Half Way Out: Surf’s Down.

Half Way Out launch No Apologies For Ska at an all ages show on Saturday at The Lion's Den Café from 7pm. Check out www.halfwayout.com

Half Way Out are a ska outfit from Brisbane that have been playing live for around a year at various youth and community events, which has earned them a reputation as an energetic and fun outfit. Sporting a three-piece horn section and impeccable catchy guitar riffs, incorporating three-part harmonies certainly gives Half Way Out an edge over other bands of their genre. They recently made it to the Queensland Rock Awards semi-finals, have played at a youth festival in front of 1,300 people, are about to release their debut EP No Apologies For Ska and later this year are to tour down south to Sydney and Adelaide in support of the EP. The future looks bright for Half Way Out and I talked to drummer Sam Schlencker about all that's going on.

I ask if the EP's first track Too Big To Crowd Surf is written from personal experience?

“It's definitely written from personal experience. Our trombone player who's our co-lead singer, Jono is six foot three and 110 kilos... he's really really big. It's definitely written from personal experience 'cause as the song says 'you're going to kill someone if you crowd surf and you're that big.”

How about the track Evergreen?

“It was written by our other lead singer Matt. It's from his personal experience. A bunch of us in the band are actually Christians...”

I ask if they ever feel they cop flack for their beliefs, as it seems to be the trend nowadays towards bands that openly admit they're Christian?

“We don't actually get crap. Like when we played the QLD rock Awards our lyrics are definitely Christian lyrics... we had a heap of drunks... when they went away in their maxi taxi they yelled 'You're not bad for Christians'. It doesn't really worry us. It's a personal thing and for each of us it's an individual thing, so when it comes to people saying things like that about the band it doesn't really bother us, it shouldn't have to bother us. We're a band and we write music. Our singer writes lyrics about his personal experiences, seeing he's a Christian I guess he just writes songs about what he goes through; all bands and singers write about they're experiences. Evergreen is just a very simple song.”

What else is on the horizon for Half Way Out?

“I guess we're just going to see where this EP takes us. We've got plans to go on tour. We'll be playing Harold's festival down in Adelaide; it's a punk, ska and hardcore event. We're also driving to Sydney in September and we'll be playing the Black Stump festival. A road trip's always fun. Next year we plan to record a full-length. We'll just see where it all takes us.”