spose it helps… We’ve kind of got to get away from everything on tour. We see bands that are just so indulged in rock n’ roll, and they’re just rubbish on stage because they’re hung over or distracted. We have such fun on tour, but we make sure we’re good for the show.”
Fans can find out for themselves as Red Ink launch ‘What My Friends Say’ with a massive launch show at The Corner Hotel on Friday 20th May, before heading out on the road. Tickets for the launch are available from www.cornerhotel.com You can nab yourself a free download of ‘What My Friends Say’ from www.facebook.com/redinkmusic.
RED INK WHAT MY FRIENDS SAY TOUR
FRIDAY 20 MAY – THE CORNER HOTEL, MELBOURNE, VIC
SATURDAY 4 MAY – THE LOFT, WARNAMBOOL, VIC
SATURDAY 11 JUNE – ED CASTLE, ADELAIDE, SA
SATURDAY 18 JUNE – THE SANDBAR, MILDURA, VIC
SATURDAY 25 JUNE – THE NEW ALBURY HOTEL, ALBURY, NSW
FRIDAY 1 JULY – PURPLE SNEAKERS, SYDNEY, NSW
