We have yet another new writer on board, please welcome our newest field reporter and all round journalism superstar Juno to the team!
Rising from the depths Wollongong’s hardcore scene, the self-proclaimed silly boys of hardcore L.O.W made the trip up to Brisbane for BIGSOUND. As an enjoyer of heavier music myself, I find that that genres like hardcore are often underrepresented in a country whose musical identity is largely tied to sunny surf rock.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s only natural for Australians to gravitate towards writing songs about the two things that we have no shortage of, but it was a pleasant surprise to see an act like L.O.W on the line-up at an industry event like BIGSOUND. The band brought with them their explosive energy, their DIY attitude, perhaps best exemplified by their motto “For Us, By Us”, and a commitment to keeping their shows a safe and welcoming environment for all. Ahead of their first set at BIGSOUND, I headed to the Content House to learn a bit more about the Lords of Wollongong (no that’s not what it stands for but it works for the purposes of this sentence).
L.O.W are:
- David Johnstone: Vocals
- Brad Colley: Guitar (Not interviewed)
- Thomas Walker: Guitar (has reportedly since moved to Sweden to do a post-doctorate in Biomedicine)
- Brian Cameron: Drums
- Luka Flanagan: Bass (Not interviewed because he was too hungover to attend)
Before we got under way, we found that we were short a member:
OB (Quintin): I thought Luka was going to be here.
Dave (laughing): I thought Luka was going to be here too! So yeah we’re a bit confused as well.
OB (Juno): Wait, so who isn’t here?
Dave: Luka our bass player and our other guitarist Brad is still flying up. I think Luka might have fallen asleep. Do you know Luka, Quintin?
OB (Quintin) (also laughing): Yes I do actually.
[Editor’s note: I honestly couldn’t believe he wasn’t able to make the interview. I don’t know him super well but we ran around in the same circles back in the day and seeing L.O.W on the line-up took me back to that time where we were all young, running around, and up to mischief. Not much has changed it seems!]
Dave: Well I’m very sorry that he’s not here on his behalf.
1. Who are your biggest musical inspirations?
Dave: I think for myself as a hardcore band, I really am inspired by bands like Sick of It All and Terror. Bands that have been around for a long time and not really strayed too far from their original ethos. They’ve experimented but haven’t strayed too far from their original sound. They’ve always just sort of maintained how they started out and haven’t tried to change to sort of gain notoriety or anything like that. They’ve kept it pretty true. In a hardcore sense, that’s my biggest inspiration. I think the other guys may have some different takes.
Tom: Yeah, we’ve got all sorts of different musical inspirations. Not necessarily influences on the band, cause I guess like… Godflesh is my favorite band and that’s a bit out of left- (field), I’d consider that not at all an influence on our music (but still an inspiration to me) ha-ha-ha.
Dave: Even within our band, we all come at it from a bit of a different point of view. I come from a punk and skateboarding background. Tom’s more on the metal side of things. Brian’s a bit the same as me. Brad’s a complete nu-metal dude. And then Luka’s got a bit of everything.
Tom (laughing): He’s (Brad) the musician of the band!
Dave: Yeah he is, so it all comes together in a nice way.
OB (Juno): I feel like a lot of the bands that I’ve interviewed, they all say something similar where they all come at it from a different angle and so it results in a cool mix of different things.
Dave: Yeah, for sure. I think it’s one of the good things. Like obviously there is a cohesive, homogenous element to the songwriting. I write most of the music, so it does sound a particular way. But when I take that sort of the bones or the structure of what that song’s going to be to the guys, everyone adds their own little flavor to it, and that’s what sort of makes it how we sound.
2. How’s your BIGSOUND experience been so far?
Dave: It’s been really cool. It’s not something that we’ve ever done as a band and we’ve never been to something like this as a band or as an attendee or anything like that. So, it’s a cool first time experience overall. It’s really nice to sort of be involved in something like this, especially being a hardcore punk band, something that’s a little bit different to say maybe the more mainstream artists that are on these bills.
