My name is Nick and I’m the vocalist of the band. MA formed back in around 2002 out of the southside of Perth, Western Australia. In those years we have released a couple of LP’s, a couple of 7”s and been able to tour in some places we never would have thought possible for a band from one of the most isolated cities on earth.

 

You’ve been around for pretty much as long as I can remember, but nowadays, you aren’t the only band you know from Australia, what has happened with the scene in the last years?

When we first started playing there wasn’t many hardcore bands playing/touring in Australia let alone over on our side of the country. There were always a few Australian bands like Mindsnare, Toe To Toe and Day of Contempt who were known overseas and managed to tour a bit here and there. Then all of a sudden in the mid 2000’s hardcore seemed to just explode in popularity around the country. I think the fact that more overseas bands started coming over here to tour definitely attributed to that, maybe gave kids something to aspire to in starting their own bands. I Killed the Prom Queen and Parkway drive blew up and showed every band that it was possible to tour here in Australia and overseas also. Nowadays the scenes in all the major cities are really healthy. Were pretty lucky in Perth as over the last few years the city has spurned a bunch of great bands and there are a whole new bunch of up and comers too. It’s really cool that a lot of bands down under are finally getting recognition worldwide now.

 

 

Haha. Throw another shrimp on the Barbie hey? Spot on really. The majority of average Australians could think of nothing better than spending the weekend BBQ’ing, drinking beer and maybe playing some cricket at the beach. Most people that visit here from overseas tell me how laidback and chilled out the place is. I guess we can’t help it if the weather is so good and the beaches are so nice right? I’ve had some really funny questions from people over the years about Australia though. Here are some of the best:

“Do you guys have roads and electricity?”

“Is it true there are people with grey skin and yellow hair in Australia?”

“Are kangaroos household pets?”

 

If I wrote an album of positive songs for Miles Away, the truth is I’d be lying. The majority of the time I am totally happy and content as a person, but when I go to write I just think about all the things in my life that annoy me and that I want to change. I don’t want to write some fantasy lyrics, I just wanna get out what I’m feeling inside, my reality. Because this is the only place I feel confident talking about that kind of stuff. I think way too much. 

 

 

I can’t pretend to be an expert on politics unfortunately, but I do my best. It seems like only yesterday Kevin Rudd was elected but to be honest not that much has changed, just the face. To me it seems Australia will always follow the US and the UK when major things are happening, that’s just the way it is. I think Rudd has done some pretty good things, like saying sorry to the indigenous people of the country when he was first elected and also just recently he gave all low-middle class people $900 each because of the global financial crisis. Thanks kev!

 

You are indeed right, Safe As Houses is a love song. For my girlfriend at the time, who broke up with me just before the record came out and after I had moved to Sydney to live with her. Crucial times. It wasn’t hard to write because I felt and meant every word I wrote 100% and still do. It is hard to play live though because it just drags up all those feelings and memories I had, so I try and skip playing that song as much as possible.

 
Some of your songs (“Voices”, “Sailor’s Grave”, “Affidavit”, “Cranford Ave”) deal with the topic of finding one’s own way in life and ultimately some sort of happiness. Do you think that you really are the one choosing the path? I’m not asking if you believe in fate or God, but do you wonder sometimes how you got where you are now?

 

That is something I spend a lot of my time thinking and pondering about. Why am I where I am at now at 28 years of age? Living in suburban Australia, working a shitty job and occasionally getting to tour the world. I can’t complain at all, but its something that’s always on my mind and something that always comes out in my lyrics. I believe that I can, and we all can, choose and change the paths our lives take, but I’m not so naive to think that there aren’t other powers and factors that come into play that decide where we find ourselves.

 

I just listened to that song and it actually does sound like a song for the road at the beginning, but that’s not how I meant it to come out. It was written about more of a feeling I had, and have a lot, of being trapped here in my monotonous life doing the same things day after day and knowing that I’ll probably never escape that feeling as time passes by. I spend a lot of time just listening to my records in my bedroom with the lights off I guess.

 

Yes! We are touring Europe throughout June/July with Fall Apart from Switzerland and BlkOut (who share members with MA). We can’t wait to be hanging out in Europe again during summer, we had a fucking blast last time! We have been writing some new songs, which we were gonna record for a new 7” but we ended up getting too rushed for time so were gonna leave it til after tour and start work on a new album. We’ll also have some of our older records pressed on vinyl too finally.

 

Thanks alot for the interview! Come hang out with us in Europe, you can find out all the dates on our myspace (http://www.myspace.com/milesawayhc) …also check our top friends for some other great Australian bands to listen to! Livit!