50 Lions - Byron Bay - Sun, Sand and Hardcore
» Resist Records Tour - Manning Bar - Sydney University, NSW - December 22, 2007
» Sike Your Mind! - Camberwell Town Hall and Civic Centre, VIC - August 25, 2007
Byron Bay – Those two words conjure up images of surfing, hippies, tofu burgers and, at this time of year, Splendor in the Grass. What it doesn't conjure is the image of the dissatisfied and generally pissed off youth that hardcore requires as a starting point for any “core” band. That being said, it is from Byron that some of Australia's most important hardcore progeny hail. First, there was Parkway Drive, arguably Australia's most successful metalcore outfit, and now there is a whole new generation of hardcore emerging in the form of 50 Lions. Interestingly enough, these two bands share a common link in the brothers McCall: Winston, who fronts Parkway Drive, and younger brother Oscar, who fronts 50 Lions. It's Oscar that The Dwarf spoke to about the release of their newest album, the recent hardcore boom and touring.
“Byron Bay is a really small town and a pretty close knit community,” Oscar says of his hometown. “Everyone knows everyone and knows what's going on in the town.” This atmosphere has lead 50 Lions to a firm legion of fans in their hometown and a musical community as tight as any family. It was through this hardcore family that McCall first got introduced to the music he would be making. “I got into hardcore from listening to punk when I was younger, about 13 or 14,” he remembers. “I'd hear about band from friends and the older guys, like Luke from Parkway Drive.”
50 Lions formed in 2005. At this time, metalcore and post-hardcore had been hitting the mainstream in a major way, leaving the old-school hardcore fans by the wayside. Brought together by their love for bands like Judge, the Gorilla Biscuits and the entire Dischord Records back catalogue, these five young guys formed a band to fill the void. Since then, 50 Lions have made a huge impact on a scene that has grown rapidly in recent years. “Knowing the right people has definitely helped,” McCall says of this relatively young band's impact on the scene. “Another key point would be how much hardcore in this country has grown over the last few years.” This begs the question, why has hardcore boomed in the way it has? McCall answers with “I'd have to say the Internet and MySpace [has lead the boom]. The world has gotten a lot smaller and it's easier to do a lot of thing that in the past have been hard to do.”
Between then and now, 50 Lions have toured heavily, not just with Australian hardcore acts such as Her Nightmare, Carpathian and Pro-Team (RIP), but also legendary US acts including Madball and Terror. Their piss-taking attitude in one of the most serious of music genres around have endeared them to hardcore fans everywhere: their debut 7” sold out quickly and their debut album, Nowhere to Run is now also similarly difficult to find. You can't go to a hardcore show without seeing a kid wearing on of their infamous shirts, which rip off everyone from Knight Rider to Invader Zim. “We just do stuff that we think is either cool or funny, and would probably wear ourselves,” McCall shrugs. Despite all this finding the humour in what they do, the band have one of the rawest, most aggressive and pissed off sounds of any of the hardcore bands out there. Their new album, Time Is The Enemy, sounds like it channels every single frustrating moment, every member of the band has encountered in their lives. “If [the album] didn't sound aggressive, I'd be worried,” Oscar laughs. “Hardcore is an aggressive music so naturally its going to be a pissed off record.”
Here the similarities between Time Is The Enemy and Nowhere To Run end. Even though Nowhere To Run is the staple part of the diet of any hardcore kid, its mediocre production and lack of raw energy, especially when compared to their latest release and their live shows, have no set it apart from what 50 Lions have achieved since its release. “We wanted the new record to sound as heavy and energetic as we could,” McCall says of Time Is The Enemy. “Nowhere To Run lacked a lot of the energy and was a bit of a rush job with the recording.” Perhaps part of the reason for this new focus and concern with quality has been the need for the band to grow and push themselves. This certainly was the motivation for the move from Washed Up Records to the established and highly reputable Resist Records. “We swapped to Resist because we wanted to see how far we could push ourselves as a band.” McCall continues, “We knew that Resist was the label to do it with. They're the most established and hardworking label in the country.”
Time Is The Enemy really does represent a progression for 50 Lions. It shows a band that has matured both in its song writing and its work ethic. McCall describes this in his explanation of the recording of the album. “We took a lot more time to write the songs, used a wider variety of gear and really worked on individuals sounds that would compliment each other rather than sounding good by themselves. We also took a little bit longer than we have previously in the studio.” They have become a band where everyone's place is known, “Dan writes all the music and I write the lyrics,” McCall says. “Generally we just write songs with a lot of energy that gos through the entire song and doesn't lose any intensity.” Part if this intensity is derived from McCall's lyrics and the raw and ragged way in which he delivers them. “The lyrics are usually about issues and generalised situations that I've seen and been through that piss me off,” he says. “[On the new album] each song has a different theme, but it's mainly about living in a world that is about to end and how we all act and the cycles we live and base our lives around.”
In the coming months, 50 Lions embark on a series of tours including supporting the US band Down To Nothing as they tour Australia, and doing the first two shows of the Sike Your Mind Tour (one of Australia's only touring hardcore festivals). “We're only doing the first two shows of the [Sike Your Mind] tour. It's going to be the end of the Down To Nothing tour, which I'm really looking forward to.” To McCall it's an opportunity to play with an international band that his band are huge fans of. Touring is not a scary prospect for these young Byron guys. “We're not exactly new to the idea of touring,” McCall says, “[Touring] does get a bit stressful sometimes, but you have to take the ups with the downs and make the most of the opportunity while you have it.” After this, nothing is really planned too far ahead: “possibly” a tour of New Zealand. “But,” McCall continues, “I'm sure something will pop up. It always does.”
