Alien Ant Farm: Ant Music

Alien Ant Farm play the Java Java stage from 5pm at the Big Day Out, Gold Coast Parklands, on Sunday.

When this interview was done, neither myself of Alien Ant Farm drummist that’s what it says on the record…) Mike Cosgrove had any idea their slick cover version of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal was destined to hold number one slots leading up to Christmas the world over.

The track was on the rise however, and I had seen the band perform on Top Of The Pops, the UK hit machine program. Get yourself on, and you’re going places baby. And when they let you perform live rather than just mime along to your track, well that’s a whole new level. Just how far it was destined to go was yet to be seen.

“We lost out on a lot of press in places like Germany because we weren’t willing to go out and mime,” Mike explains. “It’s cool if you’re a band that goes out for that kind of stuff, but we’re a live band. We try to do whatever we can, but we want to be known as a live band. If we’re not getting to do what we want to do then we haven’t succeeded, you know what I mean.”

"It’s been strange,” he ponders. “Because we’re not used to how much work really goes into it. It’s been strange in a good way, because my friends are all like, wow, how was this or who was that, you know. I’m just still so impressed by it all and amazed to meet people.”

Despite their apparent overnight success, Alien Ant Farm have been playing their trade under various guises in their native California since the mid nineties.

“I was in bands with all the members before. I was in a Primus covers band with (bassist) Tye, and I was in a speed metal band and did a bit of acoustic stuff with (vocalist) Dryden, and me and Terry (guitars) were in another metal band. They’re like my ideal players. We all kind like to go and jam with everybody in our little scene, but we kind of admired each other and this was like the perfect combination.”

All these facets crop up on Alien Ant Farm’s second album Anthology, an appropriate title considering the moniker of their first disc – Greatest Hits. Rather than being overshadowed by the success of Smooth Criminal, Anthology paints a fuller picture of a band willing to experiment, and coming off with some fine musical moments as a result.

“I this just by being music fans and just going to shows we just kind of liked everything from Sting to Slayer, you know what I mean,” he explains of the albums diversity. “When it came time to make music, we just wanted to make music for ourselves. It wasn’t like we were trying to do this or that, and whatever came out came out. We’re happy with it, we trust our own judgement. We just pretty much did our thing. We’re a pretty stubborn band in a couple of ways. We just do what we want.”

The band are also the first signing to Papa Roach’s offshoot label Newnoize, part of a bargain brokered during both bands formative years, where the first to have any major success would give the other a hand up.

“We’ve known those guys about four years. It’s lucky they signed us to their label, because everyone else passed on us. They were the only people who really believed in us, so it was cool. They’ve been great to us. They’ve taken us out on tour. They’re just friends from when we were both just dumb blue-collar ghetto bands in California. It’s still about groups of friends having fun.”

Must feel good to prove wrong the people who had no faith in the band. I’ll bet there’s some record company arses being kicked for passing…

“It’s cool. Success is the best kind of fuck you. We’ve worked hard to get here and it’s cool. We just wanted to play and be heard.”