Bloody Fang

Whilst not exactly new on the Australian music scene, it's notable how fast the scuzzy, sunny punk of Bloods has come to prominence in recent times. The trio may have known each other for some time, but it's in the release of debut EP Golden Fang that the meteoric rise can truly be felt. Six songs that swing between straight-ahead snarling punk acceleration (Into My Arms) to more soulful yet just as bracing fare (Next To You), the EP showcases a band with a wide array of talents, something band member Victoria “Sweetie” Zamora admits comes from a close-knit association and being taken out of the comfort zone.

“To be honest, when we started out none of us knew how to play our instruments. Dirk (Jonker) is a phenomenal guitarist, but he plays drums. Marihuzka (Cornelius) plays guitar but her first instrument was bass. I'm a violinist, having trained since I was four; I hadn't even held an electric instrument until I was 18. So when we started this two years ago we were all on these instruments we weren't super familiar with.”

The genesis of Bloods comes from Zamora making an outlandish claim that stuck. “We played together first in a band originally called Lions At Your Door,” she recalls. “Dirk and Marihuzka played in the band, and their bass player left and as a joke one night I said how hard could it be to learn the bass? I'm a violinist, it has four strings, even though the bass is a shit tonne bigger, it'd be easy. The next day Marihuzka comes around with her bass, and said learn all the songs 'cos we have a show coming up. So I pretty much spent days in front of the computer with this massive instrument until I could pass off the songs. I rote learned the songs, played a few gigs and was abysmal. But they liked playing with me, so they just added a violin to the mix, and when that all dissolved we started Bloods.”

Golden Fang is both a document of the existing songs Bloods were happiest with as well as a foundation for their next stage. “When we started this two years ago we were writing songs that were as far as we could push ourselves at that time,” Zamora muses. “Obviously you keep practicing and rehearsing and jamming and writing, so now doors have opened for us to write songs that aren't restricted by not being able to play the instruments. There's this constant evolution of not only us learning to play the instruments, but going through life events together and pushing each other, and the EP really helps show that. Sometimes we'll be hammering something out and before I know it I look down and think, 'Damn, I'm all sweaty! What a workout!' And those songs are such fun to play. But others I can just hold everything down, come in when needed, and it's equally as fun.”