Perth rockers The Bible Bashers are going to Hell, and they're keeping a seat warm for you.
It's a brand new sermon for the band, having come back together in the past year after a three-year hiatus. “We got back together last Boxing Day,” vocalist Laith Tyranny says, “and we said it was going to be a one-off and ended up doing a tour of Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales, recording a new EP and somehow got our record pressed by two different labels, so I don't know how that happened.”
“And we supported The Damned,” drummer Jon Schmidt adds.
When asked why they decided to break up, Laith replies with a laugh: “Jon, tell them I was an arsehole.”
“We've shredded all the documentation surrounding that unpleasantness,” Jon says, “but suffice to say there was a goon bag-shaped hole in our lives that led us once again to strap it on and get about it.”
The return of The Bible Bashers has been marked by the release of their new EP 'Rise Hard', the follow-up to their self-titled 2010 debut EP and a record that Laith says started with a fairly simple goal in mind. “Our guitarist Llewellyn [Sagers-Gray] summed it up well,” Laith explains.
“He wanted to release an EP of songs that drunk girls could dance to, that was his goal. It's a bit of unfinished business all round; a bunch of the songs have been dicking around since the band started and there's a couple of new ones on there as well.
“It's actually our third EP. We recorded a second EP but it's remained in the can and it was a bit darker, dirtier, a bit more blues and country-influenced. We planned to release it but we imploded; we still plan to release it but I thought we'd get back to making the drunk girls dance for a little while.”
With their licentious image and lyrics that jump the line between blasphemy and outright heresy, The Bible Bashers are a band with tongues planted firmly in their cheeks.
Needless to say, they probably won't be playing your local church fete any time soon. “It's a bit of a laugh,” Laith says.
“There's the religious influences like Fred Phelps or Jim Jones, that side of things but at the end of the day it's cheap and it's free. We can loot 2,000 years of Catholic iconography; indeed, we're equal opportunity here – any faith you like. It also goes back to the roots of rock & roll being gospel, the Church Of Rock & Roll and rock & roll is the Eucharist.”
As part of the release cycle for 'Rise Hard', The Bible Bashers will be playing a launch show in the days just before Christmas, which Laith says will feature some special treats. “We've got someone dressed as an ice cream cone spewing confetti from her genitals.”
So you know, there's THAT to look forward to.
As for what's next, Laith says The Bible Bashers want to take the band to the next level and produce a film about their fictional exploits as a global corporate religion.
“What we're working on at the moment, it's probably going to take a year to pull off, but we're expanding into some film projects and one of the ideas is 'Bible Bashers Inc', which is the tale of a band who made it big by selling their gimmick off to down-on-their-luck bands the world over.”
