BAG RAIDERS:

COMING UP FROM DOWN UNDER

Questions By D. Painter

Answers By Bag Raiders’ Jack & Chris

If you think of Crocodile Dundee when I mention Australia, you need to clear your head and ask your cool friend what’s up before you get smacked with a Vegemite sandwich.  Yeah, the weather is hot, but the music scene is hotter.  2008 brought us the current Dance/Rock giants Cut Copy while House music found a new hero in Dirty South.  If Electro is the new “thing” then it’s only logical Sydney would possess at least a couple prodigies to tackle the genre.  Bag Raiders are those two prodigies, bringing a sonic blend both harmonically pleasing and buzzy enough to get your ass moving at the hippest warehouse party.

Jack & Chris, who make up the group, dropped the critically acclaimed Fun Punch EP just over a year ago and have burned up dance floors with songs like “Fun Punch”, “Nil By Mouth”, and “Turbo Love”.  How does Australia fit into the current dance scene?  What was the best Indiana Jones flick?  Who has the best fried squid?  I talked to the boys to find out….

Hipster Overkill:  What's a "Bag Raider"?

Jack:  When we first started out and we had no money for keyboards we used to hang around Double Bay robbing old ladies - raiding their bags, so to speak. That's where the name comes from. 

H.O.:  I guess I can forgive your felonious past since your tracks are hot.  Your production can be simultaneously New Wave & Funk with a Rock aggression, how do you categorize your style?  Where did it come from?  

J:  I'd like to think we make adventure music.  Sometimes for the lounge room, sometimes for the club.  
 

Chris:  Yep, I guess it comes from all kinds of inspiration from the music we love and the movies and cartoons we used to watch as kids.  Trying to recapture that same feeling you had when you first saw Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom.

H.O.:  Temple of Doom…Ah, the classics.  What older genres of music get played the most in your spare time to inspire you both?   

C:  A bunch of old pop, soul, funk, and movie soundtracks.  Also, some new age day spa funk, à la Vangelis for when I'm winding down and feeling relaxed.  There's something about an old bearded Greek dude wilin' out on multiple synthesizers that can just take you to the ultimate happy place.

H.O.:  From reading your bio I'm guessing you two are brothers.  How does your production and your DJ sets benefit from your life long relationship?  

J:  Actually we're not. We went to the same school but we only really started hanging out when we first started making music together about 3 or 4 years ago. 

H.O.:  My bad, I guess I read into it wrong.

C:  Hahaha, our life long relationship.  That's so romantic!

H.O.:  You guys made a great video for "Fun Punch" that was inspired by The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.  How did that concept come about?

J:  Our good friend Beaufort put that whole thing together, from start to finish. So, all kudos [or] lawsuits should be directed his way. 

H.O.:  It seems as though you two try not to take yourselves too seriously.  How does that reflect in your live sets? 

J:  When we DJ, we try to play fun stuff, party stuff.  I think it has to do with the culture here in Australia too.  People tend to want to have a good time, get drunk, hang out, not try and reach new brain dimensions through the power of deep techno.  I mean some people do, but, i think they're in the minority here whereas in other parts of the world maybe they're not.  As for the music we make, I guess we're always trying different things, different styles and ideas.  We try hard not to fall into the trap of doing the same thing over and over…

C:  Except when we want the kick drum to go "boom, boom, boom, boom" over and over.  Sometimes, we have competitions where we try to out-fruit each other by seeing who can play the guiltiest, most shameful joint of the night.  I have played "Trouble" by Shampoo before, and i may or may not do it again.

H.O.:  Since you brought up the Australian scene, tell us a little more about it.  Although Dirty South and Cut Copy making big noise internationally in 2008, you don’t typically see Sydney pop up on the top Dance cities of the world list. 
 

J:  The scene in Sydney is awesome.  Lots of people doing good stuff, very friendly.  In Australia as a whole dance music has really taken off.  Bands like The Presets and Cut Copy paved the way I think.  And now there are bands and producers popping up all over the place doing amazing things.  People like Knightlife, Damn Arms, Shazam, ZZZ etc. etc.

C:  It's a great advantage coming from a city where bands and producers are going to the clubs where you DJ and vice versa.  This way, everyone kind of knows everyone (at least in the party sense) and so you have producers all remixing each other's stuff and it just adds to the pool of music that seems to be growing and growing over here.  It's wonderous.

H.O.:  I'm sure you have traveled outside of your home town extensively since the Fun Punch EP dropped in 2007.  What cities have you had the most fun in?  What's your most memorable tour story?

J:  Yes we've been everywhere in Australia, places I'd never even heard of!  Last year we were in Brazil and the US and, later, Japan.  This year we'll be back in the US (this time for real) and we'll do a European tour and hopefully make it back to Japan at some point.

C:  It's been fantastic travelling around the country and finding out which cities have the best bowling alleys and which places know how to fry a good squid.  Some memories include jack being punched in the face by a girl as she screamed "PLAY MORE MUSCLES", dudes yelling any one of about seven unintelligible phrases such as "PLAY SOME OF THAT FAT HELL SICK HELL BASS MUSIC MAN.  YOU KNOW LIKE, HELL BASS??"  which can all be translated to "play more Crookers".  Playing in Japan was a definite favorite especially when you're playing to people that don't speak your language and watching them go crazy and you go crazy and you can't express it to each other except for clinking glasses and going "YESSSSSSSSSSSS".

H.O.:  Is it hard to produce while on the road?

J:  Yes, for us, very.  We use lots of hardware stuff [such as] old synths, so we never get anything done on the road.

C:  Yeah, apart from the occasional [remix] or throwback B-more revival, which in most cases resulted out of too many beers in the hotel room and should really never see the light of day (or the dark of club so to speak).

H.O.:  You're coming to the States soon.  What are you looking forward to most on the trip?

J:  Well we were in New York briefly last year and it was amazing.  I'm looking forward to going back there.  Also playing in a bunch of different cities should be fun (i think we're doing 10 or 12 shows, something like that).  I've only ever been to New York and LA so i look forward to that. 

C:  Me, I'm looking forward to [experiencing] so many things I've only ever seen on a screen.  Things like eating Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, Mr. Spriggs BBQ, the Seinfeld Diner, all that kind of stuff.  I also have only been to NY and LA, so I'm really excited to see some other cities and also see what the party is like over there.  Oh, and I also want to try as many of the candies that pass as "breakfast cereals" as i can.

H.O.:  Cereal huh, that gives a new twist to the name Bag Raider.  So, Fools Gold is making a lot of noise over here and you have collaborated with them a lot.  Are you officially part of that family of artists?

J:  Yes we have a release coming out with them in the next couple of months.

C:  Great dudes, putting out some great records, it's really great to be a part of that.  Sammy Bananas is out here in Australia right now, we're playing at his show this week, that's gonna be awesome.

H.O.:  When can we expect a full album from Bag Raiders?

J:  Well we're about to start working on an album this week.  Hopefully we'll have something out in the second half of the year.

FUN PUNCH EP available now

Check out Bag Raiders when they go on tour.  Keep up with them online at www.bagraiders.com