Tell us who the Transistors are?
Olly sings and plays drums, Colin plays bass and only sings when we bully him into it, my name is James and I sing and play guitar.
How did you manage to secure the opening slot for the Foo Fighters earlier this year? Tell us about the experience.
It was pretty surreal, we didn’t find out we were playing til the Friday before the show. I think we were just lucky, they wanted a Christchurch band since it was a fundraising gig to help the earthquake recovery and…we’re a Christchurch band. The backstage area was hardout, we had our own dressing room and the catering was ridiculous! The Foo Fighters were super nice guys, we literally walked into Dave Grohl backstage and even after accidentally making two awkward remarks including asking what floor of the hotel he was staying on he was still friendly to us. Chris Shiflett liked our t-shirts, I showed Pat Smear my Hagstrom guitar which was cool because he has the biggest collection in the world, Nate Mendall was Nate Mendall and Taylor Hawkins pulled up in a limo next to our girlfriends (who weren’t allowed into the show), wolf whistled and said “ladies” while raising his shades. Oh, and I talked to Karl Urban about Hotcake pedals without realising it was him. We had a lot of fun.
What’s the Christchurch punk/alternative scene like at the moment? What’s your favourite band from home?
T54 are my favourite Christchurch band at the moment. There are a bunch of younger bands like Psych Tigers and Ipswich playing lots of shows and putting out their own records too which is awesome. Plus the Darkroom and new Dux are definitely helping to get the ball rolling again, can’t wait for whatever Johnny Moore has up his sleeve too.
Plans for next year?
We are finally putting out our new album and we’re excited about it, we’ll play a bunch of shows when that’s out. We’d like to get overseas, maybe to Japan…fingers crossed. Also got to make sure we get chummy with the guy from Opshop so he lets us stay in his bunker when the world comes to an end.
What can punters expect from the Transistors at next year’s Laneway Festival?
Seiji from Guitar Wolf told us that every show you play you are coming to do battle so we’re going to do battle at Laneway and also squeeze as many songs as we can into 25 minutes.
The band or artist you are most looking forward to seeing?
Definitely gonna check out Opossom and Sherpa and I’ll lose the plot if Shayne Carter plays Needles and Plastic. I also want to see The Horrors and Yuck and I’m interested to see what Girls are like live. Olly was amped to see EMF but then he realised it was EMA that was actually playing.
The bands or records that made you want to start a punk band?
During high school was when we first started mucking around in the garage and we were into bands like Buzzcocks, The Clash and The Kinks. Then we began raiding Olly’s dad’s indispensable record collection and found albums like Ramones and Ramones Leave Home, Q: Are We Not Men? A: No, we are Devo!, Suicide’s first album, Rock n Roll With the Modern Lovers, Talking Heads: 77, Never Mind the Bollocks, Blondie – Parallel Lines, Velvet Underground – Loaded, Iggy Pop – New Values, Kraftwerk – Trans Europe Express and countless others. We’re total record nerds, I could go on and on so I better stop there.
Check out the Transistors new track here
Interview by James Smith
