Growning Pains

Community radio stalwarts 4ZZZ have only been conducting their Happy-Fest fundraiser for a couple of years now, but one thing they've already made a (welcome) habit of is bringing up young interstate bands for their first Brisbane forays. This year it's much-hyped Sydney punks Raw Prawn, who are stoked to finally be getting their Brisbane wings.

“We're pretty excited to be finally coming up,” enthuses frontman Alex Kiers. “We've got a few friends who live up there who have been trying to get us to play there for a long time, so it's cool to finally be playing a show. We got together back in 2011, so that's two years now – it seems pretty pathetic that we've only put out one release in two years, but anyway... I guess this band is my main band, but for the other three it didn't start out as their main band, even if it ended up being that way. Anna [John] plays in Holy Balm so it's obviously not her main band because Holy Balm do a lot of stuff, and Al [Haddock] and Chris [Nailer] used to be in Whores, who were playing shows all the time too. That's why we haven't managed too much yet, but that's changing; we've been playing shows seriously for eighteen months and the momentum is great at the moment.”

Add to those commitments the fact that Kiers was a member of (now sadly-defunct) Camperdown & Out, and it's no wonder that Raw Prawn remain a nascent proposition. They've released one strong seven-inch of on RIP Society – including radio fave None Left – and while they have an album nearing completion, it's a vastly different feel to the yobbo punk vibe of their early material.

“We've changed since that seven-inch – as far as our recordings go we've gone a bit more electronic, with more synths and organs and drum machines and stuff,” Kiers continues. “Obviously we can't really do that live so we still have to play those newer songs on guitars. It's just become less of a punk band, I think, and now lives in a weird genre of 'punk-influenced music' that doesn't really sound like your typical four-four punk kind of stuff. I want the band to go in more of a direction like a band such as Psychic TV, where they just do heaps and heaps of releases over the years and everyone sounds different – one minute they have guitars in a song and the next it's a synthesiser, and they'll have songs that sound like rock songs next to songs that sound like dance songs. I want it like that – I'd prefer Raw Prawn to be a bit more versatile, and have slow songs as well as faster songs, and use different drum beats without turning us into some angular post-punk band.”

Fortunately Kiers isn't worried whatsoever about confusing his existing fanbase.

“I really like confusing people actually,” he laughs. “That's my intention I guess, because I really like to throw people off. We were playing shows in Melbourne and getting heaps of skinheads in the audience – proper hardcore punk dudes – and I reckon that if they saw what we were playing now they'd probably hate it, which is perfect. I prefer to keep evolving – I like when things start going in new directions and new influences start coming in. I guess that's my intention, to make us confusing. I still want people to enjoy it – I don't want to confuse people in a way that's too challenging, just mess with their preconceptions a bit.”