It’s nice to be held in the same esteem and treated like peers as some of these people. The exposure to different things is cool. Overall good vibes, really good. We get to meet lovely people like you guys. It’s a nice opportunity that we would not often be offered and probably won’t come around many times again. So we’re just trying to take in the most of it, enjoy it, and do fun stuff like this.
3. How does it feel to be sort of one of the only heavier acts performing at BIGSOUND?
Tom: We’ve got a bit of a cross to bear I feel like, in a way like you—
Dave: I sorta disagree. I mean we love playing to a hardcore, you know, enthusiastic crowd. But there is something really cool about playing to a crowd that’s like, what we call in the band, a “hostile” crowd.
It’s not actually hostile but like a non-warm crowd, people that don’t know you. Putting the effort in them, winning that crowd over, and having them be into it in some way is pretty rewarding. We expect a hardcore audience to like our stuff.
To make people that don’t typically go to hardcore shows or are into hardcore enjoy the music in some way, like we don’t expect them to be moshing like we do at hardcore shows, but to see them enjoying it in some sort of way, I like that challenge. And I think it’s somewhat of an honor and a cool thing to fly the flag for heavier music.
And especially heavy music from people from more regional areas. Us being from Wollongong, we’re super stoked to not only be doing the hardcore punk thing but to be representing Wollongong and our music scene and our diverse range of artists and stuff like that from there.
I like to talk! Has anyone here noticed?
[Everybody laughs]
OB: Oh no it’s great!
4. How is it navigating a music scene dominated by softer Aussie indie when the sound you produce is so distinctly opposite that?
OB: And I suppose that also ties in from being from the Wollongong area (where there are a lot of indie bands).
Dave: They’re the ones that are going to navigate it, man. We will come at you!
I think everything’s got its place. Coming from Wollongong, it’s a lot of happy, clappy, surfy stuff. That’s cool if you’re into that. I’m not going to yuck anyone else’s good time but I think there’s a lot of things going on to be mildly annoyed about in the world to say the least.
I think it’s a pretty gross misuse of the platform to always be talking about your girlfriend and how much you love her in every song and all that sort of shit. I don’t think (love songs are bad), like love songs are great, but I think there’s a lot to still be pissed off about. And I think if we all were writing the same homogenous, happy fucking I love my girlfriend-
Brian: Life would be pretty boring.
Dave: Yeah it would be pretty boring.
Tom: I think there is a need to I guess— there needs to be a vehicle to let out the negative emotion. You can’t just be all airy fairy, happy clappy, everything’s all good in your life all the time.
Dave: Yeah surfing’s mad bro!
[Everybody laughs]
Dave: I hate to come across as being dismissive of that sort of music but we like the challenge of coming up against that. And I think the live performance art of hardcore punk is a really good way to come up against it because you can have the best feel good concerts ever but there’s a tangible energy and emotion in the room at a hardcore gig or a punk gig that you won’t feel at those gigs, there’s a connection. Like a big show, like I don’t wanna single anyone out, but like a big show of that more indie, surf sort of stuff, it’s really not a synergistic experience between the crowd and band.
A hardcore show, well the band and crowd are one during the show. You know, it’s an exchange of energy back and forth between the crowd and the band. And if the crowd’s energetic, we’re going to give more energy. It’s just going to keep escalating like that. I think we don’t have to come up against it in any way, apart from how that’s an authentic musical experience (in our genre). I think there’s a bit of a disconnect between the band and the audience at those other types of gigs. So, I think we combat it (not being the same genre as the rest of the line-up) by doing our thing authentically and including our audience as much as possible. If they’re not getting into it, it’s not fun for us. Our songs aren’t “fun” to play. So, if there’s no fun with the crowd, it’s not fun.
OB (Quintin): Jem from SPEED was saying that what sparked his interest was going to a Parkway show and seeing how it was all about the participation of the individual. I never listened to a massive amount of hardcore until I started going to shows and then afterwards, I was like “Oh, now I get it”.
Dave: It is pretty much like that, I think you can listen to something on the recording, and maybe think, ‘Oh this is cool’ or whatever else but it really is the live experience that does ingrain itself in you and push you to like enjoy the music on recording more than you would have before, give it more of a chance. I felt that feeling when I was fifteen and I was going to hardcore shows and I’m thirty-seven now and I’m still chasing that same feeling.
