VIOLENT SOHO // Doing Their Victory Lap

They released the number one album in Australia.

Then they assembled a crew of hometown mates (DZ Deathrays and the Dune Rats, along with ex-pat party starters the Gooch Palms) to sell out every show on a fuck off big national tour. Yes, things are going pretty well for former grunge underdogs Violent Soho. On the day of the last show of the whirlwind WACO tour, the band’s four members—front man Luke Boerdam, guitarist James Tidswell, bassist Luke Henery and drummer Michael Richards—sit down to explain the rollercoaster of stokedness that the last three weeks have been.

DZ Deathrays drummer Simon Ridley sums it up best when he’s talking about what’s happened to Violent Soho in 2016. “It’s like watching a Disney movie,” he says. “It’s like watching The Mighty Ducks. They start off and you see all the hard work they put into it over the space of a few years, so it’s pretty awesome to see them win at the end.”

Yes, as anyone following 2016 in Australian music knows, Violent Soho are winning. They are winning at levels previously unrealised outside of DJ Khaled or Charlie Sheen (depending on your frame of reference) and from all accounts they’re having a fucking blast doing so, even as they struggle to comprehend the magnitude of just how big things have gotten.

—

“There’s been so many moments this year that have just blown me away.”

[LUKE]

 —

“There’s been so many moments this year that have just blown me away,” bassist Luke Henery, perhaps the most outwardly positive of the four Violent Soho members, says. “When the album came out at number one, and even just getting the album back and seeing it was an amazing moment. But seeing everyone’s response to the album was just amazing. Then when we got this tour booked and we found out we were going to get DZ Deathrays and Dune Rats and the Gooch Palms that was just amazing … I’m hanging out with my best mates, working with management who are all my best mates, the live shows are fucking awesome. I’m stoked to be doing what I’ve always wanted to be doing and doing it with the people I’ve always wanted to do it with. I couldn’t be happier.”

Reflecting on the journey that led them to this point, front man Luke Boerdam agrees with Henery’s assessment of how crazy things have gotten for the band.

 “When we started doing the tour we realised that we’re kind of doing the same run that we did ten years ago when we opened for The Grates on their first record tour. It’s been a decade since that man, that’s so surreal. And now we’re doing multiple dates at these venues, it feels great. Because I haven’t been back to the Enmore [Theatre, in Sydney] since ten years ago and to get back there and see the crowd and have them singing every word back is just so surreal, it’s truly awesome.”

Watch their video for Viceroy

—

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH VIOLENT SOHO IN HYSTERIA #43, OUT NOW IN THE APP – APP AVAILABLE ON THE APP STORE AND GOOGLE PLAY, FREE!