Sunshine Coast party rockers Drawcard have already enjoyed a sick year of tours, releases, supports, festivals and airtime, and they’re ending it all with a big ol’ vodka-infused cherry on top.
With self-accredited bachelor degrees in ‘Tumultuous Partying with Honours’ (they earned the ‘Honours’ merit while on their ‘Kids’ tour), their effortlessly-catchy melodies and post-punk rock anthems have been collected for their latest EP, ‘Goons LTD’. Five loud, cohesive tracks that are an unrelenting-party assault on the ears and best taken with a cold one in hand and horns in the air. “It’s been a long time coming and we have put a lot of hard work into ‘Goons LTD’,” drummer Andi Durkin says.
“We've had a heap of fun recording and touring the first single, 'Kids', and can’t wait to get back on the road again.”
Having received plenty of airtime from Triple J and Triple M recently, lead vocalist and guitarist Paul Durkin is stoked with how much love their single ‘Kids’ is getting.
“I was over in Vietnam when the Triple J plays started happening, and I was like this is wicked! I was trying to get Wi-Fi from out shitty little hotel so I could listen to Triple J on the app. Hearing our song come on, it was so good. [Tripple J] is like a very influential radio station in Australia and it’s helped a lot of bands establish themselves.”
Touring their latest release nationally over November and December, Paul says they’re hoping to tour again next year and hopefully head overseas. “I have been making some enquiries into the European market, Spain, France and stuff like that. [Recently] I got an email from Glasgow, they have a magazine called Metal Hammer and they want to put our song on the compilation CD which will be worldwide exposure.“A lot of compilation CDs in Australia you have to pay to be on, which is fair enough, it’s like promotion. So I asked the question ‘how much is it gonna cost?’ and he said ‘nothing to you, they’ll actually pay you one pound’,” he laughs.
“So I was stoked. I feel like you spend so much time working on songs and on the band trying to get somewhere and then all of a sudden, the ball starts rolling, and that’s what people have said. Once the wheels start turning, things just keep coming at you. And you don’t need to work as hard for them.”
Since the release of their debut EP ‘An Artificial Heartbeat’ in 2005, Paul says he’s started writing music with a more political story rather than songs about love. “… like how everyone needs to be the change they want in the world sort of thing. Being positive about what’s around you and trying to do right by others and do right by yourself. Just enjoying life and don’t get caught up in the rat race are what a lot of my songs are about these days. As opposed to broken relationships or heartache things like that. Like ‘An Artificial Heartbeat’ back in the day had a very, I guess, emo vibe to it lyrically.”
Hailing from the Sunshine Coast, Paul says he’s proud to see so many talented artists coming out of the area with support from local venues. With The Big Pineapple festival bringing international acts to the Coast as well, Drawcard have been lucky enough to play at both.
“A lot of like rootsy, folky stuff, heaps of really good blues acts, like, for lack of a better term, worldclass artists, and they’re playing at Solbar and here and there. But that’s the way music is, there’s only a lucky few that get handed those opportunities to be able to make a living out of it and play full-time. There are heaps of brilliant artists on the Coast.
“We’ve been playing for years and I remember there was never that many venues to play at. There were less rules and there was a lot more people putting on little festivals like Summer Air Fest, they were sick. But now, because there is so much public liability and all that stuff now, Queensland and Australia as a whole are governed by rules that everyone’s too scared or it’s just too costly to put events like that on anymore.“[The Big Pineapple festival] was great, it’s a really fun experience ‘cause it’s a big event, everything is run pretty professionally and there was a big greenroom and you get to share that with all the other artists like The Living End and Grinspoon and big Aussie acts. And it’s a pretty good vibe compared to just the pub shows and that. It’s good doing the festivals you get to rub shoulders with the really established artists and hang out and talk shit.”
As well as talking shit and partying with other artists, Drawcard are known for interacting with the crowd and making friends with fans. From cooking a BBQ breakfast on stage for the crowd at the Big Pineapple festival to mingling with the crowd when they finish their set, these boys are true Aussie rockers that enjoy a good time.
‘Goons LTD’ is out on 14th November.
Drawcard Tour Dates
Sat 1st Nov – New Globe Theatre (Brisbane)Fri 28th Nov – Studio 6 (Sutherland)
Sat 29th Nov – Spectrum (Sydney)
Thurs 4th Dec – Worldsend Hotel (Adelaide)
Fri 5th Dec – Musicman Megastore (Bendigo)
Sat 6th Dec – The Espy Gershwin Room (Melbourne)
Thurs 11th Dec – New Globe Theatre (Brisbane)
Sat 13th Dec – Solbar (Maroochydore)
Sun 14th Dec – The Lab (Brisbane)
