Gippsland ratbags (and good mates of ours) CHEAP-SKATE have been riding their surf-punk wave across Australia recently, playing with the likes of Dune Rats, Smith Street Band, Press Club, and Bodyjar. Their travels have taken them all the way up to our home turf in beautiful sunny Queensland and back again. With so much going on, it’s a wonder they’ve been able to do any writing or recording! But CHEAP-SKATE are all about revelling in the chaos and have been working on a lot of new material in-between playing shows and bailing water out of their repeatedly flooded studio.
Last week, they released their new single CELLPHONE, along with a hilarious music video starring the OG fallen angel Satan himself. For our first traditional text interview ever, Shelvo (rather fittingly) jumped on the blower with frontman and punk puppet master behind the project, Blaike Murphy, to talk about the song and to get the scoop on their plans for the rest of 2024.
1. Your newest track CELLPHONE dropped today, congratulations! Firstly, great track, I love the tiptoeing guitar riff. What does the song mean to you?
Blaike: Thanks for having me! Well first off OnlyBands, is such a great name! Hahaha! That guitar lead, it’s a Jake (Kougioumtzis) special, he just pulled that out of nowhere, so sick. We just had to use it, and it reappears through future tracks too. It’s a call back to the album that we are going to put out. I haven’t officially announced yet, I talk about it all the time.
(An OnlyBands scoop right there!)
(The sound of a freight train honks in the background)
Blaike: You’ll probably hear plenty of trains go past as I’m outside on the deck! Sorry in advance!
Shelvo: No worries. I’m in my backroom with my phone on speaker using an old school recorder to capture the interview, and hoping my dogs don’t start barking!
Blaike: This track, it’s definitely the most special to me so far. It’s the first track off this next body of work, it’s the first Jake and I have done together with working out demos together. Jake has his own band going called Okay Dane (Blaike’s partner Isebail is also in this band) and they’re sounding really bloody good. So, we just got in my home studio together for two weeks to record as much as possible and started jamming together, and CELLPHONE just happened as a result.
It is pretty amazing, as he hasn’t mixed before… This is his first song release under his new production Bad Charm Records. It just feels so real, with real drums, and all in a crappy garage! It touches on some real life and death stuff, my fears, but also really wanting to pursue a music career, and making a deal with the devil for it to work. But if you watch the film clip, you’ll see that doesn’t quite workout, it’s a bad idea so… I probably wouldn’t advise that. If the opportunity arises, don’t do it!
2. The name CELLPHONE is a Yank term, is this future proofing in order to crack into the US market?
Blaike: Hahaha!… I mean it could be… CELLPHONE was the original demo title, and there is a line about it in the song. I managed to squeeze a little bit of meaning out of it. Like I’m finding myself in these situations where I’m spending time with my loved ones and family and yet constantly on my phone, on socials etc., and without even thinking. I acknowledge and realise that I’m doing this later and the negative distraction from spending quality time with people I love, and it ties in with that whole worry that you’re not going to have enough time with someone you love while you’re chasing this endless pursuit of a career in music.
Shelvo: So, the phone is like the Devil’s play tool, isn’t it?
Blaike: Yes! Like maybe that twisted offer will come through the phone… from the Devil.
3. The film clip has you as a clown. Was brilliant! And then the interview you did for promo has the Devil. Clowns and devils, have you considered a role in politics? I mean you gave it a great nudge to represent the struggles within the industry in that WIN News story. Perhaps this is a future endeavour for you?
Blaike: Yeah maybe, my mate Jack put that news article together. It was pretty cool they came out to my work site while I was working, so I got to get thirty minutes off just to chat! Politics… Haha… Maybe, maybe, we’ll see!
Shelvo: I love how far that clip has gone, good saturation with politicians and the media. It was very well done, drawing attention to the music industry and highlighting what those in the arts sacrifice in order to create and tour.
Blaike: Speaking about that, it was to highlight a creative arts grant that I recently applied for that, if successful, I can hopefully use that funding to promote a future album tour.
4. I had a call from Peter Dutton’s office today. They asked what concerns me in my electorate. And I spilled my guts on the provision of tax breaks for live music venues, talking about the five music venues in Fortitude Valley that have closed or are no longer a live music venue within the past two years. All within 300 meters of each other! What are your thoughts on how to strengthen the industry?
Blaike: Oh, that is so disappointing to hear about those venues. With so many venues closing, it’s so hard. Not great on the financial front for owners etc., but I wonder if this is going to drive artists to do more underground shows, get that vibe going. Some outdoor party shows at houses and the like.
Shelvo: It’s funny you say that, so many artists have shared with me that the house party gigs were their most pleasurable and revered time in their life.
Blaike: Yeah, it’s so much fun! Not sure of the legality, but just renting out a hall put on a gig and selling tickets, what are they going to do!
Shelvo: You don’t necessarily need to sell alcohol to have fun.
Blaike: Meeeh, just don’t tell anyone… Just say it’s a party, it’s fine, fuck off they bought their own booze!
