A so not very Regular John

“Take one part rock riffery, chop up some psychedelic/stoner jams then add a shot of punk energy and let four dudes fry the mixture in a nuclear dig out. Essentially thats what happens in our lounge room every time we jam.”

There is something so not very regular about Regular John. I say that in a kind way too – The Dwarf got to spend an intriguing moment or 10 with Caleb, Bass player and one part of this four-part masculine entity.

Regular John wrote the following explanation to describe their music:

"Sounds Like you know when you're driving through the desert in your army tank and your too tired to know if your running over rattlesnakes or people?"

Caleb elaborates for those of us not in the know.

“We grew up in the country and there is a lot of emptiness that we tried to fill with our sound. Our sound is the army tank. Tanks are big, they rumble and chug along and if they really want to they can fuck shit up. but to drive them you have to reach that state where people will turn into snakes and music will pulse through your entire body like electricity... when those powers combine you have Regular John. Or an acid casualty.”

Regular John list their influences as: "The power of Music. all things fuzzy, droney, noisy, proggy and groovy. The work of Kurt Vonnegut, Milan Kundera, Simryn Gill, Terrence Mckenna, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. The Fly. Perfume." Caleb expands a little more on this intriguing combination of words.

“We're talking bands that you can feel in your guts when you push play. With lyrics that weigh on your mind. Boris. Sabbath. Bad Brains. Music with physical force that you can feel as well as hear.”

Sharing a stage with You Am In in late 2006, Caleb elaborates on the man with the band, Tim Rogers.

“When you see them live you realise how many good songs they have written over the years. It's impressive how solid their body of work is. And they just keep playing them classics one after the other, back to back with this energy that never lets up no matter how much vodka Tim Rogers seems to be knocking back. To have that many good songs in your catalogue with no filler is something to strive for.”

Regular John's touring schedule is hectic to say the least – with a number of gigs planned for 2007.

“We're really excited about playing the places we've never been to. Until this band started touring I'd never even left New South Wales so its like going on a tourist vacation every time we go somewhere. Every gig is worth doing, doesn't matter who you play to. if the audience doesn't dig it we just play harder.”

Getting the low down on a live Regular John gig, it sounds like members of the audience may need to consider wet weather gear, earplugs or some sort of protective equipment.

“We sweat lots. The audience sweats a lot too. Hopefully your ears will ring and your head will bang. We like to get into it and feed off each other. There's a lot of energy and getting in each others faces and getting in the audience's face as well. It's got to be kinetic. The crowd has to feel the music like we're feeling it. Otherwise we're not doing our job.”

I will definitely keep this in mind if I make it to a gig in Hobart in the future!

Caleb provides us with a retrospective of what Regular John have been up to and what the boys are looking forward to Festival wise.

“Overcranked was indeed cranked. I was spaced out from driving all night but we did alright. Royal easter show should be interesting. We've never been before so we only know to expect lots of carny folk and farm animals which sounds like good ingredients for a rock show,” he says.

“Essential festival was really fun last year I remember dancing to Further with a prosthetic hand on a stick. i intend on repeating it for the dolly rocker movement this year. Come together will be cool, we all like coming so it will be really good to do it together with lots of other bands.”

Regular John released their new EP, Marrickville 2004 through Chatterbox / MGM in early March 2007.

“Its our first release and was mostly conceived at our house in Marrickville. The house has been through nearly everything. A band that used to hang with us wanted to have photo shoots there and they would get interviewed in our house then go back to their parents houses where they lived. fuck that,” he says.

“We have to actually live there every day and catch up on rent and deal with the cockroaches, the overgrown lawn from hell, the paranoia, the stains in the carpet and all the shit that would get broken during parties. The EP is a document of all of that, it reflects the conditions it was created in.”

“Its (the relationship with our Record Company) going well. Chatterbox doesn't tolerate bullshit. Neither do we. We're like the Beatles and LSD... Since we met only good things have happened.”

What can we expect from Regular John next?

“We got a lot of shows coming up all over the place which we can't wait to do. we'd happily do shows for the rest of the year but we'd like to get an album happening at some point. there is some shit music out there and we're eager to shake things up. we'll just keep our heads down and see what happens.

And how does the lovely Caleb of Regular John end our interview?

peace. caleb- bass.

Check out Regular John – coming to a town near you!

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