Byron Bay Guitar Festival should brace itself when the event plays host for the first time to Australia's beloved first family of punk, Frenzal Rhomb.
“Byron Bay Guitar Festival I feel has been missing out on the Frenzal Rhomb axeman Lindsay McDougall for years now,” frontman Jay Whalley says.
“I think Lindsay is quietly very excited to be playing the Byron Bay Guitar Festival. I was thinking with my own guitar prowess that I might be doing some masterclasses on the power chord, which is the one you can play anywhere on the neck with two fingers. I might do a masterclass on where to put the capo, which I believe is in the guitar case, so it's a short class that one. Or the chords you can do with one finger.”
Frenzal Rhomb's performance at the guitar festival comes as part of their upcoming spring tour that also includes theatre shows as well as a slot at Yours & Owls Festival before finishing off the year in Newcastle with 'A Frenzal Rhomb Christmas Special'.
In the meantime, the band's been back in writing mode for another album to follow-up 2017's 'Hi-Vis High Tea'.
“We've had a bit of a line-up change, so we've got a new bass player [Michael 'Dal' Dallinger] who's fitting in very nicely and we're just trying to write songs at the moment. We're doing these festivals here and there and keeping it all ticking over,” Jay says.
“The thing about us is that it's really easy to write an album worth of fast, melodic punk songs but it's quite difficult to make them good, so that's my focus at the moment, trying to write good songs. I shouldn't tell people about that because when they hear the record they're like 'you should have tried a bit harder', but I think if we go in with that intent then we should be alright.”
Frenzal Rhomb are a band that has never shied away from social and political commentary in their music, albeit dressed up with a healthy dash of the band's signature sardonic humour. Not to mention a load of profanity.
“It's kind of inevitable if you're writing music to be political by the fact you're doing it at all, especially in Australia where it's not really seen as a legitimate way to spend your life,” Jay says when asked if the role of Frenzal Rhomb as a punk band has become more important over the years.
“So as soon as you're writing music and having an alternative life then you set yourself apart politically, I guess. I think it's inherent and it's inevitable, because we tend to write a lot more songs for every record than we end up putting on the record and so just by sheer quantity we're going to end up having songs about actual things that are going on because there's only so many songs you write about being attacked by birds or shelving ecstasy at Coles or whatever,” he laughs.
Frenzal Rhomb Australia Tour 2019
Sun 6 Oct - Yours & Owls Festival (Wollongong)Sat 12 Oct - Byron Bay Guitar Festival
Fri 15 Nov - Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
Sat 16 Nov - Pelly Bar (Melbourne)
Fri 20 Dec - Seaview Tavern (Woolgoola)
Sat 21 Dec - A Frenzal Rhomb Christmas Special @ Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
