Having spent the last five years based in New York City, The Morning After Girls have finally returned home with a new album and a one-off show. In their time living and playing abroad, the band were lucky enough to be invited to play international festivals Reading, Leeds, T In The Park & Oxygen in the UK and play shows with The Black Keys, BRMC, Muse, Jane’s Addiction, JAMC and Interpol to name a few.
You’ve spent the last 5 years in New York; tell us what you’ve been up to…
Aside from breaking laws we never knew existed, being strip-searched by officials who make those laws, travelling 10,000 miles a year touring our album to sold-out crowds across America and now finally back home in Australia and putting our best band ever together, not much else really.
It must be exciting to finally release Alone in Australia, why have we had to wait so long?
We wanted to keep things in line with the movie industry here. The world gets it first, Australia gets it second. No, but seriously, Bureaucratic Bullshit is the honest answer. Like anything, once you create something that is seen to be popular, the businessmen want to screw with you. Thus, delays occur.
It’s really exciting to finally have the album be released in Australia. It’s still our favourite place on earth and still our harshest critic, which we love and aspire to live up to.
Is this one-off show at Ding Dong a sign that we can expect to see The Morning After Girls more often in Australia?
Most definitely. We’ve never been more excited to just play and enjoy the fruits of our journey, and to be able to do that in Australia really feels like a gift that we plan on getting the most out of.
Was basing yourselves overseas a natural progression or a concerted effort to focus on being successful in the US?
It was certainly a natural progression. Success is such an ambiguous, intangible thing that only the Biebers really care about. As individuals, the choice was made for us because that’s what we always wanted to do. The chance to make your own world bigger than where you grew up is something all human beings must do.
What are the main differences between making a living as a band in the US and in Australia?
There’s more people to pay your rent, more people who don’t ask for rent, and more people to buy the next round. So I guess the only difference is that there’s more people.
With all the touring and festivals that you’ve played at do you have a favourite memory or story from the road?
I’d say the best stories are the ones I can’t remember yet have been told to me by others. Allegedly, some of us were shot-gunning cans of Tecate beer outside a hotel room in Texas as one of us was negotiating our innocence to the local law-enforcement in a towel while the last of us was hiding unmentionables somewhere in the bathroom.
What and where was the first gig you went to?
Does Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondolliers count? I was pretty lucky with my family, as the first year my folks thought it was safe to take their son to concerts, I saw ELO and Elton John at the Tennis Centre.
How has the live show for The Morning After Girls developed and what can we expect?
Five guys having the time of their life, doing the one thing that makes more sense to them than anything and sharing it with the best music fans in the world.
Do you have any particular ritual before you go on stage, or even a lucky charm you take with you?
Camaraderie – all hands in the centre. Sometimes we may burn incense to calm the nerves, though that occurs less frequently now ever since a ‘fan’ tried to sue us in Bathurst as he allegedly had an allergic reaction and broke out it spots. Seriously!? Un bloody believable..
Because it’s more fun to do things together, which living Australian artist would you most like to collaborate with? Tell us why?
Steve Kilby, because we really respect him and he has a sublime sense of humour about life and the absurdity of doing what we do.
JP Shilo, because he creates new colours we’ve never seen with his instrumentation.
What is your band’s music the best soundtrack for?
Trying to find a place in the middle of the sun-setting desert to bury the dead body stored in the back of your car without anyone to assist you.
Catch The Morning After Girls at Ding Dong Lounge in Melbourne on Friday 18th January: www.themorningaftergirls.com
