Weird Science
First published on sydneyis.com.au, Sept ‘00
Forming a band can be one of the hardest things in the world. Sure, it’s not impossible – some of the things people can do with modular furniture and crunchy peanut butter far exceed the boundaries of what can be considered feasible – but ‘getting it together’ can still be a time consuming brain-bursting Rubik’s cube of a nightmare. Let’s consider the basics. You’ll need to find at least three or four people who can and want to play a different instrument, who all have time to meet and rehearse, and who also have the same musical inclinations and desire for the common rock and roll goal. Finally, after you’ve all decided that you don’t hate each other and everything is in order, you’ll most likely forget why the hell you wanted to start a band in the first place. Well God must have been in a good mood the day the four members of Melbourne’s Rocket Science got together, because only divine intervention can explain the speed in which they formed.
“We had half a set written and finished in our first rehearsal”, says guitarist Paul Maybury, who joined the band on the request of ex-Martians guitarist now head Rocket Scientist Roman Tucker. “Roman had been writing the stuff that became what ‘Rocket Science’ is doing now. He sort of got us together to have a jam and see what it would be like, and we got about four or five songs finished in the first rehearsal. The chemistry was there straight away so we just thought let’s keep it going.”
It’s so perfect it makes you want to pewk. If only they weren’t so goddamn good. Rocket Science are like an evil experiment gone right. Their debut album ‘Welcome To The 3C10’ is a complex barrage of sound, with manic references to artists such as Radio Birdman, Beasts of Bourbon, and John Spencer Blues Explosion. What Paul refers to as sonic terrorism, “Horrid sounds being beautiful”. Wailing surf rock guitars. Deep and disturbing bass lines. A theramin. Yeah, theramin. Ooo-weeEEee-Ooo theramin. Erratic organ riffs accompanied by Roman’s guttural vocals. Hypnotic drums that chant ‘give in to the music, you’re one of us now’ as if it were the backdrop to some 1960s sci-fi horror flick. In fact it’s so good it scares me.
“Well that’s good” laughs Paul at my feeble admission. Far from being a bed wetting scaredy-cat, I’m not afraid of telling people when they’re freaking the hell out of me. “We all love B-grade horror films, especially old Italian ones. Mainly because of the soundtrack element I suppose, and also the whole thing how something can be B-grade and tacky but still incredibly powerful and effective. It may be cheesy but it’s still scaring the hell out of you”.
The very existence of ‘Welcome To The 3C10’ is a jarring testament to the B-Grade ethos, the beauty in the bank account. Recorded in a garage-y studio in Melbourne early last year, the whole album cost a microscopic $2300 to record, master and mix – a figure that would easily impress Ed Wood. “They were only going to do an EP but they ended up with an album’s worth of songs”, Pete Lusty from Winterman & Goldstein management says. “Then Modular records just thought ‘well, they’re all good so why don’t we just turn it into an album’.”
Rocket Science’s attitude to releasing their music is as bold and brash as their music itself. “Where most people fuck around for years doing singles and EPs, they released an album” Lusty says. “It’s a bit of a risk in that way I suppose, but it’s gotten really good reviews and everyone seems to like it, and because they’re such a good live band it’s ended up doing really well.”
With their prolific writing abilities, devotion to their art, and accelerated creative process, Rocket Science could fulfill a three-year contractual obligation in three days, and still produce the goods. “The modern precedent is bands put out an album once every two years or so,” says Paul “but in the good old days bands were putting out records three albums a year, and I’m much more in that camp. With Rocket Science, the way we work we could easily put out two or three albums a year no problem. The album that’s out now, to us it’s fairly old and there’s already lots of new stuff we want to do.”
If the slight resurgence of schlock cinema continues, especially with Australian films such as ‘Cut’ and more recently the horror homage ‘Angst’, perhaps Rocket Science might be moving house from rocking the corner pub to scoring for the big screen. “Oh we’d love to.” laughs Paul. “If someone makes a trashy horror film, we’re definitely the band for the job. A bucket of fake blood and some mannequins. Great.”
‘Welcome To The 3C10’ is out now through Modular/EMI. Watch for Rocket Science at a festival near you, as they play at this year’s Livid & Homebake festivals.