BIG RED FIRE TRUCK // How To Rock And Have A Laugh

Even though Big Red Fire Truck’s self-titled EP sounds like awesome, straight up rock ‘n’ roll, these Sydney boys are having fun with their sound.

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They’re not so much paying homage or mocking classic 70s rock, it’s merely a reflection of what the band is truly into. “It’s what I love to listen to,” says singer Digby Robinson. “We went into the studio not wanting to sound like we did back then, we wanted to sound a bit heavier, more modern. “When we wrote the lyrics, we realised we couldn’t sing super serious songs in that tone. We had fun with it, we’re not really mocking it.”

Big Red Fire Truck are having a lot of fun with what they’re doing–as is evident in the video for single Heart Attack–and they actually sound really good. “Ten years ago, me and another friend–we’d met based on our love of hair metal–thought it would be really cool to start a hair metal band for fun and make funny songs,” says Robinson. “Basically, what Steel Panther did, but we didn’t know who they were back then.

“We started writing a few songs and didn’t do anything with it. They just sat there. Then Frankie’s [Pizza By The Slice] opened up in Sydney and was the perfect place to play some of this stuff.

“Not wanting to be another Steel Panther, we took these songs and redid them, tried to make them work more like a regular, just going through the motions and really having a fucking great time.”

I want them to listen and rip out some fucking air guitar!
[ Digby Robinson ]

Big Red Fire Truck don’t want to be dark, they want to have fun, play their guitars loudly and sing, with the hopes that people will enjoy the vibe of the whole thing. That goal brought the boys round to the concept of summer rock. “It was a big thing in the 80s,” says Robinson, “and a few of our songs are about summer.”

You’re wondering about the name though, aren’t you? Big Red Fire Truck. “It’s what the drummer [Peter Grant] used to call me when we worked in a music store together,” Robinson says frankly. “We thought it was hilarious.” If you have sexual innuendos running through your head as to why Robinson was given this particular nickname, you’re not far from being accurate. “That’s kind of where it was going,” he chuckles, “Basically when I got our, I’m 6’3”, big red afro, and he always thought it would be funny I was the one who going into a place and dancing, trying to chat up the girls.

“When it came to naming the band, that’s what he wanted to call it. I didn’t want to use a name only referring to me, but people seemed to like it, and we couldn’t come up with anything better.

“I’m glad we’ve gone with it now. It doesn’t feel as serious with [this] name, it’s a fun name that suits the music.”

A fun name that fits fun songs; apart from one song, Point Of Love, that Robinson mentions is pretty serious and based on real events, Big Red Fire Truck try to be very conscious in taking their carefree antics and turn it into song. “I listen to The Darkness a lot,” admits Robinson, “And I also listen to a lot of Van Halen.

“The Darkness are really good at making their lyrics like telling a story to your mates. You listen to certain words and go, ‘Oh that’s not quite poetic,’ and then he [Justin Hawkins] says them and you go, ‘Oh fuck that’s funny,’ or, ‘That’s a cool way of phrasing that.’

“I think it’s also a form of fear that maybe I couldn’t write poetry, or that I couldn’t really write lyrical content–I was never really a lyricist when I started this band but I was always worried that if I wrote something everyone would go off thinking it was biographical and see through what I’m saying—so I say it like I’m telling my mate, and it’ll be more fun. There’s no one really doing that.”

And the ultimate hope for people who listen to Big Red Fire Truck? “I want them to feel like I do when I listen to stuff I like,” says Robinson. “I get real energy; it makes me smile and I sing in the car and get really pumped.

“I want people to dance, they want to sing, they want to fucking head bang and pump their fists. I want them to have a positive experience. I want them to listen and rip out some fucking air guitar!”