One of my favorite bands at the moment is without a doubt it’s Australia’s bovver boogie brigade Shandy! Last year the band shook things up with their fantastic single “Dance All Night” and with this year’s “Bish Bosh Bash” EP and fantastic “Tough Pucker” full-length they truly showed to be a dancin’ force to be reckoned with! Time for a little chat with bassist Viktor!
Hi Viktor, thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview! How are
things going?
Thank you for the interview.
I am in Prague sick with the flu which seemed to incubate in our tour van and infect
everyone. But Prague is full of great beer and beautiful women so I am recovering
quickly. I am super happy with how the tour went and the positive reaction we
received. We had a great time in Europe!
Let’s kick-off with a basic question first, could you introduce the Shandy brigade
and give a brief history of how you guys got together?
The band is made up for JJ (vocals), Jud (Guitar), Kev (Guitar), Adam (Drums) and me
(Viktor) on Bass. We have all know each other from playing in bands playing various
styles of Punk, Oi, Hardcore and Rock n Roll. It was really easy to work together as
we were already friends but hadn't played all together.
Our backgrounds are ... Jud (Guitar) plays in the awesome Punk band "the Disables"
as well as doing his solo material. Viktor (Bass) plays in MouthGuard and did a
stint in Brisbane Oi band Plan of Attack. Kev (Guitar) played in Punk bands
"Psychotic Lemmings" and "Dream Killers". JJ has played in many Rock n Roll and Punk
bands including "JJ Speedball" and "Scrumfeeder" and even "The Australian GG Allin
Show". Adam our drummer has played in hundreds of bands including great Rocking punk bands like the "Dinky Flyers" and "Big Lummox".
The genesis of Shandy was JJ and myself renewing our friendship after not seeing
each other for nearly a decade. We started going to the football and some gigs
together and renewed our exchanging of musical compilations. Those compilations were a mix of Singalong and Sugar Oi, Glam Stompers, Aussie Sharpie Rockers, Powerpop and Killed by Death type Punk. We were also fans of the Crazee Kids blog site which had some awesome downloadable compilations called Sharpies and Boot Power. These sounds were later the building blocks for Shandy. Then when we had the opportunity to open for Hard Skin (one of our favourite bands) in Brisbane on their first tour of Australia so we formed Shandy for the specific purpose to play with them.
Originally Shandy was a 3 piece with JJ on guitar and vocals. But we think it works
better as a 5 piece with JJ is off the leash
You just returned from yet another European tour, taking you to new places and
meeting new faces. Any fun stories from the tour you’d like to share?
The tour was great.
It was fun to watch people to struggle to understand our guitarist Kev. Australian
accents are difficult enough but Kev's laid back manner and slang took
incomprehensibility to a new level. He was rocking pretty hard some nights and I
loved watching him shred the guitar.
All in all It was a pretty busy tour with 15 gigs in 18 days through 7 countries so
was not too much time for shenanigans. It was great to catch up with old friends
even if it was all too brief. Just a few beers and partying at the end of each show.
Stefan Spiller was our tour guide for a day in Ruhrpott which was great. It was
great to see the Agitators again - they are always so hospitable. We also made lots
of new friends like the amazing Faz Waltz in Italy, loads of great people in France,
the Pennycocks, the great Master Brille in Munich etc. I was personally excited to
have met "Melanie" from "Melanie and the Secret Army" as I am a big fan of their
records. She has such an amazing voice, she is one of my favourite vocalists.
I enjoyed watching people's reaction when JJ sang the "Kookaburra Sings" song. Some
people's expressions and smiles were priceless. You could see them thinking "What
the hell is this?" Ha ha ha!
Prior to the tour you visited Japan and Europe for a personal holiday, so you’ve
been away from home for quite some time. What was the first thing you did when you returned to Australia?
Yeah it seems a long time ago that I left Australia. I hope the car starts. The
first thing I am going to do is play some of the new records I bought during my
travels. I also want to finally hear the "Tough Pucker" vinyl on my stereo. It was
mastered to play at 45 rpm for superior Bovver sounds so I am keen to hear it .
As a treat I am looking forward to an Australian style Breakfast. It is popular to
go out and eat breakfast in Australia. A large cooked breakfast will be perfect!
Looking at your holiday snapshots it is quite obvious you’re a record collector.
What are some of the gems you picked up out on the road? Saw any collectables you just couldn’t buy and regret now that you’re home?
There was not a lot of time to search for records but I still managed to score some
great ones. I think finding the 1969 French pressing of MC5's "Kick out the Jams"
for 5€ In Lyon was a highlight. Buying the French pressing of the Angels "Take a
long line" / "Marseilles" was a great momento of our time in the south of France.
The night before we were talking to the locals about all things Alberts (Australian
studio) and the time Bon Scott era AC/DC played in Avignon where we had a gig. A
couple of Skinheads from Marseilles also came along to our gig and we were telling
them about the Angels song "Marseilles" which they hadn't heard. So the next day
when I found this 7 inch in a record store I had to grab it. I got a few Glam
Stompers in the Netherlands and some nice Northern Soul in Hamburg.
