Adelaide Bands 'Are Just Doing Something No One Else Is'

As Jesse Coulter begins listing reasons he attributes to the wait for Grenadiers’ second album Summer, there’s a pause. It’s summed up in one of the simplest human responses: “Life got in the way.” It’s a feeling we all know too well.

To condense the facts, the answer seems to be largely due to member changes over the last couple of years. This created a completely new dynamic to the group, the writing style, the sound and the quality, ultimately resulting in one hell of a punk-rock album. In fact, one of the best.

"Some exciting shows are coming up that we can’t announce yet."

With their debut LP, Songs The Devil Taught Us, released half a decade ago, and teasers via social media of recording since 2012, Summer has been a highly anticipated album to say the least. Well and truly worth the wait the album was snapped up by triple j as a Feature Album Of The Week. This came as a huge surprise yet was warmly welcomed by the Adelaide trio – a feat not only on the South Australian front, but also for punk/metal, a genre not too often spotlighted. Coulter touches on the lack of community in the local heavy scene, but he’s still quick to boast of some fellow Adelaide acts including Paper Arms, West Thebarton Brothel Party and Sparkspitter, of whom he feels they “are just doing something no one else is, and it’s really exciting.”

Grenadiers originated as ‘pet project’ of Coulter’s, writing alone, and the music then presented to be learnt by other members. “Now out of ten riffs I write, nine will get ditched.” New members, personalities and tastes resulted in working in a more collaborative capacity. 

Consciously or not, this approach has certainly influenced the lyrical content of the new LP. With several references to summer, including of course the album’s name, title track, closing track and the season of its release, the question had to be asked – was the season a conscious theme for the album? “No… After about five songs lyrics were down I started to realise there was this theme of alienation and aching to be a part of something while also feeling completely separate from it. I thought that summer was a really good analogy for that. It’s not a concept album or anything like that [laughs], nothing quite that prog-rock or wanky but it definitely has a theme.”

It’s evident that other aspects were consciously worked, the track listing alone an indication that the record was a well thought-out creation full of classic short, punk songs packing punches between indisputably brilliant and strong hard rock all book-ended with that anti-summer theme. Meanwhile, “Some exciting shows are coming up that we can’t announce yet,” Coulter tells, “and hopefully more recording later in the year… We are keen to keep the ball rolling.”