There’s a special type of people that are into this sort of music for sure. Well, you know, we may perhaps be the people that can’t be as happy to just accept that everything’s all good and life’s amazing. We’re the people with some more complex thought patterns or anger or the ones that just need an outlet for things. So, I think it’s important that stuff like this exists for sure.
Tom: You certainly meet some interesting characters in this scene.
Dave: Well that’s us, we are them.
Tom (laughing): Yeah we’re a bunch of scumbags and outsiders.
OB (Juno): Like it makes sense that you have more of a synergy with your audience ‘cause you’re talking about things that are more raw and real and emotional and maybe political rather than just ‘I love my girlfriend. The sun is hot. Let’s go to the beach’.
Dave: Yeah, for sure. We’re not trying to write bad songs, we’re just trying to not write a polished song. Lyrically I wanted it all to be extremely easy to digest. I want people to understand what I’m saying. I don’t want it to be wrapped in metaphors or anything else. I don’t want it to be dressed up to fit a certain cadence or rhyming structure or use of words. I want it to be the purest and most direct thing from brain to pen to paper of what I’m trying to say in a song. And that sometimes doesn’t lend itself to be the most accessible pop sensibility-based music but it’s authentic to what it’s about.
Tom: I think the lyrics also lend themselves to people placing their own meaning on it as well. That’s one of the good things about hardcore lyricism is that you can. There’s like an element of vagueness to it that you can still go ‘Yeah, that reminds me of this feeling that I had towards a particular person at a particular time’. This is my cathartic way of— this is like my catharsis.
Dave: Say it again.
Tom: Catharsis. I learnt that word recently.
[It appears that it had already become some sort of an in-joke when describing their music and the appeal of hardcore in the interviews they’d been doing at BIGSOUND because we laughed about it for a bit afterwards]
5. Speaking of hardcore, what makes you gravitate towards the genre?
Tom: It’s the pretty diverse styles. Like hardcore can encapsulate like, you know, metalcore or to an extent grindcore or powerviolence or like I don’t know. There’s such an extremity of different styles that it scratches a lot of different itches.
Dave: For me, it was like what we touched on before. Going to a hardcore show when I was fourteen, fifteen years old and experiencing music in a way that I never had before. It’s actually—it’s funny. It’s sort of ruined how I experience music as an adult. I really like Bruce Springsteen. I go see Bruce Springsteen in the stadium and it’s the worst fucking shit I’ve ever seen in my life. And it’s because I just got a sense of entitlement that I was supposed to be part of the show. I should be able to get on the stage and steal a fucking microphone and jump off the stage. It’s ruined me enjoying conventional, like pop music, in a big way. And I think the fact that I leave shows like that going, ‘That was great but I don’t feel thrilled’ or ‘I don’t feel like I’ve experienced anything’ is because there is that disconnection.
So, I think I’ve been addicted to that connection of being part of the show and part of that exchange of energy and that dynamic and aggression and like it’s a communal thing. It’s almost got a fucking tribal quality to it where everyone’s sort of getting down.
Tom: Hardcore’s a cult bro!
Dave (laughing): It’s a cult. It’s a fashion cult! (Tom shows off his fresh pair of kicks). But there is something super addictive about being able to exercise those feelings and energies and stuff like that in a room of like-minded people. And yeah, beginning when I was fourteen or fifteen, I’ve been doing it ever since.
6. You’ve released six singles and an EP so far. Do you have a favorite of the tracks you’ve released and why?
Brian: Die Guilty is my favorite. Fun to play live, it gets people going and the lyrical content is kind of intense.
Dave: They’re all my favorite child, the songs, I mean I’m always sort of, I’m pretty ADHD brain. So once the song’s done, I just want to do the next thing and I’m not thinking about the thing that’s earlier. I just keep moving on. But I’m pretty proud of Die Guilty from a lyrical standpoint and from a composition standpoint. I think it’s the most complete song we’ve written where all the parts fit together really well and it didn’t seem to take much juggling to make it fit but as always, I am excited for the next stuff we’re going to do. We wrote some new songs, we’re finishing up, and going to release some stuff towards the end of the year. So they’re my favorite at the moment ‘cause they’re not out. Once they’re out, we’ll play the next thing.
