Get ready for some heavy garage rock from Australia. Spacejunk is here with their upcoming release of their second album, Bite Your Tongue, via High Kick Records. Due out this Friday! So much music is coming from that place lately, I am wondering just what they are doing in the down under. Spacejunk is here to tell us a little bit about it. The band is Betty Righteous playing Bass/Vocals, Speed Cam on the drums, Eugene on lead guitar, and Mark E Moon on guitar and vocals. They are four guys who want their music played loud and with no restrictions. Their hardcore sound is bursting at the seams and they can’t wait for everyone to hear it. Talking with Mark, I got to know a little bit more about the band…
– Spacejunk is?
Debris from dead satellites and discarded rockets hurtling around earth in outer space… but pertaining to us it’s rock’n’roll band made up of four young-ish men who like loud guitar based music.
-Your music sounds like?
Most people say we sound like Mudhoney or BORED! Which is great. Some people say we sound like Monster Magnet, The Meanies and Turbonegro. One girl told me we sound like the Ramones, I don’t know about that, but I’ll take it as a compliment.
-Where is everyone from?
We’re all country kids from around Victoria, but Melbourne is our home now.
-Who influences your sound?
We each come from different places underneath the great umbrella of rock’n’roll, and would give different answers… our drummer Cam would most likely cite Led Zeppelin as a major influence; our bassist/singer Betty would say The Hard-on’s, lead guitarist Eugene would claim the Beasts of bourbon and I (guitar/vocals) usually try to mimic the Sonics or Roky Erickson. That’s a pretty straight up recipe for Spacejunk.
-What is the band’s process for writing songs, choosing which songs to play?
We tend to play around with riffs, find a change, throw some vague vocal melody over the top then play it fast. Repeat. I guess we try and pick songs that sound enough alike to sound somewhat cohesive, but different enough so it’s not all the same. It’s a fine line to tread.
-What is a live show like for Spacejunk?
Short, fast, loud and sweaty. We have intentionally adopted a Ramones style formula live (minimal time between tracks, no messing around, minimal chit chat), that way we can usually fit 10 plus tracks into a 30 minute set…kinda like the MC5’s philosophy if you get my drift…
-What other band would you pick to be on tour with right now, if you could choose anyone?
The Shrine would be fun to tour with I think.
-Who does the artwork for your album?
Our bassist/vocalist Betty Righteous. He’s pretty handy with a pencil and photoshop and is great with colours. We’re very fortunate.
-What does the rest of the year look like for you?
It’s looking busy. We’re releasing our new LP on October 9th at The Old Bar in Fitzroy (our favourite Melbourne bar) then doing a mini tour, then a December residency at The Tote in Collingwood, arguably the best rock’n’roll venue in the world. Should be cool.
A big thank you to Mark and Spacejunk for this interview. Follow them on Facebook and preorder your copy of Bite Your Tongue here! Here is some music from their first release to tide you over until Friday…
