The band recently released its 4th full length, "Storm The Gates", on the independant Australian Record label SONIC ARTILLERY RECORDS. The Album is brilliantly co-produced by Brendan and Michael Carpenter of the FINKERS fame.
As far as I'm concerned, this is without any doubt their best record so far, filled with fat and heavy 70s guitars riffs supported by a tight and groovy rhythm section. And -most important- Brendan Sequeira knows how to pen great songs with plenty of hooks and sing-a-long choruses that stick in your head for days.
Yours truly had a little chat with the main man behind this amazing band.
1) What can you tell about The Prehistorics? How long are you guys together as a band? Were you in other bands previously? Way back in the day, your debut full length "Petrified" made quite an impression but I confess that after that I kinda lost track of The Prehistorics and I was not even aware of the following 2 records "Subterranean Nightmare" and "Playing with Fire". Shame on me! What happened for the band between the first album and the latest one?
THE PREHISTORICS were formed in 2002, with me on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, and my brother Jonathan on Bass. We worked with many different musicians filling various roles in the band, mostly because it was hard to find reliable people who were committed to the music. I think for many musicians these days, they have a short attention span and are too busy chasing ‘the next big thing’, rather than focussing on one or two projects and putting all their efforts into making that work. The Prehistorics for me, is my life and my oxygen so I have always given it the highest priority. I think, for many other musicians, music is just a hobby to be honest, whilst I have very clear objectives and want to do my maximum to realise my dreams.
Jonathan and I started our first band together around 1986, called The Guttersnipes, in Sydney Australia, and at that time we played a mix of punk and power-pop covers as well as about 50 per cent originals. Then we played in a more hardcore pop band called Deep Dish Action, before forming The Prehistorics nearly 15 years ago. With The Prehistorics, we put out our first album in 2009 and released the video ‘Zombie Generation’, which kind of launched the band and got us a lot of attention. After that album, The Prehistorics released ‘Subterranean Nightmare’ with a number of videos such as ‘Rock ‘n Roller Coaster’ and ‘Attack of The Klingons’, through MGM Distribution. This record really saw us maturing and finding our sound. We toured Europe soon after that, in 2013 and did really well in France so we came back again in 2014 with the release of the 3rd album “Playing With Fire” and suddenly got a solid reputation as a scorching live act I guess.
Storm The Gates is the album I am probably most proud of because I wrote it very quickly and wrote all the songs on it, under a lot of personal pressure. The whole concept of the record is to try to wake people up and get them to be true individuals and challenge the injustices of this world. I don’t have a master plan for that, LOL, but I do think society has become very conservative and brainwashed, many people are like sheep and they need to wake up to what is real and important in the world. I liked the whole French revolution concept and the artwork of some of the great painters so I wanted to incorporate that into the front cover, but also adding a sense of humour to make the point that life can also be fun and silly whilst also standing up for what is right. As for whether or not this record is ‘the big break through’, I guess that’s for others to decide. For me, it is the most complete and satisfying piece of art I have ever made and I feel like I made no compromises on this record. I did exactly what I wanted to do so it feels right to me. Critics have praised the album so I suppose I am hitting the mark there too, which is important, but the most important thing is that I feel that I have made a great record and my fans agree too.3) To what kind of music did you listen to as a teenager and does it still influence your today work? What was your favorite band as a teenager? Name 3 bands that you consider still have a influence on your own work today.
The Prehistorics sound is really a combination of all of my favourite bands and musical influences. There’s elements of The Clash and The Damned in there as well as The MC5, Redd Kross and Radio Birdman, plus all the underground Australian bands from the late 70’s to the 80’s. This was the ‘golden era’ in Australian music and there were literally hundreds of amazing, creative bands out there, playing every night of the week. I was lucky to see many of them!
4) Is there a main composer in the band or is everybody involved in one way or another?
I pretty write everything these days, the music and the lyrics and even on the previous records, I wrote or co-wrote just about every song. For me, the band has always been my ‘ baby’ and my strengths are as a songwriter, so I have taken on that role mostly because I was the best qualified to do it. On the other hand, so many people have helped along the way so that I could achieve the goals of the band, after all, I’m not a one-man band, but it has to be said that the main direction and sound of the band has been driven by my catalogue of song ideas. As a musician generally, I am the first to admit there are better guitarists out there than me, but I seem to have had a better concept of the ‘black arts’ of song-writing, so I have tried to use my abilities as the main force behind the music.
I love those bands! Such high praise too, to be compared with those legends! They are truly amazing and part of the legendary Australian music scene of that era, so yes, they all totally influenced me. The Hoodoo Gurus are one of the greatest bands to have ever walked the earth and Dave Faulkner is a legend. I mean, who can write songs like that? He never misses. The Screaming Tribesman were another favourite of mine along with The Hitmen and Radio Birdman. Just listen to the killer guitar work on their records, Chris Mazuak is a genius really and has an amazing body of work to prove it. Just listen to his latest record, it’s on the money.
6) Is the album closer from the new LP, "La Fleur De La Liberte", about the events that took place in Paris last year in November??
Yes, you are exactly right. I was very moved by the tragedy in France in Paris, in November last year so I wrote that song the week after the event. I have many close connections in France and I actually lived there for about a year which was just fantastic. The country is going through so much turmoil at the moment and in fact, when I was living in the south of France earlier this year, the tragedy in the city of Nice also happened, which was devastating. My heart goes out to all the people there, I just wish everyone on this planet could get along and stop all the killing and murdering. Nothing was ever solved by that.
7) What can concert goers expect at a The Prehistorics gig? Are you playing any famous cover songs?
We always think about giving our fans the very best material from our catalogue of 40 plus songs so we will be playing all the old favourites, all the video songs, plus a number of tracks from the new album. I am really excited about playing La Fleur De La Liberte in France to pay my respects to my French friends. The set will be pretty rock’n though as always, because we play with a lot of energy and with our hearts, so I reckon it will be a high-energy concert. We often throw in a few covers too from bands like The Lime Spiders, Radio Birdman (we do a cover of the classic song ‘What Gives’) and maybe a few more surprises!
8) Does Sydney, Australia have a long history of rock bands, that goes way back to the 70/80's?
Back in the 70’s and right through to the early 90’s, the whole of Australia was such an awesome place for rock ‘n roll. ACDC pretty much started in Sydney and then there were the other great bands like The Angels, Rose Tattoo and The Sunnyboys, all pretty much based in Sydney. When the alternative music scene started we had Radio Birdman, The Gurus and about a million other great bands in Sydney and Australia. Of course there were The Saints too in Brisbane and they really put Australian punk on the world stage. I just wish there were more bands like this these days. It seems that much of the audience has moved on and is too ready to consume all of the corporate crap that they are fed rather than seek out underground music that has meaning and purpose. I mean, there are still great bands to be found, you just gotta dig deep to find them. LOL, that’s what my song “Tales From The Underground” on the 3rd album, was really all about!
THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST BUY!
STORM THE GATES is available on CD , coloured vinyl and digital download.
Purchase it here : https://theprehistorics1.bandcamp.com/