Tom: I think I quite like Ruination as a track. I think that’s one of our strongest songs.
Brian: They’re all good, we love it when you ask us this question.
Dave: They’re all trash.
Tom: I mean at the same time it’s also pretty hard sometimes maintaining the like [imitating the sound of the notes] two-step bit.
Dave: My main goal is, you see as the songwriter, what I love is that I don’t actually play the songs that I write.
Tom: Yeah, he makes them really hard. Some of these new tracks you’re like using literally the entire fucking fretboard.
Dave: Tom’s a good guitar player. Our other guitarist Brad is quite a good guitar player. And my goal is to make it hard for him to learn the song. So if he’s like, ‘Oh what are you doing there?’ I’m sweet. I’ve done it.
7. Is there an overarching lyrical theme of your Ruination EP?
Dave: Yeah, at the time it was very much about, in a general sense, observation around systems and structures within social and political settings that allow good and bad things to continue to happen. A lot of it is centered around those concepts and how some of these structures and systems and things we’re not necessarily choosing to be a part of and if we are, we don’t really have another choice.
Things like, you know, the mortgage scheme which is just a fucking thirty year cycle of debt. That’s a fucked thing but it’s a necessary evil. So, yeah, I think the general vibe of that is about dismantling systems of power and structure that are not beneficial… I wish it was about the beach and loving my girlfriend.
OB: That would be really funny if the songs were about the beach.
Dave: Dismantling the surf gangs!
[Everybody laughs]
8. How did the L.O.W first form?
Dave: I started writing some songs again. I’ve been playing in bands since I was fourteen, fifteen. I took some time out just to become an adult, in my twenties. And then in my thirties decided I didn’t want to do that anymore. I didn’t want to be an adult. So I started writing some songs again. Did them online. Collaborated with a friend, just over the internet.
We put a few tracks up and then a friend of ours booked a show and said ‘Hey I’ve booked you a show with the songs you’ve been doing’ and I said ‘Hey that’s cool but I don’t have a band, it’s just me and another guy on computer like sending ideas to each other’. Tom’s a mutual friend of the guy that booked the show. Luka, our bass player, is a mutual friend of the guy that booked the show. And that was the first lineup.
Tom: Yeah. Dave accosted me in a coffee shop and was like—
Dave: Yeah I was like ‘Hey, Tom, I know you play guitar’.
Tom: It was pretty funny, he was real serious about it.
Dave: Yeah I was, how times have changed! Like that was the first iteration and we had Lewis Gardiner, the young guy from Wollongong who plays in Airline.
Tom: Yeah Airline and a series of other bands.
Dave: Great younger dude. He played drums for us to start with. We went through a few changes. We found Brian again through a wider circle of people that we know. We knew heaps of people in common and I started training jiu-jitsu at Brian’s gym that he’s a partner in. And we got talking there and he knew a bunch of people I knew and found out he played drums and I went ‘I don’t know if this old guy’s going to be able to play the drums. I need him to’. And turns out he could! And then Brad, our other guitarist, was someone again we’ve known from around for ages.
None of us were particularly like close friends. We knew each other and knew of each other and that sort of stuff. But none of us were particularly good mates or anything else. One of the nice parts has been over the last few years, getting to become really good mates with these guys. This is like my circle of my best friends now. And it wasn’t always the case and as a late thirties male, to make new close friends at my age through something that we share, like music and playing shows and traveling around together, that’s a pretty awesome thing.
OB: Yeah, that’s awesome. So sweet.
Dave: We’re very sentimental people. The music’s very angry but we’re very sentimental.
Tom: Yeah we’re a bunch of sooks hey.
OB (Quintin): I am aware that we’re getting to the end of the half hour slot, do you guys have anywhere to be?
Tom: Nah.
Dave: We can stay as long as you want. We appreciate it though Quintin.
