Raiding The Graveyard

Vampires, zombies and werewolves populate the songs of Graveyard Train frontman Nick Finch. For a man who fills his songs with dark characters, I'm surprised to find that he's a very chilled-out, rather affable guy. He's returning with his band for their second visit to Perth for Rock It-Festival and a short run of headline shows with goulish friends The Brothers Grim on the back of their raucous new record Hollow.

While the new album is as diverse as their previous LP's, there's a noticeable swing towards rock'n'roll in the sound. This was a natural evolution for the band, as Nick Finch suggests. “We didn't mean to make it more rocky; there's still some sweet country songs on the record,” he says. “We've been playing together for five years and now we're playing bigger stages, where everything gets a bit more amped up and hectic, so this record came out of that. Also our banjo player started fucking around with an electric guitar, which always seems a bit rockier. It's not necessarily a direction, it's just for that album, that's the sound the songs have. We're working on some new stuff now that's different again. I guess we get bored easily, so we change things up pretty quickly.”

The new record also saw the band open up their writing process. “In the past it was more just a couple of us were writing songs and giving them to the band,” Finch explains. “There's so many of us and it's difficult to write with seven people, it can ridiculous. For the Hollow album we just put out, there was a lot of collaboration. We did a lot of jamming out on ideas and working shit out as a band. It's been the most collaborative record to date.”

That's not to say that the new record isn't as full of horror stories, which Finch acknowledges is the core of the band and a big reason for their appeal. “It was always the idea behind the band. The weird thing about this band is that the name and idea of the band came first. We thought it would be cool to make this kind of horror country band and we sort of put the band together in the pub. A few of the guys weren't even musicians; Adam plays the hammer and chain because he doesn't actually know how to play anything else. It was just a bunch of mates getting behind the idea. I guess that came from there being so many people out there that write love songs and wear their hearts on their sleeves, I just thought we'd do something different. I'm a pretty happy, white middle class guy; I don't really have too much to whinge about, so I might as well just sing about vampires and shit like that.

“On the new record, we've gone for a lot less of that schlocky stuff and a lot of the songs are more concerned with death, the idea of the soul and things like that. The lack of a soul. That's the kind of things I was thinking about anyway; I've got such a good life, I'm worried about it ending. I don't want to die.”

The bands' upcoming tour mixes pub and festival shows; Finch finds that the band approach these different kinds of shows in similar ways. “We do what we do, I guess. Every set is slightly different, but it doesn't really depend on weather it's a festival or a club gig, but we haven't played a festival for a while so we're really looking forward to it. I'm actually really happy about the chance to check out some of Perth bands playing because I don't get to see them very often. The Kill Devil Hills are one of my all-time favourite Australian acts, so I'm really happy to be on the same bill as them. It's gonna be fun.”

Graveyard Train will be playing the following shows:

Friday 26 October - Torquay Hotel, Torquay VIC
Monday 29 October - Indi Bar, Perth WA
Tuesday 30 October - Mojo's, Perth WA
Wednesday 31 October - Devilles Pad, Perth