Fear Like Us interview

Here's an interview I did with Jamie from folk-punk acoustic band FEAR LIKE US. They are kinda from Newie and kinda from Melbourne, and I first saw them when they played in Brisbane while they were on tour with DEFIANCE, OHIO.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: A friend and I were recently looking at an old-ish demo-tape marked "JAMIE HAY - ACOUSTIC" (that I found in my bedroom) and we were wondering about whether that was basically the starting point for Fear Like Us.

Was your solo-acoustic stuff an early incarnation of Fear Like Us, or was it a starting point for moving in that direction musically?

At any rate, Fear Like Us was originally a very small band with 2 members. What were the various line-up changes and developments that happened?

It's also hard to mention the Fear Like Us line-up without asking about logistics...so, how DOES it work having a long-distance band with members living in different cities?

JAMIE: What’s on that tape? I’m curious! Well, I had played some shows here and there as a “CONATION” set but this was only once or twice. I never had any intention of going “solo” but have always loved solo artists like BILLY BRAGG and ERIC BOGLE.

Fear Like Us started with just Kim and I around mid-2004, but didn’t take off til the end of that year. Babs joined Kim and I just after we finished our demo. Murray helped with drums on the demo but was never in the band, then maybe six months later Joel joined us on drums.

It’s funny to us because Kim and I initially wanted to keep it just “us” so it was easy to organize being two people. Our attitude shifted slowly into adding more members and even recently adding more instruments with the recording of the record!

To add to this half of us decide to move to Melbourne, so much for being easy to organise. Ha!

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: As a record label, I think POISON CITY RECORDS do a really good job of documenting a certain musical scene in Australia, a really good mix of melodic punk and pop-punk and folk-inspired punk...I guess a bit like an Australian "No Idea Records".

How did your association with Poison City come about?

JAMIE: I agree, Andy does a great job with the label and chooses wisely which bands to release. We ended up on PCR from the show we played with AGAINST ME! and A DEATH IN THE FAMILY in Sydney.

Andy said that PCR was going to get serious (at the time he was releasing records every now and then) and that he wanted to do a Fear Like Us record.

At the time we had been asked by a few labels but Andy felt like the right person to go with. One of Andy’s nicknames is “Done It”, because before you think about it, he’s done it! The label has got some of Australia’s best bands, LIKE…ALASKA are definitely my favorite.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: Obviously you used to play in CONATION and now you also play in A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - both of which are basically "punk" bands. Do you find that being in Fear Like Us, playing music that is much less "abrasive", there are noticeable differences in terms of audiences?

JAMIE: I wouldn’t say that there has been a noticeable difference in the places but I have noticed that a lot of “kids” like the band, or I am just getting older! Over the last year we have played some “big” punk shows which have been awesome but all that has done for me is makes me realise that we suit small, intimate spaces.

Ultimately, I don’t care where we play as long as it’s with bands we love and respect. That’s what we have been lucky doing since we started.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: I was reading an interview with Thurston Moore where he was talking about his search for sustainable ways of avoiding shitty soul-destroying jobs in order to concentrate on playing music, not just as a leisure-activity or weekend hobby, but as "what you do".

The model that he had found most inspiring was old jazz musicians, these total workhorses, who played their hearts out constantly and put out records almost every month!

Does it seem like the ultimate to play music without having to have a "daytime" job, or would it scare you to turn something you love so much into a job?

JAMIE: Honestly, I would love to play music for a living but definitely on my terms. I can’t see how it would become like a “regular job” at all.

I mean, if you get to earn a living doing something that you are incredibly passionate about then it couldn’t get any better.

The good thing about it is that you can be constantly creative and also if you get bored doing the same old stuff you can try something new.

I have never been entirely interested in traditional success but I have always dreamed of being able to survive off playing music.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: Jamie, I know you lived in Newcastle for a long time, and now you live in Melbourne. I'm really interested in the differences between these cities in terms of musical communities.

Newcastle, perhaps a little bit like Brisbane where I live, is a small close-knit kinda place, and there can be a certain amount of isolation that goes along with that.

Melbourne is known as a city that you move TO and can immerse yourself in the huge independent music/art/etc scene.

A lot of people say Melbourne is such an amazing, inspiring, supportive place to be a musician, and are struck by how seriously people take their musical projects. Does this resonate with you at all?

I'm pretty interested in your thoughts on Newie vs Melbourne or maybe smaller "uncool" towns vs. bigger "supercool" cities, in terms of being in bands..

JAMIE: I think Newcastle has a really amazing scene and support for bands but there is definitely a lot of isolation there. There are a bunch of really important, great people there who keep it all together. I definitely still love Newcastle and will play there any chance I get.

The one benefit Newcastle and Brisbane have from being smaller is that shows are more mixed. It’s not always entirely a “hardcore” show etc.

Fear Like Us was lucky in that respect because we started playing shows with hardcore and punk bands etc.

In regards to Melbourne I did notice the vast difference in professionalism here and I don’t mean for that term to be taken negatively.

People are a lot more motivated for touring etc here and it is a huge motivation for me. It’s just like living with people who are always up for doing exciting stuff!

It is a drive that is shared by nearly every band be it punk, metal, crust or folk.

It’s one of the most inspirational aspects of the Melbourne music scene.


ONLY THE SAD SONGS: What are the future plans for FEAR LIKE US?

JAMIE: Well Kim and Babs are over in Europe at the moment and all of us won’t be in the same room until about March 2009!

We do have plans on doing a new record and going on tour as much as we can next year.

Thanks a mill to Jamie/Fear Like Us for the interview. And uh, like, PS. I suppose I should confess that all photos/images used in these interview were unceremoniously/shamelessly *yanked* from the Fear Like Us myspace page

www.myspace.com/fearlikeus