Shelvo: I went to a 4ZZZ carpark gig with Shock Value, Fat Dog and the Tits, and C.O.F.F.I.N. It was fucking amazing. A true core memory I will never forget.
Blaike: Exactly! That would have been so rad. Things like that just work. You might get in strife selling tickets to backyard style events, I don’t know, but fuck ‘em! Just do it!
Shelvo: Not if it’s a donation!
Blaike: Yeah, donate to some gigs, that’s how we fix it!
(We are both having a good laugh.)
5. Back to a more positive note. You tell me there is bucket loads of CHEAP-SKATE to come. With an album launch in October? How good is that! Can you give us a tease of what is to come?
Blaike: Yeah! Again, I haven’t officially announced it yet, I just talk about it all the time hahaha. But Jake and I locked ourselves away in a shed for two weeks straight, and emerged with this record. It has a few people featured on a few tracks, additional lead guitars, past band members, and mates. Then we’ve got Ryan Harvey our drummer, who is a freak! He learnt the whole album in two days. Originally, I was going to drum, but after tracking I concluded, I realised “I’m not rehearsed enough for this!”. We had to call in the big guns. Mostly short songs, that’s the juicy vibe it is anyway.
Shelvo: I’m a punk tragic, so anything over three minutes and my concentration is gone! So, you’re not going to Dave Grohl the experience, and re-record it all yourself on all the instrumentation tracking?
Blaike: Maybe for the next one, if I am rehearsed enough!
6. I saw you play at Best Night Ever and I became a fan straight away… The way you held the crowd together, you were the last set on line-up on the second stage, straight after the Dune Rats. After the Dunies set finished, the crowd were marching towards the door, and you grabbed them all and said “Nope! Not finished yet, come watch this!”. It was so well crafted, unbelievable, against those odds really.
Blaike: Oh dude, thank you! And that place is just the best. I remember reading that review and I was thrilled to see how the crowd reacted to it. It was so bizarre, we were last on after Dune Rats! Can you imagine that pressure! I think the promoter was like, “Oh here’s some nice music as you all leave the premises.” As soon as Dunies finished their set, I leaped straight on their microphone yelling “EVERYONE GET THE FUCK IN THE OTHER ROOM NOW!” And we raced across to the other stage, guitars in hand! And yeah, just continued the party with everyone, so they wouldn’t leave. It was great, it was awesome, pretty proud of that night.
Shelvo: And Dune Rats must have been impressed too, to include CHEAP-SKATE on a recent Tour. How does it feel to be renowned as a band that have toured with and joined the ranks of Aus surf punk royalty now?
Blaike: The Dunies boys, they are absolute legends. We had a few shows lined up with them already, but that performance definitely locked it in and sealed the deal.
Shelvo: Queensland seems to favour you, Blaike.
Blaike: I just love it there.
7. Speaking of tours, Brisbane is ready to roll out a few ice-cold tins of Milton Mangoes to lure you back. When can we expect you in the river city?
Blaike: (Audibly salivating at the thought of it) Ah Queensland! If I could afford it, I’d be back there every weekend! But running it solo is quite hard. I’ve applied for a grant through Music Victoria, but even then, if I don’t land it, I’m looking at an album tour around early next year. Brissie, Gold Coast, I’ve got family there and I just love Queensland.
8. If you could imagine the perfect line-up for a festival. Who would you want on that line up?
Blaike: I was thinking about this the other day and bands that I would love to see, like a peak 2016 type revival. Violent Soho, Tired Lion, reunion headline show would be sick. Chuck WAAX, all the old Triple J spinners on there, with a full Aussie line up and CHEAP-SKATE of course! 2016, it was the time of my life, with great soundtracks from independent Aus music.
Shelvo: I have to continue my tradition of dropping DZ Deathrays into every article I do so…?
Blake: Fuck yeah, they are on the line up too! The Black Rat album, was on full rotation when I got my first job, just spinning non-stop when I got out of school.
Shelvo: Oh, I’m am definitely putting that in!
Blake: Hahaha! We tried to get on as the support act to the Black Rat Tenth Anniversary Tour shows. Oh well, one day. I just love DZ.
9. Blaike, thanks for joining OnlyBands today, and well done! Is there anything you like to say to readers?
Blaike: Yeah, after so long we now have our own playlist, which is so exciting. I’ve played with my favourite bands, Dune Rats, and Hockey Dad, which is insane, but there is always this voice in the back of mind saying “Why aren’t we on a playlist? What’s going on?”. And today on Local Noise on Spotify, we are on! So please give it a listen and come see CHEAP-SKATE in Queensland because I love Queensland crowds.
(We also both laughed about how work gets in the way of what we are enjoying doing the most. For Blaike, it’s making and playing music with his mates. For me, it’s being at a live show and then writing about the beautiful people like Blaike who play them, all while persevering against the odds that come with pursuing a creative career in these trying times.)
They’re not up our way for a while but their headline launch show in Melbourne for CELLPHONE is happening this Friday, the 24th of May, at Stay Gold. Tickets here!
You can give the rest of CHEAP-SKATE’s discography a listen below: