Papa Roach: A Bug’s Life.

Papa Roach play the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on November 26 and 27 and are instore at Skinnys on November 26 from 4pm.

Papa Roach burst into the Australian musical psyche in 1990 with the massive debut album Infest and its immediately involving first single Last Resort. After igniting airwaves across the country, and the increasing demand for a live presence from the act after aborting plans for a tour in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the buzz surrounding the band continued to push the heights. They’d sure set themselves a tough task to follow it all up.

But with Love Hate Tragedy, the band’s second major label release, they have. And more importantly, those once halted touring plans are afoot once more, the Los Angeles based quartet set to join the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Australia next week.

Bassist Tobin is savouring some time at home between tours.

“I’ve got nine days off before we go to Australia. When I come home I get to do a whole lot of nothing. I don’t do shit other than hang out with my family, spend time with my wife and my daughters and spend time on the couch playing with the kids.”

In spite of the cool comfort of time away from the grind of life on the road, Tobin is enthusiastically looking forward to their Australian shows.

“Being out on the road with the Chili Peppers is like a dream come true for me, man,” he enthuses. “We’re excited enough about going to Australia, because we’ve been everywhere else. Then with the Chili Peppers… I remember when I first started playing bass I was learning all the Chili Peppers songs, trying to learn Flea’s basslines. We’re totally stoked about that.”

Australian fans would be savouring the opportunity as well, after repeated calls for the band to make an appearance.

“We were actually going to be coming down for Japan then like Australia and whatnot in September 2001. And when the 11th came around nobody was going anywhere. That kind of put a hold on all that.”

Has the September 11 thing changed the way the band approach what’s going on around you when you’re on the road in other counties?

“It did for a minute, but you can’t go on being scared and trying to hide and be careful about every little thing we did. For a while we didn’t really go anywhere; just stay at home for a while with the family and try and figure out what’s going on, you know. After a while you just kind of get back to your normal thing, but no one really knows what to do or how to get over it.”

While Infest proved without a doubt Papa Roach could match it with any of the rap-metal crew, Love Hate Tragedy found frontman Coby singing rather than rapping on every track. The end result was an album with more emotional impact that it’s predecessor.

“We never sat down and decided to do something different,” Tobin explains. “It was more just a natural progression for us. Emotional aspects like aggression have always been big parts of our music. I think this record just naturally come to be more of just a straight ahead rock and roll record, you know. Coby was singing more, because he wasn’t too into the rapping and he could bring out more melody and emotion with singing more. We did a lot with the guitars and more melodies to do something different. If you just keep writing the same bunch of songs each time you’re just going to get bored.”

After four independent albums and two in the big leagues it important to keep the material interesting for the band as well as the fans. After all, there are a lot of shows to play before the next record.

“That’s what it’s all about. You’ve got to keep the crowd happy, but us too. When we play some of the new songs live now we’ve already changed them up. It’s kind of like a spontaneous reaction. Like freestyling or whatever.”

As the band approaches its tenth birthday, they can look back and explore the huge distance they’ve come for their overnight success.

“We started back in 1993 making a shitload of demos. You can tell we were really young, because they’re shitty and we were really young. The songs progressively got better and better until we found our niche and our sound. Things are always changing and evolving, and hopefully things will just keep getting better.”

“Sometimes if you catch me on a good day I’ll go back to some of the older stuff, but usually when we’re finished something, I’m done with it. It’s shite and I’m thinking about the next step.”

You’ve obviously been in England recently if you’re still using words like shite…

“Yeah,” he laughs. “We speak an international language. I come home and say a few things. My friends are like ‘you’re pissed? Don’t you mean drunk?’”