Two For 20

"It's a nice little achievement,” Peabody's singer and guitarist readily admits of the band's 20 years together. “Even up to a couple of years ago we were still playing almost monthly, just 'cause we could, but then I went overseas to France for a year and when I came back I started recording a solo album, while Ben [Chamie, bass] and Jared [Harrison, drums] started another band [Restless Leg], and we're all happy about that – we're clearly not breaking up – lack of success often seems the reason bands break up, but that hasn't stopped us! But we thought we should find an excuse to play a few shows and that's when I realised we were 20 years old, so I said, 'There's a perfect opportunity.'”

Never the most prolific of bands – Peabody have released two EPs and four albums – 2002's Professional Againster, 2005's The New Violence, 2008's Prospero and 2010's Loose Manifesto – in their two decades together.

“I think with four albums you can say you're a real 'thing', a true entity that has a body of work. But that's the plight of the independent band. We all came from relatively working class backgrounds and we've always had to have some sort of job. We've never had the luxury of, okay, let's take this week to write and rehearse an album. That takes its toll in terms of creative output, so it wasn't through a lack of songs, it's just things take a little longer to get going. But we've prided ourselves in our work ethic – it's never stopped us doing things what we needed to do. Otherwise we'd go crazy. What else am I going to do? Come home and watch the fucking Voice!?”

Peabody are taking a slightly different approach to this business of celebrating 20 years together. Forming as a three-piece in 1994, after releasing a debut EP, Hi-Cycle, in 1997, a new drummer, Graeme Trewin, came on board and remained with the band until 2007, when he left and was replaced by Harrison, the line-up expanding to a four-piece with the addition of guitarist Tristan Courtney-Prior.

“The first thing to point out is that this isn't some sort of reunion, 'cause we've never actually gone away, but we're presenting the two line-ups because since it's 20 years, we may as well play songs from the back catalogue, and a lot of those included Graeme. The current line-up does play songs from the three-piece days, but very selectively, so there are a whole bunch of songs we've never played with this line-up so it's a great chance to do them with Graeme, who is a fantastic drummer and still is one of mine and Ben's closest friends.

“So it'll span the 20 years, but that doesn't mean we'll be playing for three hours,” he chuckles, “or bore the shit out of people with obscure B-sides.” 

You can expect to see Brayovic's debut solo album, released in vinyl and CD under the nom de plume Buddy Glass, self-titled, out on small Sydney label China Pig Records later this year.