Band Of Missfits, a quartet of rockers from the foothills of Perth, have scored themselves a spot performing at this year's WAMFest Live and a WAMAwards nomination.
Despite having released only two EPs so far, the rock band has built itself a following based on its rousing, catchy tunes – and, more importantly, a following that’s staunch enough to nominate it for ‘Most Popular New Act’.
“Fingers crossed we win it,” Kym Redmond, Band Of Missfits vocalist and songwriter, says. “But if we don't, we know it's going to another pretty well-deserving band.”
It’s a surprisingly gracious remark. “[The other nominees are] quite well-known Perth bands,” Kym explains, “and a lot of them are our mates too.”
On being nominated for the award, Kym was “really surprised”.
“You don’t get too much recognition and we hadn't really won much [by this point], so we were pretty stoked when we found out about this – pretty overwhelmed as well, because we're up against some stiff competition.
“Yomi Ship’s up for it. They're just really great guys. And then there's I Call Val. We've played a couple of gigs with them as well and know them fairly well. There's Scarlet Drive too. Again, we've played a few gigs with them this year.
“You get to know the bands even when you're not playing. You go out to the pub and watch them. You get to know all the music that's around.
“There is literally so much good music in Perth at the moment,” Kym adds.
“Any night of the week you can go out and see really, really good bands. Gone are the days where you'd be picking and choosing, going, 'Oh god, what do we want?'. You can go to Four5Nine or Mojos or Bassendean Hotel – any night of the week there’s a quality band.”
Aside from showcasing this November at WAMFest, Band Of Missfits have another two shows in December. “We want to play the year out with some really good gigs, and play it out with a bang.”
When it comes to juggling band and work commitments, Kym says it can be difficult but that it’s worth it. “I’m quite a busy girl. I have two kids and I run my own florist shop six days a week on top of the band.
“We play quite a bit in Freo: The Railway, The Swan Hotel, Flyby Nightclub – we're based in the hills of Perth, so we have to do quite a bit of travelling to get to and from gigs. But I think that’s necessary to get the music out there and get a few more people listening.
“For me, playing is a huge outlet. It’s my passion, my first passion. I've been singing and writing music since I was a little girl. It's just something I've always done as an outlet.
“Anytime I need to get anything off my chest, the first thing I do is get pen to paper, and it's therapeutic. Besides my kids, it’s the reason why I’ve been put here. So playing live - the buzz of it - I just love it.”
As for the future of the band, Kym would love to be able to take the group further afield. “Oh, yep, would love to. Love to! I'm just trying to organise something for next year maybe.
“I would have liked a tour at the end of this year, but with work it’s difficult. A few of our band members have commitments. So maybe mid-next year we'll look at a mini-tour.”
2019 will include new music as well. “We're going to be releasing music, but whether it's a full length, a single or an EP, it just depends on how things go.”
Kym laughs and says there is some pressure to release in March next year. “We released our debut EP ['Into The Storm'] March 23, 2017, and then a year later, to the day, we released our second EP 'Higher Passage'. We hadn't purposefully sat down and said 'Let's write an EP and let's release it in March.' It kind of happened that way.
“We would like to do a full-length album, but it's not something that we're mainly focusing on at the moment. It's not like we have a set timeline.”
