The Strange Days has such a vast and respectable range of influences for their young ages, and they somehow masterfully mix them up to create their own original sound. The effect is something undoubtedly inspired by grunge, but with a much wider-reaching impact. In this interview with the band, they explain how they put it all together to get their signature sound and how they hope it will go over with their audience during the semi-finals at The Factory Theatre on the 7th.
CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE SOUND OF THE STRANGE DAYS?
The Strange Days is grunge music on steroids. Also we are on steroids too. But only for live shows, because we're consummate professionals. Actually there's a mix of grunge, hard rock and alternative styles, and there are some fast and dirty songs, some slow songs with clean sections, a couple of seven to eight minute epics and some more conventional ballad-style songs, so there is more than just one sound or style in there.
CAN YOU TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR MUSICAL AND NON-MUSICAL INFLUENCES OR INSPIRATIONS?
So many influences musically for all of us, including Pearl Jam, Bush, Harvey Danger, Alice In Chains, Kyuss, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, The Living End, Motor Ace, RHCP, The Butterfly Effect, The Smiths, Dinosaur Jr., TISM. The Arts in general, which covers just about every creative medium is a great source of inspiration for us. There are so many talented people out there, creating all kinds of different and wonderful things: stories, poetry, paintings, games (yes, games!), and of course music, that it's kind of a well that never runs dry as far as inspiration goes. We are also heavily influenced by the medium of pizza, especially when it is combined with animated cartoons and/or chilli sauce.
WHO WRITES THE SONGS AND WHAT ARE THEY ABOUT? WHAT'S YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE?
We're a three-piece, so since I (Mike) am the guitarist and vocalist, I am also the principal songwriter at the moment. I usually start with a chord progression or a riff, then improvise a vocal melody on top until I'm happy with it. Once I've put all the different parts of the song together, I sit down and try to write the lyrics, using the syllables of the vocal melody as a guide. Also I like to steal ideas from artists that are more talented than myself. Our name itself, The Strange Days, is a good indicator of some of the overarching themes of our songs. The world is getting stranger and stranger every day, and some of the songs centre on this general concept, although a lot of the songs also have themes that are more personal and specific in nature. There are also a lot of science fiction references in our songs, including odes to Buffy, X-Men, Battlestar Galactica and David Cronenberg, as well as actual science, such as in the songs “Soul's On Fire” (String Theory), “Entropy” and “Ghost in the Machine”. These usually fit within the overall context of the song, so they're not just random references.
WHICH ONE OF YOUR SONGS DO YOU FEEL SPEAKS TO THE FANS AND REPRESENTS THE BAND THE BEST?
People seem to like “Numb” a lot. It's a seven and a half minute epic which we'll be playing on the night, and it'll also be on our upcoming self-titled EP, so like us on Facebook to keep up to date (shameless self-promotion!).
WHERE HAVE YOU PLAYED BEFORE AND WHAT WOULD YOUR DREAM GIG BE?
We first started out doing a lot of small gigs at The Manly Boatshed, which was a lot of fun- there was always a great crowd of people looking for new music. We actually got asked to do an article/interview for an online publication called The Flux after one of our first shows together, which was really cool. Since then we've played a number of other venues in Sydney, but I think playing a major music festival anywhere in the world would be a big dream of all of ours.
WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE FIRST ROUND FOR YOU?
The highlight of the first round for us was undoubtedly showing up ten hours before we went on for a Soundcheck, being rushed onstage without time to properly setup before we played, having our set cut after only three songs due to poor management, and then STILL placing first in the heat.
UP TO THIS POINT, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS BEEN THE BAND'S BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT? OBSTACLE?
Our biggest accomplishment to date was probably our upcoming EP recorded at The Brain Studios in Surry Hills. We spent five days in the studio, and it was a lot of hard work, but we're so happy with the finished product and we can't wait to show it to our fans and friends. We'll be releasing the tracks pretty soon, so like us on Facebook to keep updated (more shameless self-promotion!). I think the biggest obstacle for us is that the kind of music we play isn't very popular right now. There are still people out there who love grunge and hard rock music, but there are always certain styles that are more popular than others, and currently grunge is not very big, so it can be hard sometimes to reach our intended audience.
HOW DOES IT FEEL BEING ONE STEP CLOSER TO THE EMERGENZA FINALS?
All warm and tingly inside.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR UPCOMING CONCERT AT THE FACTORY THEATRE?
Lots of inadequately guarded musical equipment.
WITH OTHER BATTLE OF THE BANDS COMPETITIONS AROUND, WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE EMERGENZA?
We weren't sure which festival to go with, so we got out the old Ouija Board, took some hallucinogens, and tried to get in contact with the spirit world in order to help us make a decision. Unfortunately, the next morning no one could remember exactly what had happened, so we just went with Emergenza.
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