The title to this story may make little sense to casual observers of John Reed Club, but it all makes perfect sense after you din out that an early incarnation of this band was called The Morticians, a name that apparently horrified the band's school teachers when they performed at their end of year formal.

The band have been rather fortunate recently, after 18 months or more of sheer hard slog, to become the latest signing to their label EMI. I recently spoke with James from the band & after a couple of day's delay due to a Telstra stuff-up, we finally got to chat about an incredibly wide variety of subjects, not the least of which started out with the band's name.

I asked James as to the name of the band as no one called John Reed in the band & where they picked it up from.

"Yes, a lot of people have asked us about that & it's really quite easy to explain. The name actually came from an earlier band, but you need to know that there were actually John Reed Clubs around in the 30s or something. John Reed was actually the guy who wrote that book about the Russian Revolution which I think was called something like 100 days that shook the world. But of course we weren't going that deep, it just sounded like a cool name for a band that didn't really sound like a band name."

Intrigued by the last comment, I pushed a bit further on the subject.

Well, we always like band names that asre pretty simple or have some obscure meaning that only makes sense to the band. I guess John Reed Club really sounds like a jazz quartet or something. Names like I guess Soundgarden & Nirvana are simple. We can't stand names that try too hard to be something meaningful."

While still on the subject of names, the band's debut e.p. Death Metal came straight up & I mentioned thhe fact that this name may have been suicide as far as any commercial airplay might mean.

"(laughs) Maybe that's why the record company were so worried. I guess the real story is that we were trying to think of a name to call the e.p. & we came up with names like one of the song titles & stuff like that, but then I think it was Cameron who just said why don't we call it death metal & it just stuck."

A little later, I asked how the band had worked to get to where they are at the moment.

"We've been very lucky really. We've worked really hard with touring & getting support gigs & for the most part, we've gotten a lot of help from people like You Am I's manager & that helped us get onto the Big Day Out 6 months after we started out & then we've had some great support slots & it's just working out so incredibly well so far."

Having mentioned the band's music, James was more than happy to talk about the process of making the e.p.

"I guess the story is that we've really had a great time doing this e.p. & now we're just starting to write some really rocking tunes. We're very happy with the reception that it's received so far, especially with how much Triple J & heaps of community stations have played it, because I think we can do a lot better than this, so if people like this, then we'll be able to make even better music for them later on."

Before finishing off, I asked what the future for the band was after this e.p.

"It's not going to be a quiet time for us or anything. We're about to start off a tour from the Queensland coast right down on through to Adelaide with Sidewinder. Hopefully after that's finished, we'll be able to take some time & make a whole album, but I guess we'll have to wait & see how things go after this."

Check out John Reed Club's Death Metal e.p., out now through EMI.