STREET PIECES // A Riot Of Sorts

From the beats to the streets, Brissy boys Street Pieces are making waves everywhere they go.

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Their electrifying rock rhythms, sizzling breakdowns and outstanding vocals that sing directly to your alternative heart are guaranteed to get and keep you shaking all the way through. Hysteria was lucky enough to sit down and have a chat with lead vocalist Ben Tilney to dive a little bit more into who they are, where they are and what they have their eyes set on.

So for all future fans out there—who is street pieces and how did you come about?

Street pieces are a 4-piece rock unit. We met in university, we were all studying the music degree at QUT and we all came together just as a little project and we all liked the idea of being in a rock band we started playing together and people were like ‘Hey, you guys don’t actually sound that bad’ and then we were like ‘maybe we should try and take this professionally’ (laughs) once we graduate and yeah here we are.

All of us have our different influences, and just like many bands our sound is fast.
[ Ben Tilney ]

So it was one of those things like hey we can make some money out of this, let’s do it! So you just released your single One For The Road and a film clip to go along with it. What kind of inspiration did you have to produce such an in-depth and intricate story?

Inspo wise, the groove and the general feel for the song came together in a general groove we had and then like most of our songs they just kind of cook over a few weeks and then I just started—you know, I had this idea of like a party that goes totally wrong. That turns into like. .. a riot of sorts. And then you know, two friends in like one last hoorah, going seperate ways. Kind of universally applied. The all time story of shit goes down and people come out and start setting fires to things and then all the social outcasts finally find a place of belonging.

Aww, that’s really sweet! Like going through the rocky road but getting there in the end! So you guys got to work alongside an Aria award winning producer, Govinda Doyle, who has worked alongside Dead Letter Circus. The recording and writing process along side someone of that caliber—What was that like?

I find that people in the industry of his caliber, well they are very good and they are very good at making you feel comfortable. So we were at his home studio and got to record in this old water tank that had been re-vamped into this recording room, so the acoustics were sick and he had a really energetic, positive attitude so he was getting excited about ideas. Then you have this really cool exchange and you’re just feeling confident to bring your A game and I think that is super important so we all kind of got in and got it done and we are very proud. So big thanks to the Gov!

Now, this is the bands 7th release since your EP The Other Side back in 2014. How do you feel your sound has evolved from where you started to where you are now?

Umm, honestly I think it’s just gotten heavier. I think the guitars started to get a little bit dirtier, Marcus started hitting his drums a little bit harder, and John came into the mix a few years ago, so that’s when our sound started to change I suppose. So maybe he was ‘instrumental’ if I may (laughs) and I started being inspired by different vocalists I guess there is this band called Rival Sons and they are this kick ass California blues-rock group and the vocalist—Jay—fights tooth and nail to get every single note out, sing his ass off. That really inspired me to push myself, so.

Thats awesome! So on the topic, what would you say the biggest inspirations and influences are to the band?

All of us have our different influences, and just like many bands our sound is fast. There is so many different influences, but I mean my favourite band is Deftones and I like INXS and Alex loves Gary Clark Jnr—just like sexy, bluesy riffs. Which we believe is a very big part of the foundation of our songs. Johnny is into Tool and Soundgarden and everything like that. Then Marcus is into Audioslave and a lot of Aussie rock. So I guess it all comes together in some sort of fusion and is our sound.

You can hear the different influences when listening to your music, which Is awesome. But you know, single means albums and albums mean tours—so what is next on the agenda that is Street Pieces?

Yeah! We have so much in the pipeline. You know, some bands may take like 6 months off to write songs but I think we would have to take 6 months from actually writing songs (laughs) because we write so many songs. Every rehearsal 2 or 3 different things come out of it. Because we have been together for like 2 or 3 years and we have good chemistry things just come out of nowhere really quickly. So we have rest of the EP its a War Cry EP so we have Cthulhu and One For The Road, Comfort and we will be releasing the EP this year. So there will be a tour and we are talking new music videos and we are even talking perhaps even an album for this year too.