Bring The Noise

Chicks Who Love Guns can't help but spark old debates. Ostensibly an indie-rock band (both in regards to broader style and industry standing), their sound nevertheless clashes heavily with what terms like 'indie' have come to mean over the past decade. Theirs is not a pretty, artsy or overtly danceable sound. Theirs is a sound of violence – scabrous guitars and sarcasm. It's ugly.

“It doesn't really fit for us, does it? I think they need a new word or something,” vocalist Cass Navarro laughs. “I've always said we try and walk the line between being an actual hardcore punk band and being an indie-rock act. We don't associate ourselves with other hardcore or punk bands, because we have our own little niche, but, then, we don't really connect with a lot of indie bands either.”

They're part of a new wave of Australian acts; groups like Brisbane's DZ Deathrays, Gold Coast's Bleeding Knees Club and Melbourne's Hunting Grounds (formerly Howl) delivering new variations on the classic Australian post-punk tradition of acts like The Scientists or The Saints. Like their contemporaries, Chicks Who Love Guns are too blistering for indie-rock but too polished for punk or hardcore.

“When we first started playing, it seemed like there were no bands like that out there,” Navarro reflects. “It was all synths and synth-pop. Now, there's bands playing guitars again and having fun at their shows. None of this standing and staring at your feet shit. I think that was a big part of why we started doing what we do – we were sick of seeing that. We were sick of going to shows where no-one moved.

“I mean, now that that's coming back into kind of Australian scenes, I'm going to shows way more often. I suppose, to a degree, there's an Australian tradition to it. You know, I think in the years to come if you look back on all of these bands, you'll see something quite Australian in it. In the present tense, it's not as obvious – but we do love all of those '70s and '80s Australian punk bands.”

It's that legacy that sets Chicks Who Love Guns apart from their peers in punk or indie. Much like their forebears in The Saints, there's significantly more to Chicks Who Love Guns than a simple love of rock. You can see hints of it in their YouTube cover of Tyler The Creator's Yonkers. In the same way Ed Kuepper eventually moved away from punk to craft something weirder, Chicks Who Love Guns are unlikely to stand still.

Currently celebrating the release of their third EP Moon-Eater, the band are tentatively looking at finally making the leap toward the album format. Their ambition (“When I said I wanted to record with Jon Spencer in another interview they kind of laughed at me – but I was actually quite serious”), combined with their eclecticism (“Hip hop and punk would be my two favourite types of music”) suggest something special on the horizon.

“When the album does come out, we want to be really happy with it,” Navarro explains. “With EPs, you can just kind of kick them out. There's not as much pressure on you to deliver something that will stand the test of time. It's more of a sampler. Doing these interviews over the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the album and what it would mean for us.

“I mean, we're all music nerds. The spectrum of influences in the band is absolutely huge. If ever there's a time to branch out, it would be the album, right? I'd love to try some really different stuff.”