They're not happy, and they're letting you know.
Sydney hardcore band Backhand have been slowly making a name for themselves in punk and hardcore circles, with gigs aplenty and a few music videos that showcase their musical prowess as well as their passion and tenacity. We spoke to KP, who fronts the band, about their songwriting process, what inspires such angry lyrics and their approach to recording the new single “Nothing Ever Changes”.
How does a song usually begin for Backhand?
It’s always just riffs. I have a phone full of them sent to me by the boys. Some riffs you bank for a later day or for a “just in case” scenario and sometimes you know this one’s gonna be a tune. Tonnes end up deleted over time too, some we’ll jam out and then decide it’s getting the punt. Occasionally someone will bring a fully written song to pracco and bam it’s a hit instantly.
Usually Jay, our bass player, and our drummer Trouble will jam with the old school 8-track recorder set up on our off weeks and write, re-work and record demos of soon to be full tracks. We’re all pretty busy in our personal lives so doing little bits of pre production before we all hit the studio helps.
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Why did you decide to work at Def Wolf?
Deciding on what studio to record at nearly took us a year, it was actually a bit of a headache. We were still writing during this time and honing the tunes but we knew we wanted to record a really aggressive, raw, noisey punk record.
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At present the punk and hardcore scene are spoilt for choice and you have a few good studio/engineer options like Benno at Chameleon, Clay at The Brain and Joel down in Newcastle. During the year our bass player Jay basically had an in-depth conversations with each studio but Daniel really stood out and really sounded like he was into what we were doing. We played him our early demo recording, told him what we liked and hated about it and gave him a list of a few of our fave bands to check out. For us it was perfect, Daniel nailed it, we highly recommend DEF WOLF. Daniel’s really professional and a great producer too, he pushed us to dig deep. His studio rules and his recorded and produced some great records but at the same time he’s happy to work with shitty punk bands like ours ha ha ha!
We won’t record anywhere else now. He is a genius.
What was the recording process like?
Like most bands we were anxious, recording can be really daunting; the pressure is really on. Daniel being the down to earth dude that he is really made us feel at home and eased us into it. He suggested being the fast, raw, loose sort of punk band we are, it would be suit us to do it all live together and we were sort of hoping that’s how it would roll.
Like we isolated all the instruments and all, but he pushed us take after take to make sure we nailed it. At times we got a bit lazy and frustrated and as time went on, one of us would just ask him to do some cut and paste but he made sure we went again and pushed us till we got it right.
The single “Nothing Ever Changes” is an angry call out of Australia’s politicians. What came first – the lyrics and message or the music?
Our bass player Jay kept insisting we jam the song and we sort of didn’t get it at the start. We all thought it was weird and not really a hardcore tune. He kept asking me to write some lyrics and sort of speak/rap over the top. For a bit there we really didn’t get what he was attempting to do, but then he and I sat down and he gave me some ideas about how he wanted the vocal timing and then I set to work on the lyrics. It took me months to get these just right and to fit in perfectly, it’s one of my fave tunes now and one that really hits home for me.
What can fans expect from a Backhand show?
A fast, short set, of old school hardcore punk. A lot of arms and hair flying around the place, loads of potty words and a couple of bung notes! Punk rock!
Keep up with Backhand for gigs, music and more here.
