Still Making Sense

"I’m quite active on stage – I like to get into it. I have been told I used to have a bit more stamina and go even more nuts than I do now, but I still like to think I can cut it.”

Area-7 guitarist Charles Thompson is chatting on the eve of 20-year celebrations for the Melbourne ska band he co-founded back in 1994. After slugging it out for years, dealing with the usual struggling band clichés, the septet struck it true with their debut LP, 2000’s Bitter & Twisted. Gold sales status was obtained, festival stages were slain, and suddenly the band became one of the most successful acts doing the Aussie circuit in the early ‘00s.

Thompson remembers the Warped Tour fondly, saying that a lack of hierarchy immediately made Area-7 feel at home alongside bands like Pennywise, Suicidal Tendencies and Grinspoon. But his memories are connected to the characters more so than the stories, even when said stories revolve around Frenzal Rhomb drummer Gordy Forman “tied up to an ironing board and left in his undies on our front door”.

“It was amazing,” Thompson smiles. “It certainly wasn’t something that while it was happening we didn’t appreciate – we absolutely appreciated it. We were playing festivals and touring with bands that not only did we love, but were good mates with, and have remained friends with [to this day].”

One of the strengths of Area-7 was the fact they dangled over both sides of the fence. They were a ska band that had scene cred, but they also managed to generate plenty of radio airplay and remain accessible to the guy on the street.

“We wanted to write songs that people could relate to,” Thompson says. “But it’s not a deliberate thing, it’s just our nature, and so lyrics being accessible and the music being upbeat and fun, that makes it something that everyone can enjoy.”

Even at Area-7’s peak, Thompson admits the band were realistic. “As a seven-piece you’d have to sell a lot of records, merchandise and do a lot of really big shows to make a career out of it.” With reality accepted, they made a simple pledge to each other – they were going to keep it fun. And with perpetual gratitude, to their fans and the experiences lived, they’ve managed to survive two decades without burning out, or fading away.

“If you focus too much on success you end up unhappy, and if you focus on being happy then you end up being successful, and that was kinda our motto,” Thompson concludes. “But the thing I’m most proud of – 20 years later we’re still all really good friends.”