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.
“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.
“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