Leatherman are so hot that they’ll have you walking around like a half-opened pocket knife. While I had to borrow that crude adage (and pun) for functional effect, it’s still ridiculously close to the truth. My editor (Quintin) is reasonably tolerant of my tendency to bang on with adoration for Singing Bird Studios, Legless Records, and their combined innate ability to discover the best artists, drip feeding more and more of these delicious new sounds like a Zinger box on a hungover day. No better example emerges out of those Frankston studios than the love thumping, rock splendour of Leatherman.
While being touted as new kids on the block this band has got mega gravitas in rock clout, with members from Clowns, LOTHARIO, Cable Ties, and Licklash filling out the line-up, they are a low-key supergroup. Before their set supporting Autobahns, I sat down with the sweetest couple in the biz, Annabel and Jake, to ask them Five Quickfire Questions!
Leatherman are:
- Annabel Brown (Power Vox)
- Ben Redlich (Thunder Drummer)
- Shauna Boyle (Meaty Bass)
- Jarrod Goon (Guitar of Doom)
- Jake Laderman (Slash’s Little Brother)
1. Welcome to Meanjin/Brisbane, we have notoriously bad potholes on our roads and Cracks On The Pavement so you’ll have to be careful wearing Big Shoes walking around here. That said, is there anywhere you’d like to visit while you are here?
Annabel: Jake you’ve been up here a bunch so you have probably visited everywhere you want to?
Jake: Well Brisbane is constantly changing, new venues popping up and old ones disappearing, so yeah I’d be lying if I didn’t say that we were really excited to play the Beardo… I don’t know,
Annabel: Yeah, gutted about the Beardo… To me it’s like you’ve got great galleries here; I’d like to see them but we never have enough time when we are up here.
OB: GOMA yep.
Jake: Today we just got to hang out at New Farm Park, and it was gorgeous.
Annabel: Stunning place.
OB: There’s a great cover song by My Friend Chloe, they cover the Parquet Courts song Stoned and Starving and rework it into Stoned in Brisbane with the lyrics “Smoking bongs in New Farm Park”. Ripper track, I’ll send it to you.
(Both laughing)
Annabel: Awesome, yes please do. We should have written something like that!
OB: So, you like it there?
Jake: Gorgeous, it kind of reminds us of Edinburgh Gardens in Melbourne, which is, you know, a bit of a piss-up place when you’re a bit younger. But a stunning park.
Annabel: Yeah beautiful.
2. If you had a mystery Telephone to the past. Who are you ringing for music advice, live or dead?
Annabel: Oooh good one!
Jake: Right, we’ll count to three and say the name at the same time.
Annabel: I’m scared. Okay let’s do it.
Jake: 1, 2,3!
Annabel: Paul McCartney!
Jake: Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy!
OB: That’s cool, imagine if you could do a conference call?
Annabel: That would be sick!
Jake: Or a dinner table conversation with those people. It would be pretty heavy.
Annabel: It’d be unbelievable.
Jake: What about you, who would you call?
OB: Me? Hmm, I think I’d call Bob Marley. Not that I was massively into him, but I would just love to hear that perspective about someone that influenced such a positive change with his music, and he was motivated in doing it for his people not for fame and money that is inspiring.
(Both agreed in my on-the-spot choice)
Annabel: Jake, you’d bloody chat Phil’s ear off, he’d be desperate to hang up on you, ha-ha!
Jake: Yeah, ha-ha, he would too.
OB: I am quite lucky as I get to talk to artists I love all the time, mostly by pestering them like I did to you both!
Annabel: True. That’s sweet.
3. What advice have you got for Tryin’ 2 4get a Heartbreak Cheetah?
Annabel: Ohhh, I have a friend going through that right now, so it’s a very pertinent question… Stay as distracted as you can, podcasts, movies, TV. Go out, see people, and don’t think about that STINKER ever again.
Jake: Yep. I’d say mates, friendship, lean on your friends. I feel like people generally want to curl up into a ball and enter the void when going through a breakup. And I think your friends are a good asset there.
OB: That’s really good advice there. I have found I struggled with depression most of my life…
Annabel: Same.
OB: But when I have Aus music on all day long, I have a friend in my ear, you know what I mean? That’s one of the many reasons I feel so passionate about Australian music, because of how good it makes me feel, kind of why OnlyBands exists. I can identify with the artists and connect that to their music. It keeps me company all the time. Silence is not…
Annabel: Silence is not my friend either. I don’t like silence ha!
OB: Well hopefully after this myself and many of our OnlyBandits will have Leatherman to add to their repertoire.
Anabel: Oh, that’s gorgeous!
Jake: Hell yeah!
4. What’s an Australian band whose song you’d cover and Murder in the First Degree as an ode to them? Bonus points if they are from the Sunshine State.
Jake: Aussie, QLD, yeah okay, hmmm…
Annabel: Yeah, it would have to be an Aussie act.
Jake: Ok, for the bonus point… The Saints.
OB: The Saints are sick! Oh yeah. Stranded?
Jake: Well yeah, that’s the one that stands out, but I reckon we could do a Stranded version that has guitarmonies.
Annabel: I reckon we could nail that, and in our spin too.
OB: I’m going to hold you to this one, for the next Brisbane show. I’ll be like “Remember you said you’d play Stranded!”.
