INTERVIEW: Rolls Bayce

ROLLS BAYCE may be a name you've yet to come across, but we're sure you'll be hearing it over and over again real soon. This Brisbane based 3-piece emerged only very recently, after their debut single was posted to Soundcloud, but already they've gained support from fellow established Brisbane bands as well as Triple J.

So I guess it's not that surprising that a first single with so much promise has come from them, considering that all three players in Rolls Bayce have played in other successful bands. With Neal Apel (ex. Panng!) on Bass, James Wright (ex. Millions) on drums and Dean McGrath (Hungry Kids Of Hungary) as the lead vocalist/guitarist - there is a wealth of experience here and it's helped them get off on the right foot.

We recently stole away McGrath for a quick Q&A, so we could get our heads around this brand new local supergroup, as well as finding out what else they have in store for us all!

Your first track 'Arrows' is really chilled out, is that the sort of sound that Rolls Bayce was originally aiming for?

I don't think 'chilled' is necessarily something I'm striving for across all of our songs, but yeah, it's definitely an element of 'Arrows'. We were pretty determined to keep the arrangement fairly stripped back and really let all the elements stretch out and do their thing. I guess the bigger picture will become clearer as we release more stuff.

You are an extremely new band, having only just emerged. How did Rolls Bayce actually get together?

James (Wright) and I started talking a couple of years ago about working on some music together, but I guess we never found the time. Earlier this year we became housemates so there were no more excuses. I played him some ideas, some brand new and some that I'd had lying around for a while and it all clicked really quickly. Neal (Apel) was our first choice on bass, we invited him, he accepted. Good old Neal...

Where would you say you guys draw most of your influence from?

Lots of soul and R'n'B records from the 60's and 70's. And Led Zeppelin.

You were played on Triple J's Home & Hosed program recently, were you excited about getting radio attention after being a band for such a short amount of time?

It was a cool surprise. We threw the track up on Soundcloud the day we got the master back without much thought or any real plan for servicing it to radio, so it's cool that Dom (Alessio) picked it up and played it.

How would you describe the life of a musician in Brisbane? Have you had a lot of support from your fellow bands in your home town?

We've all been playing in bands in Brisbane for some time and yeah, there's a lot of camaraderie among most of the bands here. We're not all pissing in each others pockets or anything, but there's definitely a sense that most bands want their friends and peers to do well. We've been very lucky to be invited to play shows with John Steel Singers and Holy Holy who aren't just friends but awesome artists who we have a great deal of respect for. And those were only our first and third shows, which shows a tremendous amount of faith on their parts that we weren't going to suck.

What do Rolls Bayce have planned for the rest of 2013?

We're off to the inaugural Amamoor Festival this weekend, a little 200 ticket event in the bush a couple of hours north of Brisbane. We've got a support booked for Jeremy Neale in Brisbane in November, and some possible but unconfirmed tour plans for later that month. Other than that just writing and recording a bunch more songs.

Questions: Lauren Payne

Words: Tom Hutchins

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