ST SINNER AND THE REVELATORS // Not Another Party Anthem

Fiery punk rock is the name of the game for St Sinner and the Revelators.

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The Cooma/Canberra based outfit came together in 2020 and have quickly turned heads with their loud and bloody delightful brand of noise. Now, they’ve unleashed their therapeutic club banger (bet you never thought those two words would go together) Dead For The Weekend. We wanted to know all about it, so we got St Sinner himself, Rory Maclean, on the line for a chat.

For those new to the band, tell us about how you got started.

I have what I call a vomit brain. I have freight trains of information in my head constantly. I’ve played with different bands in Canberra, but I never felt true to myself. During the bushfire season, I was watching the news and had this epiphany. I was angry about how the government was dealing with everything. I wrote the hook for Mr. Prime Minister, our first single, after that.

St Sinner then became this character that was able to embody how mad I was. I had this massive day of designing the costumes, the sets and determining who the band would be. I call it a mental break, but others might call it a creative moment. The band was essentially a product of me wanting to stand up and talk about what I felt wasn’t being represented in the media.

It’s great you took such an awful situation and turned it into a creative outlet!

I was sitting in my house at 3am; I was scrolling through Facebook and saw Scott Morrison was in Hawaii. I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t expect him to come here and suffer, but I expected a leader to lead his people. I tried to channel my anger into something positive instead of being grumpy on Facebook.

What’s the story behind the band name?

It’s all about morality. People are constantly questioning if they, and their actions, are good or bad. I think the only thing you can do is not worry about being a saint or a sinner. Just be yourself and be as positive as you can. We make good and bad decisions. For me, the name just represents being human and not apologising for it.

Dead For The Weekend is such a fun, punk number. What inspired it both sonically and lyrically?

When I was younger, I’d go out to pubs and clubs. There’d be that recurring EDM beat in your head, that one where the music is too loud. That’s where the drums came from. The riff is what I think a rowdy night out sounds like. Lyrically, it bled into that. I wanted to contrast it and write the most punk song possible about self-care. It sounds like it’s about going out and having a good time, but lyrically it says ‘leave me alone, I’m trying to look after myself’.

I want to show people that punk’s not dead. It’s making a bold return.
[St. Sinner, Rory Maclean]

How would you describe your project to your grandma?

To my Grandma, I’d say I’m really sorry! Simply put, I’d say the project is a mix of some old punk sounds, like a grittier Ramones-esque sound, with more modern rock. We always try to hide a pop song inside of our tracks too.

We get Yungblud vibes from your music.

Thank you! Artists like him, Grandson and, Bring Me The Horizon have been massive influences. They just have this incredible energy.

The scene is at such a good point, having all those experimental acts.

Absolutely. We’re now able to push the envelope with music. You see it with people like Billie Eilish. When I was growing up, I listened to Midnight Oil. They were very much pushing the envelope politically.

What Billie and Yungblud do is take music, give it a message and deliver it in such a way that people think it’s different and jump on it. That’s how you do it these days. You have to be a little trendier. It gives you the chance to do more with rock music though, that’s liberating.

Do you have any major bucket list moments you’d like to check off?

I want to be spun on triple j. I want to be on the cover of a New Music Friday/ New Rock Spotify playlist. Finally, I want to break 100,000 streams on a song. They’re the three milestones I’ve set for this year.

What else can we expect to see from you this year?

There’s definitely more music coming. Our next single will be different. It’ll be a little weird for me to release that kind of music. We also have a six-track EP coming this year; it’s in the process of being mastered now. There are shows, live-streams and all sorts of stuff in the pipeline too.

Any closing remarks?

I’d like to thank Tim McCartney and Angus from Pale Blue Dot Recording Company. They’re brilliant; they’ve helped the band so much. I want to re-invigorate the scene in Canberra and bring up other acts. I want to show people that punk’s not dead. It’s making a bold return.