Apparently we all have to grow up sometimes, and in the case of Sunshine Coast band Drawcard they have decided now is the time after 10 years of frivolity.

That’s not to say they are going to all of a sudden go serious on us and start brushing their hair and shit. It just means that from here on in it’s more about the music.

And fun.

And frivolity.

For those of you that are new to Drawcard, vocalist Paul Durkin describes them as such.

“We’re a four piece rock, heavy rock, with a bit of punk and proggy stuff band. We’ve been likened to bands like Rise Against, Alexis On Fire and someone even said we sound like 36 Crazyfists last night! We’ve been around for quite a while with a few line – up changes but my brother (Andi Durkin, drummer) and I have been there from the start. We’ve just got a new bass player and he’s a bloody legend. We’ve got a bunch of releases out – a couple of albums and a couple of E.P’s.”

“We’ve had mad fun over the years and spent a few years just having good times and not really taking it too seriously I suppose in the early days, but we have been lately. We’ve been doing more P.R and getting some Triple J airplay so things are starting to move forward. We’ve been getting some good supports too like the Dead Kennedy’s and Unwritten Law and Bam Margera so things are cracking along really well.”

While playing supports for bigger bands is a huge honour and a great opportunity, Paul says that the experience is more about showcasing the band and their music.

“We’ve been doing this for enough years and playing live and touring for a long time so we’re confident in what we do. As far as the big supports go it’s just great to get alongside them and hang out. They’re always cool and I guess to play in front of their fans is a good way to play in front of people that may not have taken the time to hunt us down or have heard about us so it gives us the opportunity to show them what we do in front of a band that brings a lot of people. You work on your set and play a good show and try to be impressionable.”

Drawcard hit Cairns on June 26 as part of their ‘Goons Gone Wild’ tour with their latest single ‘We Are the Future’ and in particular it’s striking film clip earning them rave reviews.

Paul laughs when asked about the polished, expensive look of the clip and also offers a few tips to up and coming bands in regards to shooting music videos.

“A mate of mine Tom did a course about 5 years ago at a film school in Brissy and he’s never really shot a video so he and I sat down and did up a bit of a storyboard and after doing the video for ‘Kids’ in our band room with one camera in a couple of takes in 50 degree heat we decided to shoot outdoors. The ‘Kids’ experience was just ridiculous. Richo vomited but it turned out really good and with ‘We Are the Future’ we had quite an elaborate storyboard done up with plans of what we needed to hire and the budget and at the end of the day we didn’t have dick all budget so I said, like you do in life and every aspect of it, let’s make it work with what we’ve got and things just fell into place. Not even a week – probably two days before the shoot – I was coming home from work in Brisbane and I took a little left down this shitty road and there was this field of dusty, sandy stuff and I was like ‘yeah, this is perfect, this is exactly what I want!’, with a nice sort of forest backdrop as well so we got our buddy’s that had a bit of stuff – I took my wheelbarrow and we used that as like a dolly so our camera guy stood in that and got pushed around and some dude actually said to me last night ‘that clip you did looks pretty high budget you obviously got a crane for those big shots’ and I said ‘no man, it was just a wheelbarrow’. It was pretty funny. Another one of our mates who comes to local gigs and takes photo’s said he had a heap of lights in his shed covered in dust so he brought them down and in the end basically everyone just helped out and it came out great.”

“Our lighting guy Ben brought down his fog machine and we had a big fan as well to get the dusty, smoky ice effect and we were throwing dust in the fan at one point and it was going in my mouth like having an egg and lettuce sandwich at the beach back when I was six years old – but once we got the fog machine going it was hard trying to find the right balance in making it look like natural fog as opposed to a big bloom of fog coming out of a machine. Trying to control that and the wind was hard but full do it yourself and we’re stoked at the look of it. I sort of want to put a little five minute You Tube clip up, I guess just a thing for young bands who want to make a nice clip. If you get someone with a half decent camera and you put your mind to it and think about ways you can do things that look like they’re on a high budget but with everyday things that your Grandad may have or something like a decent wheelbarrow or a box trailer or something you can do that shit cheaply. You’ve just gotta think outside the box I guess.”

In parting, Paul says that although they have never been to Cairns before they are looking forward to it and warned that concert goers were in for a treat.

“Expect madness,” he laughed.

“It’s gonna be heaps of fun. We go pretty mad on stage with stuff like body gyrating and heaps of energy with good times and good laughs, good music and singalongs.”
“Just a whole lot of fun really.”

Kris Peters

Drawcard play at the Railway Hotel on Friday June 26 with local supports Sworf, Salacious, Meat Bikini, Violet Shift, Forest and Levi ‘Lightning’ Forbes. Cover charge is $5, doors open at 5.30 p.m

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