If you pay any attention, whatsoever, to new music then you will have heard of Bandicoot. In the last year the Auckland based, noise-pop-punk trio have canon balled into the local music scene. Explosive, screamy, coy, candy, snap, crackle, pop, growl, Tyrannosaurus Rex - if this band came with a warning sticker all of the above would aptly sum it up. They've topped the Radioscope National Alt. Radio charts, clocked the 95bFM Top Ten with single 'Emotional and Dirty', played Campus A Low Hum & Big Day Out and released their sophomore EP Jurassic Warfare. As if all this wasn't exhausting enough, they have several more gigs lined up for end of Feb / early March.

How long have you been together for?
We’ve been together about 9 months now… We had our first gig on May 22nd. Or 27th. I can never remember. It was in a tiny café on K Rd and we had about 70 people, spilling out onto the road. It was awesome.

How would you describe your sound?
That’s tough. I think the closest I could get to accurately describing it would be Noisy-Angsty-Hardcore-Spazz-Pop-Punk. An interesting mix.

You've recently released your EP Jurassic Warfare.  What do you hope your sophomore EP achieves in the public arena?
Achieve? I’m not sure if we’re expecting it to achieve anything, as such. We just wanted to put some stuff out there and see how it goes. If it ‘achieves’ something, well hey, I guess we’ll be one step further to being a legitimate band!

What’s your process for writing songs? And where do you get inspiration from?
The process is pretty straightforward, really.
Reuben writes a riff, we jam it out, I work out some kind of beat and Pearl  writes the lyrics.

I couldn’t say where Reuben gets his inspiration from (The X Files?) or Pearl (American Apparel?) but for me a lot of inspiration comes from other drummers like Brian Chippendale, Zach Hill, Greg Saunier and New Zealand’s very own Ryan Bennet from Butt Simpson and Megaheroes.

I also listen to a hell of a lot of Jazz (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker, Adderley etc) but I very much doubt that this shows up in my drumming…
And, of course, we get a lot of inspiration from the incredible Big Dwayne.

What’s the long term goal for your band?
We never really started Bandicoot with a goal in mind. Reuben just wanted to start a band and Pearl and I came along for the ride.
That we’ve got this far is a surprise in itself!

We’re thinking of maybe releasing a split 7-inch with an awesome and mysterious band and perhaps touring at some point, but anything further ahead than that is just plain scary.

You guys just played Big Day Out. What was that experience like for you as a band?
That was a whole lot of fun.
We thought it would be weird playing on a huge stage like that & in front of so many people (in our first gig, the one in the tiny café, we had maybe 2m squared to play in and that’s kind of been the theme for most of our shows), but once we got up there it was almost just like any other show.  It seemed a bit less personal and Reuben certainly wasn’t used to having security guards stick their hands down his pants, but other than that it was awesome.

The amount of people that showed up was reeeally surprising. We had been worried that no one would watch us (we were on at 10:30am and a misprint on all the tickets informed everyone that Big Day Out started at 11am) but a huge amount of people ended up watching. I think they like us. At least they didn’t seem to be too scared.

Which artists have been the biggest influence on you?
We’ve been influenced hugely by bands like Be Your Own Pet and Deerhoof - bands with that weird, eclectic sound that can’t really be categorised. It’s really interesting hearing people trying to describe our sound, because it is quite different, quite off.

We’ve been compared to Deerhoof (which was probably the best compliment we could’ve received) and we’ve even been likened to Lightning Bolt, which was awesome, but wrong.  I suppose that our sound is kind of a combination of those two bands-the childish, almost jokey aspect of Deerhoof, their catchy riffs and hooks and prominent beats, combined with the harsh, crazy, immture madness of Be Yr Own Pet.

What’s been the hardest thing about getting a band up and running?
I’d say that the toughest thing for me was juggling Bandicoot with school. Having a casual band on the side during high school is easy, and that was originally what Bandicoot was, but once it started becoming a commitment, as our gigs became higher profile and the practices started to take up more and more time, it became pretty hard to juggle school work and band work.

There were heaps of late nights at bars. Gigs that started at midnight and finished at 1 in the morning meant we were all pretty exhuasted most of the time. I think we managed eventually, but it took a while to get used to.

Why do you love music?
I’m just going to come out and say this: Music is the most awesome thing in the world ever. We all love music so much because it makes us happy, listening to and playing it. It’s our creative outlet, our way of releasing everything. There is really nothing better when you’re feeling really pissed off than just going crazy on the drums, or having a jam on the saxophone, or playing some relaxing clarinet. It makes me calm down immediately. When I’m playing music, I feel amazing. There really is nothing better.


What's Your Poison?
Auckland or Wellington?
I cannot choose.
This is going to be a serious problem for me when I move out.

Jurassic Park or Jaws?
Jurassic Park. Definitely. Dinosaurs win at life.

Jerry Seinfeld or Cosmo Kramer?
Seinfeld. I love my Seinfeld.  

Adidas or Reebok?
Adidas. By far.
But the whole Star Wars themed thing they’ve got going at the moment is a bit weird…

Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift?
NO.

The 90’s or the 00’s?
I’m gonna say neither, and go with the 50s.
Kind of Blue came out in 1959. Therefore the 50s is the best decade ever.

Mcdonalds Cheeseburger with mayo, Mcdonalds Cheeseburger without mayo or Spam in a Can with mayo?
McDonalds cheesburger without Mayo.
I love Maccy Dees, but I am suspicious of their sauces.
Secret ingredients freak me out.

Rhythm n Vines or Big Day Out?
I’ve never been to Rhythm and Vines, but it sounds waaaay better than Big Day Out. Way more chilled. I can’t wait until I can go.

Hard core or Shore core?
Hard core. Like the Three Six Mafia. Yezzir.

Red m&ms or Blue m&ms?
There’s a difference? Really? Woah.

Keanu Reeves or Taylor Lautner?
Keanu Reeves! Have you seen Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure?  Come on!

Buy JURRASIC WARFARE off Muzai Records HERE

Check out Bandicoot Myspace


Watch Bandicoot's new video for track Bessie, off Jurrasic Warfare EP.
(Video by Ben Kearney and Vince McMillan, assistance from tomtomsoup. Monster designed by Ben Metge)