John "Stevo" Stevens - Area-7 (05/10/2014)
Primed to hit the Soundwave festival circuit in 2015, The 59th Sound we caught up with Stevo, vocalist of ska band Area-7.
Thanks for chatting to us at The 59th Sound. Area 7 are the biggest ska band in the country and finally you’re playing Soundwave are you scared to play this festival which is predominately heavy music?
Nup. It’s heaps funny, Area 7 have always been a fantastic live act, we’ve been able to hold ourselves on the stage at many festivals with plenty of heavy bands, I think for us it’ll be a bit different but we’re just going out there, balls out like we always do. We’re not going to get a crowd of mohawks and rude boys like we always do, but it’ll be people who like music and I think when people have had a taste for the festival, they’ve had a few drinks, they’re in the sun and we will be a nice break from the heavier bands, our crowd will be thinner than the bigger bands but I’ve got a quote for ya like Pyscho Mike-o from Suicidal Tendencies said one Warped Tour at breakfast and Mike comes storming down and sat down next to me and he said “You know Stevo I don’t even like Ska but I fucking love you guys” and that’s cool for us, so that’s what it’ll be, it’ll very much that for us.
You’ve played pretty much every festival in the country, Big Day Out, Falls Festival, Off Shore, Homebake just to mention a few which are all a cross over of genres but still like to have a drink so I guess that’s the theme here, if you like to drink you like Area 7.
(laughing) If you like to smile and not take yourself too seriously then you’ll like Area 7.
The band has gone on to do huge things in your career and like you said you don’t like to take things too seriously, you always seem to be having a laugh and having fun, how much did the band have to change to become a serious business?
It’s a great question, from our perspective we always wanted to obtain the highest standard we could. I don’t think anyone joins a band with their mates in their garage and goes “I hope I win an ARIA award” or “one day I hope I get a gold record,” it’s more about hanging with my mates, getting girls you know and then we go “hang on we’re playing regularly, we’re not to bad” and it sort of just grows. With Area 7 we never said “you’re going to learn that bass line, note by note” it didn’t work like that, it was just we wanted to play the best we possibly could and I think we just grew off each other, we got more popular and it started to happen for us, we spent more time concentrating on making sure our shows were good, because we felt we owed it to our fans more than anything else but we also owed it to the time we put into the band, it wasn’t a conscious decision just an evolution of setting yourself a goal.
It’s funny that the biggest single for the band 'Nobody Likes a Bogan' which is a joke itself, did you find it difficult fitting in with an industry, particularly here in Australia that takes themselves so seriously?
We never pitched ‘Nobody Likes a Bogan’ to be honest with you, that was an accidental hit. The next single that never came out because we parted ways with our record company was supposed to be the single off that record, but triple J and the Aus Stereo network actually wanted ‘Bogan’ so they said to us “You give us Bogan and then we will throw on the next single” so Bogan was a lead up to the next single that never happened. So the answer to your question, we never pitched that we put it on the record as fun for ourselves to be honest, because all of the songs were sounding a bit too serious and we thought “hey, where’s the Area 7?” so we threw that song on last minute, I think we wrote it on the last week of recording and Triple M and Triple J picked it up and then the top 40 stations had it before too long so it was an accident.
The debut album went gold where did those gold records end up?
(laughing) Like all good punk rockers our gold records are hanging in our toilets.
I knew it.
I think that’s the funny part, it never meant to much to us. For me I was glad to give something back to my family for all the help they gave us when we were kids, to learn our instruments and do what we do. For the families who supported us when we’re not there, when we’re on tour, for our partners who put up with us not being there and putting up with our bullshit of thinking we’re pretty cool- can I say we weren’t cool at all, so it was more something to give back to them and I actually use to write a little message on the back of a gold record I gave to my daughter Jamie and every time I went away on tour I’d write a little message on the back, it’s full now and now she’s 15 and she can actually read it it actually means a lot to her, it’s more of a recognition of a point in time.
What music does your daughter listen to, is she influenced by you?
No, she isn’t influenced by me, I was actually shocked to find out she went to school and some of her friends were saying “how amazing, Area 7 are playing Soundwave” and she goes “that’s my dad's band”. She loves The Amity Affliction, she loves Of Mice and Men, in fact last week she and I were at The Amity Affliction show at Festival Hall and I have to say what an amazing show and what an amazing band. Dad’s cool, he’s got cool hook ups to get her into shows it’s one of those things that I’m happy about. I like her taste in music so long as it’s not one of those boy bands- that’s not cool.
So it’s safe to say she’s teaching you about music?
Yeah, music is an interactive thing in our house, Jamie she knows what she likes and some things I like some things I don’t and visa versa, she’s a strong independent woman and that’s great.
Although the band never broke up there was definitely a lull in the bands activities, over that period was there a point of breaking up?
You know what? We never wanted to be a band that split up and then came back, broke up and came back, I really don’t work like that, I think it’s disrespectful to your fans but from our perspective we never really talked about splitting up, we were pretty keen on not sorting it out so we were very careful when we did part ways with our record company we still had music left to record and we released it independently, toured it and worked hard but we realised we didn’t need all the mainstream support and we were quite happy to go back to where we came from playing in the smaller pub environment and doing what we always did there was no talk of breaking up, we did talk about how we made it work for us, we’d tour when we felt like it, play when we feel like it and we’ll keep it going and now AJ and the guys at Soundwave have given us the opportunity to go out on a high and with a bang and Soundwave will probably be our last tour and then I think we will say adios and pass the microphone over to newer bands who are coming out like The Resignators and The Bennies and guys like that and give them a chance to have a crack at it with us out of the way and we will sail off into the sunset.
We look forward to seeing you off at Soundwave, thanks for the chat.