Annabel: Yeah, we might have to play it next time we are in town.
Jake: You know what, that is a good idea, when we are touring a place to play a cover that is relevant to the town we perform in. I love it when you get a touring band coming into town and they do that, even if it is ACDC or someone like that, it’s still really special.
Annabel: The Saints would be a great shout out.
OB: And make it real specific, like when you play in Adelaide, play a Baddies cover etc.
Annabel: True that would be sick.
(We started talking about the best parts of Adelaide and our shared admiration of Shogun)
OB: If you are playing a song per town on tour now, who have you got next?
Jake: Well, we are playing in Sydney soon, so I guess we’d do a cover of The Hard-Ons.
(Annabel and I both give loud cheers of approval to this suggestion).
Annabel: I love that!
OB: The Hard-Ons, “You know it’s not fucking Peter, Paul and Mary here, this is rock music you know.”
Annabell: Ha! Up The Hard-Ons!
Jake: Well, if we were to go to other towns-
(Before us looms a shadowy figure with a mullet and clad in double pluggers).
OB: Gocsy!
(Aaron Gocs decides to drop in on us)
OB: Gocsy stay mate. In fact if you were to cover a song, what would you do?
(Jake offers the mini-microphone with a small green flashing light to Gocsy in the dark).
Gocsy: No thanks mate (declining to accept the microphone) I’m right mate… What’s this?
OB: We are doing an interview. Want to join in?
Gocsy: Ohhh! I thought Jake was trying to give me a vape or something ha-ha! (accepting the mic now). If I had to cover an Iconic QLD song, it’s hard to go past Powderfinger. But that is an easy answer though that one. I’d love to do like Savage Garden. That’s a good one. Or Custard.
Annabel: Custard would be fun as.
Gocsy: Then you’d go The Saints for the punk angle, he-he-he!
Jake: I went the punk angle with The Saints.
Gocsy: Always go the punk angle
(Note: I think this will be the most quoted reference from Gocsy I will use forever)
OB: This is Leatherman, Gocsy.
Gocsy: I’ve just interviewed another Leatherman, Jarrod.
Jake: What was the direction you went with that interview?
(Note: I’m not going to divulge Gocsy’s material. It sounds like a bloody good interview, be sure to look out for it on his page)
Gocsy: So we’ve got rival interviews going on Shelvo! Ha-ha.
OB: During the Private Function gig on Friday, Gocsy got up on stage to lift Chris Penny onto his shoulders to sing. It was so much fun.
Gocsy: There is a photo online of me crowdsurfing and someone has matched it up with the classical painting of God touching hands… I don’t know what the painting is called, I know the painting just not the name…
OB: Oh yeah, it was by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling (Note: It’s actually called The Creation of Adam, but close enough, and the original shot was by Will Johnstone).
Gocsy: That’s it, with Chris and I touching hands. I’ll leave you all to it! And sorry for assuming you were offering me a substance Jake!
Jake: It looks like a substance with the green light on it, ha!
Gocsy: I thought you were saying, here have a puff of this or something ha-ha!
Jake: Go on, have some, don’t be a coward! Ha-ha!
5. Now’s your chance Annabel and Jake. Tell OnlyBands readers why Leatherman Rule OK?
Annabel: Because we fucking rock alright ha-ha!
Jake: Because we got the… melodies, we got the… hard rockin’, heavy metal riffs.
Annabel: We got all the riffs!
Jake: We got the guitarmonies… We got the screams.
Annabel: We got the leather pants, and the hair. And we are really nice.
Jake: And we drink a lot of Jaeger bombs… A LOT of Jaeger bombs.
OB: You’ve got some pretty flash looking guitars too.
Annabel: Absolutely, they are pretty rude looking.
OB: That Gibson SG of Jarrod’s. Holy shit that thing belongs in a rock museum!
Jake: That’s actually not an SG, that’s a US custom build made by Sega. He built custom guitars for Matt Pike from Sleep. This is one of several sick guitars that Jarrod owns.
Annabel: He has quite the collection. You should see the one that Jarrod is yet to debut, it is the rudest guitar I’ve ever seen in my life.
Jake: It’s filthy. Yeah. We’ve gone through a phase where we really like dumb, obnoxious looking metal guitars.
OB: Like Flying V’s that kind of stuff?
Jake: Well, the guitar I play, set a bar for, and then Jarrod felt he had to one up me! So, he bought this ridiculous guitar, stay tuned for that one.
OB: Oh, that’s cool, hopefully we will see it next time in Brisbane during a Saints cover. What’s next for Leatherman?
Jake: We are on tour at the moment, Melbourne at The Tote, some Sydney shows.
Annabell: And we have an album, and it’s very nice.
Jake: Free Palestine, stop bombing Iran, you fucks! Great to chat. Thank you Steve.
Annabel: Thanks so much for having us.
Thank you Annabel and Jake. The debut album Turn You On is more than Very Nice. It’s even better again when Leatherman presents it to you live, summoning all their talent, charisma, and rockin’ guitarmonies. If you missed this round of shows, grab a copy of their album, and hunt down tickets for their next tour, even hold them accountable to hear the Leatherman cover of The Saints, Stranded!
Thank you to Chris Kroll (@chriskroll_gigs) for all the shots in this article from their recent Northcote show!