SCANDAL TREE // Hard Rock From Your Local Bottle Shop

Meet Scandal Tree, the Brisbane natives who WILL have you busting out your finest air guitar to their latest track, BWS.

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Celebrating everything we love about hard rock, the track also answers the question: what would the lovechild of Rose Tattoo and Alice in Chains sound like?

We caught up with one of the band’s founding members, Rip, to chat about how it came together and more.

Hysteria: Tell us about the band and how you got started.

Rip: We started many moons ago. It was Jase (former member and original vocalist) and I. We had come out of another band and started jamming, just the two of us, for a while. We started writing all these songs, and then I thought, let’s start our own band and advertise and get some extra people in.

In 2019, we found Grant and Adam and started writing more songs. COVID did impact us with people coming and going, but people will always come and go. However, the heart of Scandal Tree is always there with me and Grant, the last stalwart member from the original lineup still kicking on.

We’ve been lucky with the last few years. Despite everything going on, we were able to maintain playing shows. A lot of touring acts weren’t able to get into Australia and play some of these venues like The Wooly Mammoth and The Brightside, so we had some opportunities arise, and we seized them as we got them.

Before we officially kicked off this interview, you mentioned you previously worked at BWS. Did that influence the title at all?

Jase and I were joking around back in the day, trying to figure out what to call the track. He started coming up with lines like beer and wine in hell, so we decided to pose a tongue-in-cheek theological question: is there beer and wine in hell? There’s a BWS on every street corner these days, after all. It wasn’t anything too serious, but with BWS being such a well-known brand, we used it for some traction. I guess it was a bit of a marketing ploy, trying to get a bit more leverage in Australia. We get a fair few listeners in the States and the UK. We’re trying to hit into the Aussie market more.

I hope we can start to get some of these new tracks out towards the back end of this year/beginning of next year. Time will tell as Scandal Tree continues along its journey to bring our listeners something unique and genuine
[ Rip, Scandal Tree ]

BWS is such a tune. Run us through what inspired it.

After Jase and I jammed on it, we took it to the group, and it took on a life of its own. We try to be interesting with our structures in Scandal Tree. We don’t follow the norms. The song has ebbs and flows in it. We try to make our music different where we can to keep it interesting.

Returning to that first point, BWS originated in a garage setting and didn’t take on full life until we formed Scandal Tree in 2019. It’s one of those tracks we kept on the back burner and in the vault until we were sure we could record it successfully. We didn’t decide this until after recording with Nik Carpenter at Core Studios on the Gold Coast. After seeing what magic he could perform and pull out of us, we decided it was time to record this track and do it justice.

We have played it live as an opening song at gigs due to the punch and drive of it, but now we have it recorded and can share it with the world.

What was the experience like in comparison to your past tracks and EP?

If you listen to the first lot of tracks we did, they were recorded in a mate’s studio, and we were pretty green. We had some experience but weren’t 100% sure what we were doing. The first time around, there was a lot of experimenting, but after that, we went and recorded with Nik. He was awesome – very relaxed but very professional. He’s got a lot of experience, made us feel at ease, and brought the best out of us.

We feel much more confident and comfortable in the studio environment as we’ve gone along. I’m looking forward to, hopefully, recording the new ones that we’re writing. We have a bunch we’re working on now.

Dead or alive, who would be your dream band/s to open for?

I’m a big fan of Alice in Chains. I would love to get on stage with them. Guns N’ Roses (Appetite for Destruction era) also come to mind. Their catchy riffs are what got me into music. Initially, I was trying to learn guitar because my brother was, but I couldn’t get my head around it. I read an article in a music magazine where Steven Adler said he taught himself to play the drums, and I thought I could do that. That’s how it started for me.

I’m sure the other guys would have other answers! Joe is a bit of a time traveller. He gets into Janis Joplin and Chuck Berry, and other eclectic sounds. Grant is very 70s/80s rock, so AC/DC and the like. Jase is into Megadeth, so I’m sure he’d say them. We have all these different influences that go into the melting pot to help us create what we do. As a collective, though, we’d say Alice in Chains. Or Soundgarden.

What’s next?

New tracks. Some of them are a bit heavier and eerier. We have one called When The Lights Go Out that’s got a melodic, eerie tone to it. Then we’ll return to the traditional hard rock theme with Residue. We also have one called Wilderness. That last one has the concept of two friends going on a camping trip in the wilderness, both in their minds plotting to kill the other.

So we do have a few tracks coming out, and they’ll take a bit of a different direction. We’ve taken some time to focus on writing and to connect with the music again. We’ll potentially have a new lead singer too, he’s been working on some of these new tracks, and I like where things have been going. He reminds me a little of Corey Taylor.

I’m excited to see how we evolve from here. As you add new people to the mix, you get a different sound. I hope we can start to get some of these new tracks out towards the back end of this year/beginning of next year. Time will tell as Scandal Tree continues along its journey to bring our listeners something unique and genuine.