Odd Band Out

Persona Non Grata, the title of the debut record from Sydney-based rockers Strangers wasn't merely drawn out of a hat, or chosen due to any potential marketability. The name roughly translates to “an unwelcome stranger”, and it's the band's collective sense of isolation and disconnection from their surroundings which they channelled into the album itself. “Where we live in Cronulla, 'The Shire', as bad as the reputation as it has,” vocalist Ben Britton begins. “There are no fucking rock bands down here. There's no scene, no rock scene. I mean, for Sydney at the moment that's the toughest thing in general anyway, there's not much of a rock scene going on. And Persona Non Grata kinda means an unwelcome guest. So in our home town, that was how we were feeling. When it came to writing music, kinda felt like a fish out of water here.”

As it turns out, perhaps there's a semblance of reality (that term is used rather loosely in this instance) to the cringe-inducing TV program depicting their home base. “That's not to say we don't have lots of friends that live around here or we weren't fitting in socially,” the singer continues. “It was just more the musical sense of… Everybody else was into taking pills, going to fucking Stereosonic and putting fake tan on themselves. We were into smoking bongs and writing Sabbath riffs at the time,” he laughs. “So that's how it felt; we felt like a fish out of water. [We] just wanted to get out of here; not that it isn't a lovely place and it is home, will always be home, and we love it here. But we just wanted to get out, start touring and playing music. Just wanted to shed the weight, shed the fucking not-fitting-in vibes and just play everywhere.”

Since forming just two years ago, Strangers haven't been half-hearted in their efforts to do just that. The year 2012 was a landmark one for the quintet: receiving major triple j support, whirlwind Sydney/Melbourne residencies, showcases at the BIGSOUND music conference and a recently announced spot on the illustrious SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. They also opened for the likes of The Darkness, Good Charlotte and Calling All Cars. To cap things off there was the release of their aforementioned debut LP, produced by Shihad's Tom Larkin (The Getaway Plan, King Cannons).

It's suggested that if a band is going to fuse enormous, heavy guitars with an even larger pop sensibility, who better to school you during the recording process? “He's great,” Britton gushes. “Shihad are a great band, from a heavy rock perspective; a fantastic, amazing band. They've done so much, they've had so much experience, so we couldn't be in better hands. He brought a lot to the table; really experienced, wise and had that same passion and push for the band which we did. The relationship grew and grew in the studio; the songwriting, we got along with each other. He's a total workhorse. His work ethic is through the roof and we have to have the same level of work ethic to even match his expectations. He pushed us and it was exactly what we needed, so it was really good.

“There's a couple of tracks on the record that have a real blues-y influence,” he says of the writing aspect. “But we were smoking a lot of weed and just playing a lot, jamming lots in the band room that we've got down here. We just wanted to be heavy and real desert-y in some parts. We get a lot of prog stuff, like people comparing us to like Karnivool and bands like that; they assume we're into prog. We're not really big prog fans to be honest,” he chuckles. “Karnivool are fantastic, don't get me wrong, but I don't know. We just kinda did our own thing and put it all together. We're a pop band, essentially. We discovered tones, a lot of fuzz, and we're not shy of a guitar solo either. We had fuzz tones and we were writing pop songs, you know?” Britton laughs.

“Loving the big choruses, some spaced-out verses and things like that. Growing up as a kid we've always loved that, the desert rock stuff and big, massive fuzz; big fuzz bass and massive drums. We are a pop band, structurally. We're verse-chorus-verse-chorus, that's what we love to write essentially. But maybe the second record we might go a bit left-field. We're jamming out a fair bit at the moment, and there's some different stuff coming along. We just worked really hard on songwriting and it had a real psychotic push from my end, I guess,” he adds with a laugh. “I stop at nothing to get the band to a point where it's operating, keeping busy and touring.”

Before they begin thinking too seriously about album number two, the band will indeed be keeping suitably occupied as they hit the road for a series of dates throughout Australia. Given their wealth of touring experience in spite of their relative newcomer status, including the aforementioned spate of recent high-profile support slots, the 27-year-old frontman believes they'll approach playing live with a more worldly perspective.

“That's the biggest thing, you play with these big bands like The Darkness for example,” he says. “Permission To Land – I smashed that record, it was amazing at the time. We went on tour with them and what they taught us, the showmanship of those guys is just incredible. You take a little bit of those things that they do and learn from what they're doing. Touring with bands like Unwritten Law and Grinspoon; great frontmen, they work the crowd. It's a different way of approaching those shows to like playing the Cherry Bar every week in Melbourne. It's like, making it build up to a point in the set where it's like, yelling into the microphone instead of going, 'Hey, what's up guys?' You really have to learn how to play to bigger crowds. That was the eye-opener for us after playing with all these bands, and they're so good at doing it. Justin Hawkins just controls a crowd, he has them in the palm of his hand. That's an art-form in itself. So we took a lot away from that.

“We did a residency at the Cherry Bar for eight weeks straight. Every Wednesday we went down to Melbourne to play there. I reckon those [shows] taught us about playing to three, four hundred capacity rooms. You want people to go in there and feel like they've just watched their best friend, even if they don't know you. You want to make them feel like they've just come in and seen one of their mates play. Break down those barriers. That's what we're all about, just having a good time and treating it like a house party every show, just really breaking down the walls.”

Strangers will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 31 January - The Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Friday 1 February - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Saturday 2 February - The Patch, Cabbage Tree Hotel, Fairy Meadow NSW
Thursday 7 February - Ed Castle Hotel, Adelaide SA
Thursday 14 February - Newport Hotel, Fremantle WA
Saturday 16 February - Capitol & Amplifier Bar, Perth WA
Sunday 17 February - The Indi Bar, Scarborough WA