With a new album just under their belts, Bodyjar have impressed many Australian & overseas fans with their take on the punk rock ethic & performance style. The band have recently had some success with latest single Remote Controller & I expect this will get even better for the band once the album has been out for a few weeks too.

I recently spoke with Cam from the band where the conversation stretched from the airplay the band has gotten in various areas, to what the band expect from the Internet. First up though, was the title of the album, which I found very intriguing.

"(Laughing) If only you new the whole story! The truth is that we had an incredibly hard time deciding on a name for the album & there were like, no kidding, something like a hundred names & we kept going through the list & picking the ones that didn't sound stupid or that we thought didn't suck. In the end, No Touch Red was really the only one we all thought sounded cool."

I'd had a good look at the artwork for the album & asked how much the band put into that side of the album.

"We did quite a bit towards that, we all have some input on it & I personally like the artwork a lot on this album & we all think the album actually looks great this time round. Now I look back at the last album, I don't like the look of it. With this album we really wanted to make an extra effort to make it look good too."

Having only received the album about an hour before we spoke & not being able to get a listen before the conversation, I asked what would usually be an ignorant question, what could I expect on this album compared with earlier Bodyjar music.

"Yeah, sorry about that, things didn't quite work out as well as we'd expected, but I guess it's actually a good question to ask because it gives us an opportunity to tell people what to expect ourselves, but it's not really easy to describe. I suppose more melodic, getting the songs better structured, having a more practised band than the last album & all that sort of stuff, but most of all, the sound quality of the album is so much better than anything we've done before because we wanted it to sound good."

I asked how much the band had put into the production side of the album.

"I suppose that's sort of an extension of the last question, & I;d have to say we did a lot of work. Unlike a lot of people, I think a smooth & well produced sound is great because it represents the sound of a band live better than something that's really raw. Of course there are going to be live performances you do as a band that will never be able to get the band at their best, but a studio album is able to capture the band at their best & you get to keep that on record, where some fans might get the band at a gig with a bad night, at least with an album you get what the band can atually do."

So does that mean that the band like the studio better than live gigs.

"I really like the studio work & I find it interesting, but live gigs have their own appeal & you can't really compare the two. I'd like to get into producing but I still like it live as well."

The question of airplay always seems to come up & Cam had his own opinions on the subject.

"Well, from the start, Community Radio has gotten well behind us & Triple J have also been fairly good, plus on the video side, Rage has been great & lately, MTV & Red on cable have apparently been playing our clips but the commercial stations just don't seem to give a stuff. They only seem to play our songs & other 'unsafe' music very late at night, but I guess that doesn't matter because the fans listen to Triple J & Community stations because they like the music, not because they can win stuff."

Lastly, I asked how the band had found the Internet had helped them.

"Our website address is on the CD artwork & the site is still under construction & we think it;s looking good. I think it's great that you can see what people find interesting & look at on the site & that they actually get to give you some feedback, which is something you can't really get anywhere else. Everyone says it's the way of the future & I suppose they might be right."

Check out Bodyjar's latest album No Touch Red out now through Shock.