What is your name?
Down And Out. This is all written by Luke, the singer by the way.
What is your genre of music?
Pop/Punk
Give us a little bio about you.
We began writing music around 2018 or so with no particular goal in mind. In early 2019, we released a few of the songs we had written, in the form of an EP and people seemed to respond well to it so we figured we may as well do something with the songs and play some shows. As the band became more serious we had a slight lineup rearrangement as some people didn’t feel like they were able to put more time and effort into the project at that time. Since then we’ve played a series of shows throughout South Australia as well as Tasmania, we’ve travelled to Sydney to record and Melbourne to shoot a music video. Basically the band is just the 5 of us using it as a good excuse to travel around and get up to shenanigans!
Who are your influences?
So many artists, really. Some obvious ones would be Blink-182, All Time Low, The Story So Far, Stand Atlantic, and loads of other great pop/punk artists. But also I love and am influenced by a huge amount of older music like The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Muddy Waters, B. B. King, and even new pop music like Taylor Swift, Zara Larsson, Dua Lipa, Pitbull, Twice. There’s not much we won’t draw upon for songwriting
Are you a signed?
Nope! At this point it’s sort of a blessing and a curse. It would be nice to have a label to push our songs and help give us a running start, but also it’s nice to just be able to do whatever we want. We have full creative control. Yeah, we have to front everything for the band, but we also own and get to keep everything we create which definitely has its own benefits.
You released your new single ‘Cyclone’, tell us more about the single.
I don’t know if there’s too much to say, really. It’s fast, it packs a lot of emotion and it sounds best when you play it as loud as your speakers will go without distorting. This was one of the only songs that we wrote as a full band, so it holds a special place in our hearts as something that we all collaborated on – it has pieces of all of us in it.
What was the writing and recording process like?
The writing process was fairly straightforward for this song actually. Our drummer brought us the idea of the song, initially. What you hear on the chorus is what he wrote – it’s barely changed at all since its initial idea. After that he sent through some lyrics and I workshopped them with him. Then the band got together and figured out the verses and the bridge, we did a little bit of restructuring the song to make it all flow nicely. Then Henry went away again and came up with most of the rest of the vocal melodies and some lyrics. Again, I massaged the lyrics into making sense, and things that were important to me at the time. From then, the recording process didn’t really change much. Our producer felt like the song didn’t need any rewrites or restructuring so we just went ahead and recorded it!
Who did you work with on the single?
Stevie Knight (Stand Atlantic, Yours Truly, With Confidence, Between You & Me, The Dead Love).
We also see a music video for ‘Cyclone’, tell us more about the creative process and filming.
Well the music video plays on the concept of the song: the life you have verses the life you want. We’ve got two outfits in the video: fancy, swanky office boys verses just our regular clothes, things we would wear on the weekend or to a show. And we thought it would be even better to literally film the music video in my work office. Maybe it’s a bit on the nose but we also just thought it would look cool, so why not!
Will we see an EP or Album and if so, what can we expect from it?
Oh, look, I’m not supposed to announce this for another month or so but whatever, the other guys can crucify me if they want. These singles are part of an upcoming EP. Cyclone is the most “classic pop/punk” song on the EP, I’d say. Sidelines (our previous single), while still a pop/punk song at its core, also incorporates some trap beats and subs throughout the song, and that’s a direction we wanted to continue to head in. For that reason, many of the other songs on the EP, while still retaining an essence of pop/punk, are intending to break the mould of what can be (let’s be honest) a fairly derivative genre. Don’t get me wrong, I love pop/punk, we all do, but it can be a bit samey after a while. So we wanted to take that fun, energetic, summer-time-with-your-friends vibe and give it a sound that’s a bit new and unique, something that’ll catch people’s ear and get them to hang around. It’s not the 2000’s anymore, we’re not doing emo pop/punk; it’s not the 2010’s anymore, we’re not doing angry, yelling sad boi pop/punk anymore. It’s the 2020’s and we’re doing this new, weird trap beats pop/punk. I’m not saying we’re blazing that trail, but that’s what we hear happening in the pop/punk sphere, and we’re loving it and we want to push that as far as it can go.
What else can we expect in 2021?
For the rest of 2021 we’re just going to continue to release follow-up singles. We’ve got a couple more up our sleeves, one of which I personally think is the best song we’ve ever done, and the other I reckon is definitely up there – it’s got a real All Time Low, Nothing Personal (my favourite band when I was a teenager) sort of feel to it. And we’re also gonna go back to Sydney to record another few songs in the hopes that these ones work out and people want more!
Where do you see yourself now in 5 Years?
Look, I would LOVE to see myself playing in Down And Out, selling out shows and making enough money for this to be a sustainable career for us! It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll, however, but I’m optimistic that we’ve got what it takes to go all the way with this.
What quote or saying do you always stick by?
All I know is that I know nothing – Socrates. Hey! You asked me to say that, so stop thinking it’s pretentious – you can’t blame me. It just reminds me that everything is a matter of perception and that if I were to think that the way that I view or think about something is the correct way is arrogant. I’m an expert in my own experiences of the world and nothing else.
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
My mic, my in-ears, my phone, my water bottle and my bandmates lmao.
Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
Absolutely! We’re just DownAndOutAus on everything! Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, whatever else there is, we’ve probably got it. Feel free to reach out in any way and we’ll be sure to respond!
