The Fauves have been gracing stages across the country for decades.
While their profile is still contained to a small fan base, lead singer Andrew Cox is keen as ever to continue their legacy, embarking on a national tour with Japan's Shonen Knife and Australia's own genre mash-up kings Regurgitator.
The Fauves came from humble beginnings, performing their first show at a local football club in Melbourne. “I don't think we were thinking that far ahead,” Andrew says about the group's future plans when they first started out in 1988.
“You're just kind of pumped to play in front of people. . . our career has been very unstructured in that way. We sort of stumbled from one thing to the next without really ever thinking too far ahead.”
While three decades of playing and touring together on a shoe-string budget would be enough to destabilise even the strongest of friendships, the band has held together to the point that Andrew can only compare the experience to marriage. “I'm not married, but I can imagine it is like a marriage.
“In a lot of ways, it really is. You become so used to one another, you see each other at your best and at your worst. And if you can stay together after that, then you're kind of indestructible. We're still best friends, so there's not really any need to stop doing it because we like hanging out with each other and that's sort of good really.”
Throughout their career, The Fauves' trademark has been their sardonic nature, often poking fun at the music industry and making light of their own perceived short-comings.
This isn't something Andrew shies away from; he sees his cynicism as an aid rather than a negative attribute. “I don't think you can really be anything else with an industry like music to be honest.
“It's sort of the very nature of it and I think one of the reasons for our longevity is that we never really have taken the industry very seriously. . . I think we've always taken our music pretty seriously, but the music industry itself is not something that we have any reverence for.”
The band are currently touring Australia with Shonen Knife and Regurgitator (throughout October and November), which is something The Fauves haven't done in a number of years. “It's the sort of thing we used to do all the time, not so much these days,” Andrew says about touring.
“It has been quite a long time since we've gone to every state and territory in the nation so it'll be good, not the sort of thing we are into doing non-stop anymore, but I think this tour will be fun.”
Andrew isn't just keen to be on tour, he's excited to catch up with Regurgitator who have been kicking around Australia since 1993. “We've certainly done a lot of things together over the years, though not for quite a while, so this will be the first show we've done together in a long while. I love Regurgitator as a band, they're a great band and hopefully they kinda like us a bit too.”
The Fauves 2019 Tour Dates with Regurgitator
Thu 24 Oct - The Basement (Canberra)Fri 25 Oct - Kingscliff Beach Hotel (Northern Rivers)
26-27 Oct - The Tivoli Theatre (Brisbane)
Fri 1 Nov - Prince Bandroom (Melbourne)
Sat 2 Nov - The Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
Sun 3 Nov - Lost Lands (Melbourne)
Thu 7 Nov - Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
8-9 Nov - The Metro Theatre (Sydney)
Sun 10 Nov - UoW UniBar (Wollongong)
Fri 15 Nov - Astor Theatre (Perth)
Sat 16 Nov - Metropolis (Fremantle)
