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Fingers in every pie

An interview with Riff Random

Riff Random’s debut album In Space There is No Sound came out in late 2005, and since then their frontman Raph has created a bees nest of activity. He kinda has to; he’s managing the band in his spare time.

He’s clear that it’s a situation that’s resulted in pretty much double the workload for him. But, to be honest, he’s just as clear that he likes it that way.

Randomly removing members - at least 1 in this photo is no longer in the band“We are very much a hands-on band,” he confirms.

When the four lads who made up the original incarnation they were managed by a then friend, a girl from Melbourne who left. “Which turned out to be a good thing,” he confirms. It was during her tenure that Riff Random started attracting the sort of buzz now landing on the likes of the Exploders – it resulted in a six month period where Riff Random headed to the UK, and ended up being managed by Franz Ferdinand’s management, a big hotshot company. “But they wanted us to sound like the Foo Fighters and didn’t really get where we were coming from,” he sneers. “We actually had the same manager as the Kaiser Chiefs, and when they exploded they had no time so the best thing for us was to put ourselves forward, so at the moment in terms of the whole management side I manage the band for Australia along with our label guy Mick, but in terms of overseas we do have someone who looks after us.”

The backlash has certainly been in evidence since the band returned to Australia, after UK jaunts with the likes of Bloc Party and TV on the Radio. “A lot of people think that we get those handed to us on a silver platter, but it’s not like we’re standing around sniffing coke off Paris Hilton’s arse, y’know? We have very much done everything we can all the time to push us forwards both here and overseas, and it’s been gratifying that people have been digging the music.”

Raph is clear that he thinks this is exactly what all bands need to do. “When you’ve been playing in Australia for a bit and you’ve done festivals and all the rest of it, then you know other bands, and there’s a lot of bands I know in Australia who put all of their trust in people they work with and more often than not they’re left disappointed. I met bands over in England who are signed to English majors who didn’t know who their own manager was. On the record I put ‘managing insanity by Raph’ and I put that not because we don’t have managers helping us but because I really made a point of that we are a very DIY band, and because we work so hard it doesn’t make any difference – we work as hard for our band as anyone. I don’t sound like a wanker do I?”

Actually, no. If anything, Raph sounds disarmingly honest; the way rock ‘n roll should be.

In Space There is No Sound“Obviously the music is the most important thing, but running a close second is industry bullshit, and since I’ve got back from Melbourne for instance bands that I know from around the traps ask what we’ve done overseas, because in Australia in particular it is a clique; it’s a little cabal, and it is about back-scratching between the major promoters and certain agents about which people play with what band, and especially for younger bands it can be quite mystifying as to why certain bands get on with shows. And it’s not based around the music but it’s based around allegiances between five or six key people who are in it for themselves and not for the bands. Whereas in January we’re touring with the Magic Numbers because they like us. The tour with Bloc Party that we did in England wasn’t because the record company came to us it was because their manager had heard our CD and liked it and offered us a tour. The music industry these days is geared around bands having big first hit records, otherwise they just get written off. In England in particular it’s very much like that.”

Actually, kinda, one thing Raph does sound is jaded? Is rock ‘n roll not fun anymore?

“No, it is,” he reassures with haste. “I’ve had a great time touring. I’m certainly very happy with the response to the record, and generally when I do interviews I try and say what I think. Often interviews are fucking dull, with bands saying how much of a blast it was recorded in L.A., but I’ve basically said what I thought.”

He’s also honest enough to let slip that In Space There is No Sound is coming out an a major offshoot in the UK. Since going overseas, Riff Random have battled away with the best of them. But it’s always going to be difficult being a band that goes overseas, gets good write-ups, but knows full well they’re going to be adopted like a local act, like Arctic Monkeys have been.

“Totally, but that happens to every bands! There isn’t a single Australian band that hasn’t experienced that. But, then again, it’s different for some who have a lot of advertising money behind them, and that forces the editorial. There’s been bands doing good shows overseas in the last 18 months and invariably they do get an ‘Australian’ tag, but that’s cool. That’s just the way it is; what can you expect? In the English press of course they’re going to champion the local bands because they’ve got their accents and the same experiences as the journalists. I think the street press in Australia is great, and obviously they have some faults, but they do some really good things and are very honest, and the same with the radio stations.”

Riff Random’s In Space There is No Sound is out now. Dates:
With the Magic Numbers
Sydney – 27/01 – The Metro
Melbourne – 01/02 – The Corner


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