OB (Quintin): Cool we can keep on going Juno.
Dave: We can give you more than what you want.
Brian: Whether you want it or not!
Dave: You will stop asking for it.
OB (Quintin): Oh you should have seen the podcast we did with The Chats. That one’s like three and a half hours and I had to cut so much out of that.
Brian: Oh really? That’s hilarious.
Tom: Trim some fat.
Dave: Yeah like we haven’t even started saying some bad shit yet. You’ll know it’ll be time to cut it when the replies get a bit edgy.
[Everybody laughs]
OB (Juno): I can’t put this out!
Dave: You’ll be like “Thanks for the interview” and then just walk off. Trash the whole thing.
OB (Juno): I’ve got a bit of a silly question next.
Dave: Silly boys of hardcore, that’s us.
[Everybody laughs once again]
9. If you could magically obtain proficiency in any instrument with no learning curve, which would you pick?
Tom: Piano.
Brian: Piano, yeah.
Dave: Yup, piano, hard out. If you can play the piano, you’re a real musician.
Brian: Yep, a hundred percent. If you can play the piano, it transfers over to any other instrument.
Dave (turning to Tom): Imagine you playing keyboards and like Van Halen songs.
OB (to Tom): So would you pick piano?
Dave (to Tom): You should pick guitar!
Tom (laughing): See what I have to deal with?
Dave: I should pick piano, everyone else should pick the instrument that they play.
Tom: I would personally do saxophone.
OB: That would be like a piano and saxophone hardcore lineup. That could be explored.
Dave (laughing): Oh kill me now.
[Brian says something about how that would have been good if you were growing up in the 80s]
Tom: You know that movie, what’s it called? The Lost Boys?
Brian: Yeah that’s exactly what I had in my head ha-ha-ha (thinking of the saxophone scene).
Tom: The dude who looks like Fabio.
Dave: I think the piano thing’s funnier because what it speaks to is, we are like the quintessential do it yourself sort of hardcore punk band. We’re not particularly competent musicians. We’ve learned how to be competent in what we do but that desire to actually be a competent musician or to play the piano is-
Brian: Other than Brad, just putting that out there.
Tom: He’s got one solo but that’s a solo.
Dave: We’ll write a song and I’ll be showing him and he’s like, oh that’s a seventh chord over this. And I’m like, ‘I don’t know man. It just sounds cool.’
Tom: Yeah it’s just these two fingers here.
Dave: It’s the thing that sounds evil. That’s what I’m doing, the evil bit. But I think that’s why it’s piano, right? Cause we’re so bad at conventional music or musicianship. It’s like if we could play the piano and be like, I’m a real musician, they’d have to respect us ha-ha-ha.
OB: The piano is like a symbol of conventional musicality, I suppose.
Dave: My thing (songwriting credit) says ‘composer’, so I should know how to play piano.
Tom: All I heard was poser!
OB (Quintin): He’s got one up on ya there.
[Everybody laughs]
10. So “For Us, By Us” seems to be your slogan of sorts, what does it mean to you?
Dave: It’s an extension of the DIY ethos that hardcore punk has and that we’ve co-opted and taken on board and moved forward and it’s rebadging it, rebranding it, stealing the motto “For us, by us”. It is very I think us making it a local to Wollongong thing, it’s not just DIY. Like our band and many of our previous bands in Wollongong, we’ve always had to do everything ourselves, if we want to do anything for the most part, right?
And it’s getting easier for us with some stuff and making connections but when we start out, we have to book our own shows, book our own shows going to Melbourne and Brisbane, and put on our own all ages gigs in Wollongong, host our own events.
Brian: And make those relationships.
Dave: Yeah and it’s just that next extension of that DIY punk ethos but in a way that is very localised to how we feel in Wollongong. We’ve got a really diverse, communal music scene. It’s really good. It’s very healthy. There’s not many bands that all sound the same within our peer group in Wollongong. And our peer group isn’t even all hardcore punk bands. It’s you know, other heavy bands, sure other guitar-based rock bands absolutely but no one band in that group sounds the same, which I think is great.
