Purplene: Supernovacastrian.

NSW’s Purplene are one of several Australian bands who specialise in emotional, complex and atmospheric guitar rock.

“I think it sort of makes sense,” guitarist/singer Matt says of the increasing number of Oz guitar soundscapers. “We’re all people that grew up with early nineties indie rock and spent the last however-many years refining that and coming up with a sound of our own. I think that’s why we’re getting these bands who are really doing interesting things with guitars.”

The origins of Purplene took place in Newcastle, a city possibly most famous as Screaming Jets and Silverchair country. With half of the group still living in Newcastle, I ask how home shows go for this rather untypical Novacastrian act.

“When we started playing, we used to do these dingy little pubs and there would be these people looking at us, wondering what we were on about!” Matt recalls. “At the time there was a fairly heavy fast punk scene, but we found a lot of the punk-heads were kind of into us as well, because even though our music was completely dissimilar to theirs, we were still coming from that same indie, DIY ethic. We made some really great friends with those guys, but we were never on the same bill, obviously, because it would have been too weird! It’s quite a good little scene here and we always get good feedback whenever we play in Newcastle.”

Matt is also a member of Sydney instrumentalists Ukiyo-e (who, incidentally created one of 2001’s finest Oz EPs) and loves the contrasts provided by the two bands. 

“With Purplene, I write a lot of the songs, play guitar, sing and more or less manage the band as well, so it’s a completely different dynamic from Ukiyo-e, where I am just a musician and largely a drummer, so I really enjoy that difference,” says Matt.

The visual presentation side of Purplene is clearly important, so much so that the group’s artist, photographer and web-site guru Pete is listed as a band member.

“Another good example of this is Jem Cohen, who does all the artwork, takes photos and does video stuff for Fugazi,” Matt explains. “He’s like their unofficial fifth member. He does amazing art and it makes such sense with their music and politics. I’ve always been so drawn to that concept and it just so happened that Pete came to our first rehearsal and has been to every one of our shows bar about three or four since 1996, which is no mean feat. He’s done all our art, photos and web stuff and is also like a coach for the band too! A priceless member.”