GET IT ON

A little while back, a band called On released an ep called Lunchbox Thermos, which got them quite a following, thanks to Triple J picking up one of the tracks, Paranoia, in a pretty big way, flogging it mercilessly, to which the listeners pretty much replied - more please.

So, the public had spoken & the band were on their way. Unlike a lot of bands around, On have grown their own sound, taking bits & pieces from here & there, all the while taking their sounds in new directions & even back over some old.

I recently caught up with Scottie, from the 4 piece band where we discussed a number of things, including their forthcoming tour.

"Yeah, we're very pleased to be going on tour with Friendly. I think our style really complements that of Friendly, so the people who go along to check out Friendly will get great value when they discover a band who sound a bit different, but whose style they already know & are into."

With the Lunchbox Thermos ep out & doing fairly well for the band, I asked about the different styles of some of the songs on it.

"Yeah, a few people have asked me about that & I guess the short answer is that we like a whole bunch of different music. I listen to a lot, but really, some of them were just recorded at different times, so they sound quite different. What Is God? & Elrocco were both recorded at different times & Paranoia was recorded in a different session to Loc, so the sound is different with the songs being older or newer & I guess the mood we're in at the time we record also makes quite a difference."

The mention of Paranoia made me wonder about the success of that track & the support Triple J have given the song.

"They've been great, especially with Paranoia. We hope they like the album as much as that song, because they've really played it a lot & it's helped us out, so we're always greatful for that sort of support. It's like the support we get from community radio too. They're always supportive to anything new too. I guess they also have the advantage over Triple J where they can be a lot more free with their choice of song, where Triple J have such a large audience to cater for."

The question about radio begged the obvious one about commercial airplay.

"Honestly, it'd be great if we got picked up by a dance station or whatever, but given the state of some of the commercial FM stations, I can't really see them adding our music in any serious way, except maybe for the late night homegrown segments or something like that."

Something else the commercial stations have done to a lot of bands is to really pigeonhole them, so I asked what pigeonhole On as a band saw themselves.

"Wow, that's hard. I guess overall, most people probably really see us as a sort of electronic dance band, but once they've heard more than just Paranoia, they see we're also into rock sounds as well, so they're more open to the possibilities of what we're able to come up with. I guess that's the great thing about Lunchbox Thermos, there's a lot of different stuff on it, so people can make up their own minds."

Lastly, I asked what was next up for On.

"Well, as we spoke about earlier, we're about to head out on the tour with Friendly, doing A stack of shows with him & then we're also going to be doing our own shows. After that, we're looking forward to getting stuck into recording our debut album, so hopefully next time I talk to you, we'll be speaking about that."

Check out On's ep Lunchbox Thermos out now through Mushroom or catch them on tour near you now.