SHINRA will play live @The Lair @ Metro Theatre tonight for Emergenza Festival!

LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR BAND NAME: WHO CHOSE IT AND WHY?

One night, in a pub with some of our friends, when we decided to be a band, we were brainstorming for band names. After a while one of us suggested the name Shinra, which, half the band recognized as the name of the mega corporation in the video game Final Fantasy 7.


PLEASE TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR BAND: HOW AND WHEN WAS IT BORN?

It started out as all of us helping each other out in performances in uni. We all met at AIM (Australian Institute of Music). After our guitarist Aedan's band pulled out of a performance for a class in uni, he was left alone to play. On the day of the actual performance, we all decided to help him out. We built a whole setlist from scratch, practiced for two hours and by the end were confident with it. We didn't end up playing that night, but Aedan got a passing mark for being the only one left of his class. That night, we celebrated at the pub where we decided to start something and gave ourselves a name.


WHEN DID YOUR INTEREST IN MUSIC BEGIN? AND HOW HAS YOUR MUSIC CHANGED FROM THE MOMENT YOU BEGAN TO PLAY TOGETHER?

Most of our interest in music started during our high school years, inspired by the music we listened to, we picked up our instruments and just kept playing since then. Ever since we started playing together our musical styles as individuals have morphed and have been influenced by one another's, along with the music we listen to and our time at AIM, we're getting more and more shaped into the musicians we want to become.


WHAT ARE YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES?

Spice Girls and A-Ha, mainly. But we're also a little influenced by acts like Rage Against the Machine, Queens of the Stone Age, Tool and Mars Volta for most of our earlier stuff. But really, it's more varied than we can put names to nowadays, we can be heavily influenced by a single riff or chord progression from a band no one really knows about, or we may want to synthesize something similar to an Arctic Monkeys sound, just cause it's what's stuck in our heads at the time. Also TV Show Theme songs like Different Strokes and I'll Be There For You by the Rembrandts (Friends Theme song)

IS THERE A SONG THAT IS SPECIAL FOR YOU? IF SO, WHICH ONE AND WHY?

I guess you could say Song for the Dead by Queens of the Stone Age is important to us, as a band. It was a song that we all knew and loved before we even met each other. Finding that common ground helped us get to know each other and gauge what we want out of the band. Just the whole album it's in, really (Songs for the Deaf) gave us that bridge.


WHERE DO YOU GET INSPIRATION TO WRITE SONGS (EVENTS, MOOD....)?

Well, the source for most of our songs are varied, sometimes it depends on the mood we're in and what sound we want to get out. Sometimes it would be completely influenced by a section of a song, like a riff (like mentioned before). Sometimes, we'd be jamming and we just stumble onto something worthwhile, not even necessarily with each other, at least one of our songs came from a jam with other mates and people we know from AIM, one of us might play something that sticks with us and we bring it into the rest of the band and we work on it from the ground up. There are also times when we write stories for possible songs and start from there, before it's even put to music.


HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT EMERGENZA FESTIVAL AND WHY YOU DECIDED TO TAKE PART IN IT?

We found out about Emergenza Festival through another band that was formed in AIM that participated in it and got to play in Germany. We decided we might as well take a chance at it, instead of wasting away an opportunity to bring our music to a broader audience. In the end, our greatest motivator is sharing our music to other people.


WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM EMERGENZA AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR FIRST EMERGENZA CONCERT?

We're expecting a lot of amazing bands coming forward to play on the night we're on. We're sure it'll be a great night of amazing local acts playing and we're all pretty excited about that. Hoping by the end of it, we at least get something new to listen to when we leave the building.

Wanna enrol your band in  Emergenza Festival Australia? Click here!