I wouldn’t want them to (all sound the same). It is that like cheesy cliché, how a rising tide raises all ships sort of thing. The “For us, by us” thing in Wollongong is to us, the way that we’ve adopted it, is like we want to improve things for everyone in our local music community, our opportunities in our local music community. And that we know 100% through musical experience that if we don’t do it, no one else is going to do it for us. Well that’s the short answer.
Tom: Should go even longer!
Dave: Ha-ha-ha, that was far too long.
11. How would you describe the atmosphere of your shows?
Brian: Intense.
Dave: Yeah, I think there’s an intensity to it. There’s also vulnerability to it to a degree. A lot of people may glaze over it as being aggressive and but it’s not pure aggression without a remit, without check. It’s not an atmosphere of violence. And I think that’s overlooked a lot. I think people see moshing and stuff and think it’s violent. We’re not tolerant of that shit. I’m a thirty seven year old man. I don’t want to see people punch each other.
Brian: It gets called out every single time.
Dave: Yeah, it’s not what we’re about. I hate it. I hate that it’s associated with it. There’s definitely an aggression and a tribal like quality to some of the expression of going to the show but it’s a shared expression of anger and not an expression of machismo or violence and all that shit’s fucking lame.
Tom: Yeah, I think it’s a lot of like controlled violence.
Dave: Positive expression of aggression.
Tom: Yeah, like our mate [inaudible], he’s like at every single show. I think he’s been to almost every single one of our shows. And the way that that man can like do the spin kicks and without actually hitting anyone. Like he, you would think looking from the outside in that he has like, he’s being a bit indiscriminate, but he has like the best spatial awareness of anyone I’ve ever seen.
Dave: I guess it goes back to like the last question too. We want these shows and different opportunities we’re putting together and we’re part of to be, in our local area, successful. I don’t want to have any person that wants to be there about being at the show (to be turned off from being there) through fear of physical violence or through fear of sexism or homophobia or racism or anything like that. And I think if people think that’s what hardcore is about, they’re definitely not what we want to see in our scene.
The roots of hardcore are a huge racial and gender diverse melting pot of every idea. We, I, personally pride myself in calling out any sort of over the top violence, fighting, whatever at shows. I don’t want to see it. And like don’t get me wrong. I loved to do it myself in the past but I’m not going to tolerate it with where I’m at and how I see things at this stage of life.
I think it’s super confusing for people that aren’t aware of what’s going on in the shows, right? That it’s not violent. But if you look at it long enough, you do see that it’s just an expression thing. Actual fighting and actual targeted violence is not the same thing as what happens at a hardcore show.
Tom: Yeah we just have to ask the question about it really. We want to let people know that’s not what’s actually going on.
Dave: Yeah we want it to be safe for everyone. We’ve got a vested interest in rebuilding the all ages scene in Wollongong as well which is super important to me growing up and being a part of. And if we want that to be successful and the all ages scene to thrive, then we’ve got to make it a safe and inclusive environment. And it’s on us as the older people, the people putting on those shows to police them and to set an example and show them the right way.
OB: I think it’s really great that you’re seeking to create a very safe space for your audience.
Dave (chuckling): I love it when it’s not just the big bald dudes that look like me that are at the show. You know what I mean? There’s only room for one of me. I do really like it. I like seeing younger women and all sorts of different types of people at our shows. I don’t want it to be a cast of burly aggressive white dudes. You know, I’ve got that covered.
Tom (laughing): Yeah we don’t need more of you at these shows.
12. In another interview, you mentioned that L.O.W doesn’t actually stand for anything. So, what made you land on that name?
Dave: There were like three or four other groups called Low. And I was like, oh we’ll just put some dots in there and make it an acronym. And now people are like, what’s L.O.W stand for? We were talking to Luka about this this morning. And I was like, ‘I can’t believe we chose such a dumb name’ man. Seeing what the poster is like, I was thinking about it. Actually the fact that people have to always ask us, it’s probably a good thing cause it’s something that sticks in their mind, for being stupid, but it sticks in their mind nonetheless. So yeah, it never stood for anything. It still doesn’t. The best we’ve had, what’s some of the best ones we’ve had?