SOUNDWAVE 2015
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - ADELAIDE
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - MELBOURNE
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH - SYDNEY
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH – BRISBANE
Cassie Walker
Thanks for chatting to us at The 59th Sound. Area 7 are the biggest ska band in the country and finally you’re playing Soundwave are you scared to play this festival which is predominately heavy music?
Nup. It’s heaps funny, Area 7 have always been a fantastic live act, we’ve been able to hold ourselves on the stage at many festivals with plenty of heavy bands, I think for us it’ll be a bit different but we’re just going out there, balls out like we always do. We’re not going to get a crowd of mohawks and rude boys like we always do, but it’ll be people who like music and I think when people have had a taste for the festival, they’ve had a few drinks, they’re in the sun and we will be a nice break from the heavier bands, our crowd will be thinner than the bigger bands but I’ve got a quote for ya like Pyscho Mike-o from Suicidal Tendencies said one Warped Tour at breakfast and Mike comes storming down and sat down next to me and he said “You know Stevo I don’t even like Ska but I fucking love you guys” and that’s cool for us, so that’s what it’ll be, it’ll very much that for us.
You’ve played pretty much every festival in the country, Big Day Out, Falls Festival, Off Shore, Homebake just to mention a few which are all a cross over of genres but still like to have a drink so I guess that’s the theme here, if you like to drink you like Area 7.
(laughing) If you like to smile and not take yourself too seriously then you’ll like Area 7.
The band has gone on to do huge things in your career and like you said you don’t like to take things too seriously, you always seem to be having a laugh and having fun, how much did the band have to change to become a serious business?
It’s a great question, from our perspective we always wanted to obtain the highest standard we could. I don’t think anyone joins a band with their mates in their garage and goes “I hope I win an ARIA award” or “one day I hope I get a gold record,” it’s more about hanging with my mates, getting girls you know and then we go “hang on we’re playing regularly, we’re not to bad” and it sort of just grows. With Area 7 we never said “you’re going to learn that bass line, note by note” it didn’t work like that, it was just we wanted to play the best we possibly could and I think we just grew off each other, we got more popular and it started to happen for us, we spent more time concentrating on making sure our shows were good, because we felt we owed it to our fans more than anything else but we also owed it to the time we put into the band, it wasn’t a conscious decision just an evolution of setting yourself a goal.
It’s funny that the biggest single for the band 'Nobody Likes a Bogan' which is a joke itself, did you find it difficult fitting in with an industry, particularly here in Australia that takes themselves so seriously?
We never pitched ‘Nobody Likes a Bogan’ to be honest with you, that was an accidental hit. The next single that never came out because we parted ways with our record company was supposed to be the single off that record, but triple J and the Aus Stereo network actually wanted ‘Bogan’ so they said to us “You give us Bogan and then we will throw on the next single” so Bogan was a lead up to the next single that never happened. So the answer to your question, we never pitched that we put it on the record as fun for ourselves to be honest, because all of the songs were sounding a bit too serious and we thought “hey, where’s the Area 7?” so we threw that song on last minute, I think we wrote it on the last week of recording and Triple M and Triple J picked it up and then the top 40 stations had it before too long so it was an accident.
The debut album went gold where did those gold records end up?
(laughing) Like all good punk rockers our gold records are hanging in our toilets.
I knew it.
I think that’s the funny part, it never meant to much to us. For me I was glad to give something back to my family for all the help they gave us when we were kids, to learn our instruments and do what we do. For the families who supported us when we’re not there, when we’re on tour, for our partners who put up with us not being there and putting up with our bullshit of thinking we’re pretty cool- can I say we weren’t cool at all, so it was more something to give back to them and I actually use to write a little message on the back of a gold record I gave to my daughter Jamie and every time I went away on tour I’d write a little message on the back, it’s full now and now she’s 15 and she can actually read it it actually means a lot to her, it’s more of a recognition of a point in time.
What music does your daughter listen to, is she influenced by you?
No, she isn’t influenced by me, I was actually shocked to find out she went to school and some of her friends were saying “how amazing, Area 7 are playing Soundwave” and she goes “that’s my dad's band”. She loves The Amity Affliction, she loves Of Mice and Men, in fact last week she and I were at The Amity Affliction show at Festival Hall and I have to say what an amazing show and what an amazing band. Dad’s cool, he’s got cool hook ups to get her into shows it’s one of those things that I’m happy about. I like her taste in music so long as it’s not one of those boy bands- that’s not cool.
So it’s safe to say she’s teaching you about music?
Yeah, music is an interactive thing in our house, Jamie she knows what she likes and some things I like some things I don’t and visa versa, she’s a strong independent woman and that’s great.
Although the band never broke up there was definitely a lull in the bands activities, over that period was there a point of breaking up?
You know what? We never wanted to be a band that split up and then came back, broke up and came back, I really don’t work like that, I think it’s disrespectful to your fans but from our perspective we never really talked about splitting up, we were pretty keen on not sorting it out so we were very careful when we did part ways with our record company we still had music left to record and we released it independently, toured it and worked hard but we realised we didn’t need all the mainstream support and we were quite happy to go back to where we came from playing in the smaller pub environment and doing what we always did there was no talk of breaking up, we did talk about how we made it work for us, we’d tour when we felt like it, play when we feel like it and we’ll keep it going and now AJ and the guys at Soundwave have given us the opportunity to go out on a high and with a bang and Soundwave will probably be our last tour and then I think we will say adios and pass the microphone over to newer bands who are coming out like The Resignators and The Bennies and guys like that and give them a chance to have a crack at it with us out of the way and we will sail off into the sunset.
We look forward to seeing you off at Soundwave, thanks for the chat.
SOUNDWAVE 2015
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - ADELAIDE
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - MELBOURNE
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH - SYDNEY
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH – BRISBANE
Cassie Walker