Free Spirits

The Fait Accompli story goes back at least to 2007, which saw the release of a debut EP, It Is What It Is. Last year saw the self-styled “soul punk” Sydney three-piece, fronted by singer, songwriter and guitarist Ray Lalotoa, release a double-A side single, No Fool/On A Blue Day, just before Skarlett Saramore took up the drumsticks in the band.

“I used to be in a band called Chaingang,” Saramore explains, “and Ray, who runs [music blog] My Sydney Riot, he actually promoted us and put us on a few of his shows before I even knew who those guys really were. Then I left Chaingang and went overseas and stuff and Ray was looking for a new drummer and just asked me. I'm just like, 'Wow, you guys are fucking like amazing, I've been watching you guys for years – it's an honour.' Then we had our jam and it kind of just felt like I was in the band from the beginning, which is amazing because I wasn't even the right age to be going to venues then – I was just turning seventeen,” she laughs. “So I'm a baby!”

Very much a DIY operation, Fait Accompli book their own gigs and their bassist, Brett Stokes, runs his own label, MAKEyourself Records, and while when she's not totally immersed in drumming and gigging, Saramore runs depression awareness and suicide prevention initiative Less Than Strength. “So we're each living two other lives on the road, which is a bit ridiculous,” she admits. “We've all got our own little things but they all tie together somehow, so we can all help each other if it gets too much.” The latest round of touring, though, is the main focus, promoting new EP, Spies.

“We knew what we were doing, it just felt right,” Saramore explains. “At the time we were like, 'We don't need a producer, stuff structures, we don't need any of that this time, we just want to put out this raw first EP with Skarlett and then we'll worry about all the rest when we come to the album.' The last drummer was absolutely incredible, but he had more of a strict guideline or strict playing approach more so. When it comes to me, I'm like, 'Yeah, drum roll? Let's go crazy.' I kind of feel like I fit with the boys a bit more than the other drummer did, so I think it all happened for a reason. I'm more of a free spirit and they are free spirits – and our whole band is even crazier than before. We've been working our butts off – I'm excited! It's like being in a band with two other mes!

“When we wrote them, it was like my first entry into the band, but every song on the EP I think we wrote in the space of, like, one jam, each time. We just get together and we're on the same level,” she laughs. As for the lyrics, “The Raymeister – he's amazing with lyrics. They come from stories that we normally tell of each other a lot of the time and it's weird, like me and Ray, I swear we've come from the same mother. We have, like, related stories even though we're completely different ages. I mean everything that Ray says is pretty much stories of me and Stokes as well, so, I dunno, it's just the weirdest feeling moment of my life with this band.”