Dirty Digits

Let's get one thing straight: four-piece industrial hard rock outfit Charlie Fingers are not fans of that cute British baby who became a YouTube sensation by way of some overzealous digit chomping. Politely insisting on a lower case d, frontman doug explains that along with Chameleon on guitar and Nibbles on drums, Charlie Fingers is a character name of the band's key songwriter and bassist, and by default the band itself.     

“It's not a tightly held secret but I won't release it just now – it will come out in the wash later,” doug says, remaining tight-lipped on the identity of the band members, including the main man himself. “When people see him on stage they'll know who he is. I think, too, a lot of it comes down to Charlie Fingers himself – he's such a, he's an aggressive person, and just the music is very aggressive and with words like, 'fuck you', 'fucked up', 'fuck', 'shut your fucking mouth you fucked me up', you really don't want your work associates to know just how far things go in your passion for heavy music.”

Naughty words aside, there's plenty more to Charlie Fingers that doug feels his work colleagues might not be cool with ahead of the launch of the band's sophomore EP, Whores, on Valentine's Day. “I tell them that I'm in a heavy band but that's as far as it goes,” he says. “Even the booklet of our EP when you open it up there's a half-naked lady inside and the first EP we released, the CD itself actually had a lady in dog position on the CD, so when you put your finger into the CD you were actually putting your finger into her, essentially. So, you know, just that idea that we're happy to cross the line because we know that we're not – the intent behind it isn't to hurt, it might even come down to a shock and awe thing. It's just, it works sometimes and the right angle done cleverly can work really well and you know people respect you for it. I think that's what we're after. I mean, I'm speaking on behalf of Charlie but I think it comes down to respect amongst your peers that you can rise up to the challenge and do really good stuff as well.”

Following the release of their debut EP, Six Inches, in 2009, doug is champing to get back on the scene with a newly solidified line-up and sound. “We've still got to get ourselves out there first, and so we kind of feel like we've done this for years but at the same time no one's heard of us and we know that no one's heard of us and so we talk ourselves up with our friends and our peers as well,” he says. “A lot of friends are close, big Brisbane bands, and all we do is talk ourselves up and say, you know, 'We're the shit'. We haven't really had the chance to put ourselves out there and get the name goin' so the EP launch on Valentine's Day will be really good for us.”

Joining the line-up are local progressive rock lads Feed, and a little something for the fairer kind too. “I really wanted to have some ladies present, especially on stage, so I've got myself Bertie Page Clinic opening up the night… I was just really worried that [being Valentine's Day] no one would come, no guys would come because their women wouldn't want them to [and] their ladies would prefer that they stay at home. So we're hoping to pull enough of a crowd and have a lot of eyes watching so at least we can get some jaws dropping as well.”