Tom: Lords of Wollongong.
Dave: Lovers of Weed, Live on Weed.
OB (Quintin): Do you guys know Catpiss?
Brian: Yeah we do.
OB (Quintin): I think we had a conversation with them yesterday about their name. I saw it on the poster and I think they had some similar thoughts about how they can’t change it now.
Dave: I think between telling your parents you played in a band called L.O.W or a band called Catpiss, I’m still going Catpiss!
13. What emotions do you hope to evoke in those who listen to your music?
Dave: I don’t know if it’s emotions specifically as much as I hope that— I’m writing songs now like as an older person, like I’m not ancient but I’m getting towards forty, it’s the other side of being a hardcore punk age kid but I think I’m writing songs for fifteen, sixteen year old men. That’s how I look at it when I’m writing songs for L.O.W and I’m obviously writing it in a more mature sort of sense than I would have at that age.
But I’m just trying to connect with that person and those emotions and an ability for that person, me, whatever, younger person, older person, to connect to what I’m saying in some way and not feel alone in whatever struggle they may have with the same. That’s like the overarching thing, right? I hope it’s, to use Tom’s favourite word of the day, somewhat cathartic for them, and in a way to maybe express anger and frustration and other feelings.
Tom: Reading and listening to lyrics can often be pretty helpful and like result in like kind of similar feelings and letting the cogs turn a bit and get over some shit hey?
Dave: So important when we’re younger right? When you read lyrics of bands and realise you’re not alone with either. You know, the people you look up to or whatever else feel the same as you or feel in a way that you can relate to and experience the same shit as you.
I think that’s super important and like not in the dramatic hardcore saved my life shit sense, but it helped me understand some shit in my life that was probably pretty hard to do without it and I am glad cause otherwise it would have been like the mega footy jock of the South Coast. It was a positive influence!
Tom (laughing): Imagine the man you could have become.
14. If you had to summarise your musical identity in three words, what would they be?
OB: And since there’s three of you, you can each do one.
Brian: Ahhhh shit.
Dave (taking some time to think about this one): Three words… Musical?
Tom: You’ve stumped us.
Dave: Yeah you’ve stumped us. Um… Unapologetic, uncontrived, and… unbridled.
Tom: What he said.
Brian: Yep, what he said.
OB: A lot of un’s. Cool I like that, it’s a nice summarisation of it. Summary, I’m not sure if summarisation is a word.
[Editor’s note: It in fact is a word!]
Dave: Yeah we’re all throwing around too many words.
Tom: Yeah I’m saying catharsis.
[Everybody laughs]
OB: Do you have any parting words for the interview?
Dave: Thanks for talking to us. We appreciate it. In a very real sense like we don’t get offers to do interviews and stuff like that. So, it’s super cool when people not only want to chat with us but like you’ve done your research and you’re asking questions that aren’t arbitrary and you’re asking about, detailed things about the band and important things. And hopefully the answers that we’re giving are good and reflect who we are and you know, connect with whoever’s going to read it in the same way that your questions have made us think about who we are and what we are about. So, we appreciate that. Thank you.
The thing that stuck with me the most about L.O.W, besides their liberal use of the word catharsis, is the passion they hold for inclusivity in the hardcore scene. For everyone, no matter who you are, to feel safe from harm or harassment. Sometimes, heavier music genres that get you jumping around can attract the wrong kind of people, violent people, but L.O.W don’t tolerate any of that energy at their shows.
Their hardcore DIY ethos of “For Us, By Us,” the deep connection held to their local music scene, and the passion behind their music were enough to turn me into a fan alone, and their discography is full of high energy tracks that make you wish that you could teleport straight to a mosh pit. Their debut EP, Ruination is full of intense riffs, screamed vocals, fast paced drums and thumping bass, and I’d highly recommend giving it a listen.
Thanks to James Latter (@jvmeslatter) for all the shots in this article! You can listen to their short but sweet discography below and make sure to keep up to date with what they’ve got in store for the rest of the year by giving them a follow:
