Stevie from Clowns (Melbourne) talks about touring America, playing Riot Fest, their national “Never Enough” tour, Rise Against and more!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Stevie from Melbourne outfit Clowns and boy did he have a lot to say about tour life in America! Read on about the band’s time over there, being the first ever Aussies to play Riot Fest and look ahead to their upcoming Aussies shows with Rise Against and more!

How were the American shows compared to your usual Australian shows?

Its kind of funny in America because we have been working so hard in Australia and it has been going so good, lots of people coming to our shows and know our music, and coming to America it’s sort of like we are starting again (in a good way). It really brought us down to reality like… ah shit there’s a whole world out there.

Are you planning on returning to America any time soon?

Always looking for offers, we went earlier on in the year before Riot Fest and when we came back we had no money. I was thinking there’s no way we can go back to the states, then we got offered Riot Fest it wasn’t even a question of if we are going back we just had to make it happen.

So The Clowns are the first Australian Band to ever appear on the Riot Fest bill, how did that feel?

Pretty good, I guess it’s just kind of weird you would have expected to put on a bigger Australian band by now but nah.

How much confidence have you gained from playing around American bands?

I think we are pretty confident with our performance, the only thing that separates us is that we haven’t touched base in the states as much, but even though at Riot Fest  it was like Fiddler was playing, then it was us, then it was Pears, so we were on between two really big bands. We’ve been playing for so long, so even if people didn’t know us we know they appreciate that we are a band that has worked very hard.

How excited are you for the Australian tour to start?

Yeah it’s just good to be back in Australia and be with my friends and be in an environment we are bit more comfortable in. Also playing in front of people who actually know us rather than trying to make fans overseas. It’s not really about the turn out though, we would put on the same show regardless, and it’s more of a home ground advantage.

You’re the main support for Rise Against coming up, how will that impact your confidence?

It’s going to be good cause we are going to be playing in front of a lot of bloody people and it’s going to be good exposure and hopefully before the show a few people will know we are playing and maybe give us a listen and buy a t-shirt. Some people would have never had heard us before and will go out and listen to our record. In terms of confidence I think if you put us on a stage in front of 100,000 people we would be psyched, maybe even a bit nervous but stage fright is pretty non existent now.

Favourite awkward tour story?

I’ve been asked this a few times and not I’m sure if it would be safe for me to tell them to a music publication but we went to Tijuana at the end of our tour to wind down but we didn’t really wind down at all.

We kind of got fully interrogated by the local police and we felt pretty violated. Within the first hour we were there we were being followed around by a dude who just looked like a gangster and I got a bit scared cause he was following us for about five minutes around corners and stuff and we ended up stopping and he just walked past us and I was just like shit we need to get off this street. As we were walking away the police kind of just pulled up and put us all up against the wall and were looking through our wallets and putting their hands in our pockets. It was pretty frightening when you hear about how the police are corrupt over there. But it was all right in the end i think they were just making sure we weren’t up to no good.

Whats next for the Clowns, tour or studio?

I think it will be a bit of both we are pretty much fully booked out until the end of March with different tours and support shows and we are writing for our third studio album and it’s still pretty early days and it’s hard to say when we will be recording and releasing but I’d love to have the album out by next year sometime.

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CLOWNS Tour Dates
With guests COSMIC KAHUNA

OCTOBER
29th – The Phoenix, Canberra [18+] w/ Sketch Method.
30th – Factory Floor, Sydney [18+] w/ Frank Rizzo, Firearms.
31st – Crowbar, Brisbane [18+] w/ The Black Market, Crooked Face.

NOVEMBER
2nd – Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne [18+] w/ Batpiss, Mesa Cosa.
3rd – The Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood [AA] w/ Hard-ons, Ecca Vandal, Horrible People, Stone Valley.
7th – The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart [18+] w/ Nowyourefucked, Bus Money.
20th – The Boston, Perth [18+] w/ The Decline, Hope Street.
27th – Enigma Bar, Adelaide [18+] w/ Beaver, She’s The Band.
—> Tickets available now.
—> For more information, visit [Here].

RISE AGAINST
With guests CLOWNS and OUTRIGHT

DECEMBER
2nd – Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne [AA]
4th – Riverstage, Brisbane [AA]
8th – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney [AA]
—> Tickets available now.
—> For more information, visit [Here].

For more details on the band head to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/clownsband

 

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