Hope you’re hungry because you’re about to get a mouthful from Melbourne drunk-punks, Strawberry Fist Cake.
The band recently released their latest studio album ‘Not A Sausage’. Guitarist Mik Destar says the record has seen them take on a more aggressive edge, largely brought about by some new faces.
“We've gone through a fairly major line-up change with swapping over our drummer and bass player,” Mik says.
“So it's given us a whole, new sound and it’s very refreshing for us after six years doing something a little different and a little bit faster and more aggressive I guess. It was just a natural progression with the new members.”
‘Not A Sausage’ is the first Australian release from Strawberry Fist Cake since ‘We Wrote An Album’ in 2014, having released a US-only EP ‘We Got This’ as part of the tour to The States last year. Mik explains how the line-up shift has refreshed the band and bolstered their already in-your-face sound. “Myself and Krunchy [McSlutface, co-vocalist] write most of the music,” he says.
“We had these songs sitting there and once we took them into the rehearsal room the new members just seemed to play them with a lot more strength.
“We've got two extra [back-up] vocalists now as well which adds to the gang vocals in there. Our writing style has naturally gone that way since we got these new members so the rest of the album actually came out stronger and a little bit faster and aggressive.”
Mik’s not kidding either; with lyrics like “I fucking hate The Veronicas, I think their music is moron-ica”, Strawberry Fist Cake aren’t all too concerned about winning friends and influencing people, particularly in the world of pop.
“One thing we've always been proud of is writing what we want to write and not writing for media or the masses or radio stations,” Mik says. “We're not overly fussed if we get radio-play or not, were going to write it and people seem to enjoy it.”
Strawberry Fist Cake officially launch the new album this month with a tour primarily along the east coast, hitting New Globe Theatre in Brisbane on 9 June. If previous experience is anything to go by, the shows are guaranteed to get more than a little messy.
“We always get crazy and messy when we play with Flangipanis and we're playing with them in Brisbane on this tour,” Mik says.
“I think last time we had every sort of confetti cannon you can think of, and silly string flying everywhere. At one point Flangipanis did a slip-and-slide in the middle of the venue or something like that, so the two of us together makes it worse than when it's just us. It’s going to get pretty crazy,” he laughs.
As a raucous punk band, Strawberry Fist Cake have been banned from certain venues, one particularly rowdy show with Japanese band The Jet Boys getting them blacklisted in Toowoomba. Mik, only half-jokingly, says the next step is getting banned from an entire country.
“The Jet Boys have been banned from playing in France,” he says.
“We also played with a band, and will be playing with them again in The States, called Sparklefight – their drummer just got banned from Scotland. So we seem to be playing with bands who like to get banned from countries, so I’m sure that's bound to happen to us at some point.”
‘Not A Sausage’ is out 8 June.
Strawberry Fist Cake Tour Dates
Thu 8 Jun - Sabotage Social (Brisbane) as Krunchy Om-Let, acoustic setFri 9 Jun - New Globe Theatre (Brisbane)
Sat 10 Jun - Dicey Riley's (Wollongong)
Sun 11 Jun - The Townie (Sydney)
Fri 16 Jun - Beats and Bass (Geelong)
Sat 17 Jun - The Retreat (Melbourne)
Sat 24 Jun - Edinburgh Castle (Adelaide)
