Get Hyped

If you're under 18, there's not much in the way of live music provided for you in WA. That's the sad truth. While there have been many attempts to facilitate the ever-growing all ages audience in Perth, there's only a few venues left open to let the kids wrap their ears around live sounds, and hopefully inspire them to be more involved in the future. Luckily, things like HyperFest exist, the one festival that's lived out the last few years and has maintained its standard of bringing the best music it can to those that can't get into over-18 venues.

The line-up for this year's HyperFest, which hits Midland Oval on 6 Apr, is pretty huge, with a heady mix of influences set to provide a pretty broad view of the kind of stuff young people can get into, hopefully as an alternative to reality TV singing competitions. Five of the musos amped and ready for HyperFest are Christopher Kinna, from Mandurah-based melodic indie-folkers Indigo; Clint Gatter and Tristan Sturmer from pop-punkers I, Said The Sparrow; extreme metal act Aveira Skies' drummer, Dan Bonhomme; and Steve Knoth, lead man of punk rockers and last year's Big Splash winners, Scalphunter. All of them are pretty psyched to be on the bill.

“This is our first time doing a festival. Have you guys done a festival before?” Knoth asks around the table, with the consensus of not really, not on this scale. Which says something about HyperFest beyond the target demographic: an aim to provide a jumping-off board for new bands. “This is really the first time were someone's organised something for us, actually,” Knoth laughs. “Before it's been us organising everything, booking our own shows and that kind of thing. Getting asked to play a festival is a big deal. And it seems like it's gonna be a pretty big festival.”

It feels like something of a full-circle honour for the musicians; they all, obviously, come from backgrounds of finding music at a young age, and trying to make something of an identity through music, like a lot of us do. Kinna shares the same hometown of this scribe – something of a slightly bogan badge of honour – and his story probably sounds somewhat similar to yours. “I'm from Mandurah, so it was mostly kind of a hardcore, pop-punk scene when I was growing up,” he shares. “When we were kids, we always tried to get to as many shows as we could, and there was only like one venue, so that was pretty easy. Bands like Anime Fire, Miles Away, Elora Danan, they all made us want to start our own bands. We played in a few bands at first that didn't really go too far.” The others laugh in agreement.

“Growing up in Perth, it was basically all HQ shows,” Gatter notes, name-dropping Perth's premier all ages venue. “But for me, it was mostly, like, really big shows, like [I Killed The] Prom Queen was probably my first show ever. And, obviously, we couldn't get to too many of those shows because of how expensive they are, and when you're that young it's a bit hard. That's why it's good for something like this, I guess, where there's just so many acts to see.”

“Yeah, one of the big things for me is that it's not just stuff that we're into, which I think is what young people usually get into first: the kind of heavy hardcore stuff,” Bonhomme shares. “Like there's all of us guys, who kind of all do the same thing. And then there's Mathas and Spit Syndicate. I'm really excited about seeing those guys. As soon as we're finished, they start, so we're all going to fuck off straight from our show,” he laughs. “But, you know, it's a good thing it's not just all heavy stuff, and that [the audience] can hear and experience a whole lot of other music they might not always hear or see.”

“I grew up in the UK, which obviously has a lot different kind of scene,” Knoth says, who admittedly has a few years on the rest of the group. “But when I came over here, there was this really big all ages night at The Grosvenor, which every underage kid went to. And I don't think there's anything like that going anymore. That was amazing, you know? Rancid played there... Man, you could go to one of those shows and no matter how old you were, you had a great time. There needs to be more of that around here.”

“And not just shows where there's the same bands playing the same things,” Bonhomme continues. “Like, all us guys playing the same show, that's kind of a given. But there needs to be more shows were bands who aren't all the same play.”

“I think a lot of kids get into the heavy side of music because that's all they really hear at places like HQ,” Kinna says. “You kind of get into more stuff, and I guess get a more broad sense [of music] as you get older. But I think there needs to be more access to other kinds of music for young people.

“There's definitely the market for it there,” Gatter concludes. “It doesn't have to be all heavy stuff; kids are happy listening to whatever, as long as it's good.”