Have You Heard: Mezzanine

How did you get together?
Cory John Rist, vocals/guitar: Jago and I met in high school and started playing around with each other shortly after. We started Mezzanine in his grandma's sleep out – she was on holiday thankfully. We began by writing songs on drums and guitar and the rest of the band fell into place shortly after.

Have you recorded anything or do you prefer to tool around in your bedroom?
We have put out two EPs in the past year but really like the homespun way of writing, demoing songs and sending them to each other; a few great songs have come to us this way. By and large though we write the best when we are all in a room playing very loud – the energy that inspires us always seems to come at deafening volumes.

Can you sum up your band's sound in four words?
Play it fucking loud.

If you could support any band in the world, who would it be and why?
Well, I can only speak for myself here but I think it would be playing a gig with Sonic Youth, in a small dingey club, with a PA ready to clap out and beer-drenched heaving men everywhere – that would be my island in the sun. I take a lot of influence from Lee [Ranaldo] and Thurston [Moore] so being on the same stage as them would be a great honor.

If a higher power smites your house and you can only save one record from the fire, what would it be?
It's got to be a record that has some sort of sentimental value. I can always buy another Smiths greatest hits for $10 and that third Coldplay record should have gone up in flames a long time ago so I would have to save the first record my dad passed down to me, Let's Get It On by Ken Boothe.

Do you have a lucky item of clothing you wear for gigs and what is it?
Well, for the past four years I have only worn two outfits – I like to keep shit simple, you see. The first one was a denim jacket but my beer gut ended that romance and lately it's a tatty old black shirt but that's getting a little too snug too. I have a special pair of black underwear that is kept in reserve for shows; that bad boy has seen some action.

If you invited someone awesome round for dinner what would you cook?
Whenever someone truly awesome comes round to the lair we end up drinking too much to bother eating, but for someone truly exceptional it would be a ten-minute knocked up curry.

What's your favourite place to drink in Melbourne?
Sister Bella's. Great hidden spot, last time I was there I was served by a self-professed 'space pirate'. He wore a cape and sang weird shit.