Burning Boys

With The Arsonist's band comprising of members with musical CVs boasting some of WA's finest past and present heavy rock bands, it's hard to believe that these four men have been likened to pop sensation The Backstreet Boys. That's right, you read correctly. “We've overhead people in the audience saying things like, 'Who the fuck are these guys, are they The Backstreet Boys?',” verifies their bassist Tim Collins. “I take that as a compliment because of the harmonies we are attempting live.”

Meeting up with two of the four members of The Arsonist at the pub, our initial conversations, aside from reminiscing about the old Crysis days, started off on an interesting note. “This song fucking rocks,” Nic Di Lena exclaims as the Pet Shop Boys' track West End Girls plays through the speakers inside the venue. “One of our influences right there - Pet Shop Boys …so good!” Not the expected influence given the musical history of members of The Arsonist. But then again, would you expect to hear that these lads are into an array of soul, funk and hip hop between them? It better explains the question of what led them to begin producing electric pop that is a far cry from the hard rock we know them for.

“That's probably why this came together. Louis (Rendle-O'Shea) and I share that sort of soul, lounge-y background, like your Simply Reds, funk soul, yeah it's weird,” Di Lena explains. “I think it has been a real breath of fresh air, I know it has been for me.” Collins goes on to explain that in every band you form you're trying to feel your way out and work out what's going on with how you want to sound, or what it is that is influencing you at the time: “Ignoring everything totally and saying what is it that I can hear without listening to anything? Not being directly influenced by one thing but being influenced by everything,” Collins describes as being something they believe their fellow band member Louis to be particularly good at, referring to him as a “music machine”.

So how did The Arsonist come to be? Over a casual kick of the footy between friends in the best back yard of course. Close friends Louis and Nic were hanging out one day as they usually did, and Louis pressed play on a list of songs he had been working on through a computer program. “One particular song came on and I started singing it in my head and then began singing it out loud as we were kicking the footy around the back yard,” Di Lena recalls. “I didn't even realise I was doing it and Louis was like, what was that melody? So I sung it again and he started writing, and that sort of formed the first song.”

From there, Tim Collin's expertise came into play to enable the sounds to be produced live and then after Steve Judd on drums was the final piece which was put into place. Heavy on the keys, The Arsonist is coming to a d-floor near you, more specifically The Rosemount this Saturday, with infectious upbeat electro-pop and soothing harmonies to melt your soul. “Everyone from our past especially will probably be scrutinizing; 'What are you guys doing?' kinda thing,” explains Collins. But the way Nic and Tim see it, any feedback is good feedback, “even if we are The Backstreet Boys incarnate!”