Punch Drunk

The trio that make up Sydney miscreants Step-Panther – Stevesie on guitar/vocals, Jose on bass and D-Rad manning the skins – have launched themselves haphazardly into the musical spotlight, revelling in creating a discordant mess with a gooey pop centre. Their take on punchy rock is a sharp shard of glass to the fun gland, and Stevesie maintains that it is in the urgency of their live presence that provides their attraction – and the shorter the set, the better.

“We like playing short shows; you can pack it all in and playing everything back to back, then get off. With these twenty-five minute shows they become really hard and fast, and you kinda cut out things, like mucking around and talking. We just get to work, playing with accuracy and determination. It keeps things concise.”

A Step-Panther set is always colourful, as the trio's ability to dabble in a variety of genres ensures that they provide a mixture that isn't always apparent in a band that dwells in the garage punk realm. Stevesie admits that it's their willingness to start from any direction then pare back that helps them to define their sound.

“Every time we try to make new songs there isn't ever a specific ultimatum, we don't look to make a punk rock or garage rock song,” he muses. “Because we are only a three-piece, whenever we play a song that has a certain kind of feel, it has this similar effect that comes from minimal instrumentation. The ideas come from very different places, and then we whittle it down to what we think we can achieve. It's difficult to see why you write the way you write, what you feel on any given day. We just recorded another EP with Berkfinger (Grand Philadelphia Jury), and what I have learnt from working with him and from experience is from trimming the fat, the parts that drag on. We've learnt what works for us.”

The band has been relentlessly playing since the inception of their debut self-titled record, and recently returned from playing in the UK, an experience that has opened up a new-found confidence in themselves and what they're capable of.

“The UK trip was really good, because we did it when we are a well-defined band,” Stevesie explains. “We know what we are doing within each song. We used to be quite scattered live, and there are still moments as a small band still relatively starting out where you look at it and think, 'Whoa, is this all gonna work out?' But there is a confidence now where I know what I'm going to do with our show. It's been a really busy year for us, and we have had to work to raise money to get overseas, then we had to borrow money to keep doing it, which we had to work at to pay back when we got back here. But things keep happening, things keep balancing out. I don't feel like we are winging it anymore.”

The band's inclusion on the massive BIGSOUND Live bill is another notch in the Step-Panther bedpost, and Stevesie intimates that it won't stop there.

“We love playing up in Brisbane,” he states. “To be on a line-up with the likes of Straight Arrows is all you really want. We don't have a blueprint, a step-by-step process of what we are going to do up there, but it's going to be a lot of fun. We are looking forward as much to when we aren't playing. Plus it's sunny. I like good weather, it's good for me.”