Hand In Your Badge

Most of the band burst out laughing when our manager told us, because it is pretty ridiculous. Everyone found it entertaining for about a second until we realised it actually was quite serious.” It's clear you've made it when you attract the attention of legal eagles threatening punitive action for use of their client's name. On these grounds Brisbane happy-go-lucky kids Cub Scouts should have been flattered when Scouts Australia wrote them a “nice” letter to cease and desist or face the consequences.

Despite initial giggles, Nelson and his four-piece were slightly puzzled by the organisation's timing, the band having played at the Scouts jamboree earlier this year with no sign of impending trouble, while also midway through releasing their new EP. “They have known about us and our name for quite a while, so it's annoying that it came up in the middle of us releasing an EP, after we got 1500 copies of the Cub Scouts Paradise EP. But people have been keen to snatch those up now so it's kind of worked in our favour. Maybe we should change our name once a week!”

Cub Sport have been good sports about their new moniker, crossing out the old name on t-shirt merchandise with permanent markers and so on. The idea of a potentially lengthy legal battle was not their idea of fun, and with the band picking up steam overseas, Nelson says it was better to just shrug their shoulders and focus on the bigger picture. “In America it's obviously a much bigger thing than in Australia, and it would have been a much bigger fight. We have worked hard to get our name out there, but I think it was a wiser decision to just change [it] and keep moving forward.”

Cub Sport's new EP Paradise has had regular spin on local radio, plus it's already nabbed attention overseas, aided by their slot on Brighton's Great Escape Festival in the UK. “Brighton's an awesome little town and it was a lot of fun,” Nelson says. “Those industry events are often quite stressful, but we managed to pick up an agent in the UK and that was the main thing we wanted to achieve.” The band worked with indie's go-to producer John Castles (Washington, The Drones) on their five-track EP in Melbourne, with the promise of a UK/US release later this year, plus another overseas jaunt planned after. They're also about to support Jinja Safari and are scheduled to appear at Brisbane's industry showcase, BIGSOUND. After the band's first single Evie dropped in 2011, Nelson feels the need to regularly pinch himself. “It's a lot more than we ever could have hoped for. I didn't think that it could ever get to the stage where I'd have to defer uni, and I didn't think that we'd ever attract enough attention to the point where we'd get asked to change our name.”