Regrets? Hmmm ... I held the Nasty Facts "Crazy about you" 7 inch in a Tokyo Record
store for a very long time. But the price was just way too crazy. My regret was not
having the time to search every record shop in Belgium for a copy of the Gumbo 7
inch "Devils"/"We don't care".
While we are on the subject of records... Shandy just released its first LP “Tough
Pucker” (and “Tougher Pucker” on CD), congratulations! Are you happy with the final result?
Yes, we are very stoked. I think it's a good cross section of songs which is a good
representative of our live shows. I am super happy with the artwork and packaging
from Pirate Press is great. The coloured vinyl looks amazing.
For those out there who don’t have a clue what Shandy is about, could you enlighten us what inspires and influences Shandy’s ‘bovver boogie’?
Yeah sure! Shandy reflects some of the favourite music what we like to listen to ...
Like the music compilations we would trade between each other. I think "Bovver
Boogie" is a good description ... You can dance to it ...but it's still "tough".
Like its drink namesake .... Shandy is a mix of influences. There's Bootboy Glam,
Punk Rock, Sugar Oi and lots of 70s Aussie Rock 'n Roll.
In particular we are influenced by some of the music that the Sharpies listened to.
The Sharpies were a unique youth cult in Australia mainly centred around Melbourne.
Their fashion was influenced by hard Mod and Original skinhead styles but then
morphed into something distinctly Australian.
The Sharpies listened to Glam, Hard Rock, Rock 'n Rock and even some Punk bands such as La Femme towards the end of the reign. We like a lot of music from this period.
To me the lyrics come over like it’s all about having fun and dance, making it a
real feel-good album, you know what I mean? Is this also the intention? What
inspires you guys lyrically?
JJ would be best to answer this but I will try. JJ picks up on a phrase or fun
concept and then weaves a story around it. JJ is a creative genius. He can write a
dozen songs in a week. He has written about 60 Shandy songs ... There are about 20
that he has demo'ed with Adam our drummer and the band has yet to play them.
Everyone else in the band writes and composes but we haven't needed to use anyone
else as we still have a such backlog of material.
The vinyl version of “Tough Pucker” is released by Contra Records and Longshot
Music, while the CD version “Tougher Pucker” is self-released, why did you choose to release the CD version on your own?
We were a little worried about the vinyl pressing not being ready in time so we
pressed some CDs to have in the tour van just in case. The world has gone vinyl
crazy so we were in the production line with all the mainstream artists that are now
pressing vinyl. Big thanks to Mike and Pedro from Pirate Press for looking after us
and making sure we got our records in time for most of our tour. In the end it was
good we had the CDs as at times we sold out of the album and people wanted to buy
the songs. We actually sold out of all the CDs we bought to Europe.
Besides the 10 songs of the LP, “Tougher Pucker” includes two bonus tracks
(“Kookaburra Sings” and “Sunnybank ‘73”) not available on vinyl... yet? Or will the vinyl purists be able to jam out these two scorchers someday as well?
Nothing is planned at this stage. We look at our future plan once we are all back in
Australia.
Besides Shandy, you also played with Plan Of Attack and you are currently still active in Mouthguard, two tough as nails band and completely different from Shandy’s sound! What is the reason you are not active in Plan Of Attack anymore?
Plan of Attack are one of the best Oi bands on the scene. I enjoyed playing with
them for about 12 months. They needed to get a better guitar player than me and they now have a killer line-up that is just amazing live. The guys are always working on
new material so I am sure something is in the pipeline. Lead singer Barry is a good
friend and has supported and helped Shandy from the beginning. Barry did all the
graphical layouts for our new album and single. I look forward to seeing them play
when I return home.
As said, Plan Of Attack and Mouthguard have a tough as nails sound, while Shandy’s style is about having a fun and dance, you reckon there are any other differences?
I like heavy music and playing that style but at times it's good not It's not to be
so serious. I like seeing people laughing and dancing when they watch Shandy.
For me it's more natural to smile, laugh and be happy. I am really glad we didn't
have to do one of those "tough guy" photo shoots for this band :) My mother gave me
some good advice when she said "Viktor don't pretend to be a tough guy". So I'm
"Sworn to fun ... Loyal to Mum!".
Alright mate, I am about to wrap this interview up! If there is anything you would like to add to the interview, feel free to do so! Thanks!
Thank you Mano for the interview and your support. Big thanks to Contra Records,
Longshot Music and Bootboys Cove Records for releasing our music. Cheers to Cam
Mitchell and Robert Hargreaves for the ace artwork. Thanks to our driver Zed
Tchichiman from Prague. Big big thanks to all the promoters, other bands and most of
all the people that came out to the shows. Thanks for a great time Europe - Let's
Dance all night again soon!
