Mixing the talent and sounds of all-girl bands like Sleater Kinney with the pure energy of gals like Joan Jet, this band has definitely got the chops to walk off that Emergenza stage with more than just a smile and a handshake. Don’t miss your chance to see them on the 21st of June at the Epsy basement. Before the show, they gave us a behind the scenes look at rehearsing, recording, and their strategy for charming their way into the Emergenza finals.

CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR FORMATION AND YOUR JOURNEY AS A BAND SO FAR?
We met around 3 years ago at an audition for a cover band, clicked pretty much straight away and decided to start writing together. We've been jamming on and off since then, but it wasn't until September last year that we really decided to go out as a "band". It's been amazing so far. The highlight of our journey to date has been our e.p launch in February, which we did on a cruise ship, playing alongside 4 of our favourite local bands to a sold out capacity of 350!

I’VE COME ACROSS DIFFERENT VARIATIONS OF YOUR NAME TEQUILA MOCKINDBYRD. CAN YOU TELL US WHAT THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NAME WAS? 


We scratched our heads long and hard and were toying with a number of potential names for a while but none of us were completely sold on any of them. This one came to our bassist one day whilst day dreaming about cocktails... we all instantly agreed this was "us" and that was it!

YOU ALREADY HAVE A FULL EP. CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT HOW YOU WENT ABOUT GETTING IT DONE?


We rehearse in a little studio down an alleyway behind a pub in St Kilda (which we're currently writing a song about). The guy who runs it is a good friend who also doubles as a producer and he generously helped us out with this one. It's our first recording so we learnt a lot from it, including about how we'd like our future ones to sound.

WHAT PERSUADED YOU GIRLS TO ENTER EMERGENZA FESTIVAL?


We're always up for trying something new and exposing ourselves to new audiences. Of course we're hoping to do well in the competition but if we get a few new fans out of it it'll be worthwhile.

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST ABOUT THE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE?


We're looking forward to bringin’ the 'byrd' to the festival. We take a slightly different approach to shows, whereby we like to focus on the audience having a good time, rather than them just coming to 'support' us. Of course our fans and friends show their support, but we like to repay them with a good time, free pizza, beer and occasionally bits of merch chucked at ‘em. So I guess, we're looking forward to having a good old party with them. AND - it's our first so back after 3 months so we're just desperate to get on that stage and let rip!

IT’S AWESOME TO SEE AN ALL GIRL BAND, NOT TO MENTION ONE WHO ACTUALLY ROCKS! DO YOU THINK THAT WILL GIVE YOU AN EDGE IN THE COMPETITION?


It definitely gives us an instant point of difference from most of the other bands but at the end of the day it's about being a good band and putting on a great show. I guess the girlband thing makes us a bit more memorable but we'll still have to work just as hard as any other band to impress. Maybe even a little harder, there are a lot of sceptics out there! We love challenging people's perceptions though so bring it on!!

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR GETTING TO THE FINALS?
Have a TV behind us showing the football and get all the footy heads to come along? Nah, I mean, we'll just do our thing, take it one show at a time. I'd love to say that we had some 'crowd enhancing drugs' we could throw around but we're just like any band, we'll play our best and hope that people enjoy and come back for more!