Love to hear Percussion Junction...
If you have heard whisperings about the hot new act Percussion Junction, listen up here because Ben Chinnock, who works the turntables, took some time out on a work break to chat to The Dwarf about their debut album, Beatles fights and matters of the MySpace universe. Percussion Junction is one of those acts who are genuinely hard to pigeon hole, do you like Percussion? Reggae? Electro? Rock? Pop? You might be getting close.
“Which Beatle would win in a fight?” Ben repeats the question then answers without hesitation “Oh Ringo of course, he would be like a ninja. He has got symbols to throw at you, sticks to hit you with, poor Paul, John and George, they have a bass guitar, guitar and mic, aside from using the mic as some kind of grenade…and he has got more energy than anyone else”.
Excitedly (and appropriately for a percussion band member) he starts getting excited thinking about all the drummers of the world and what they could achieve in fights “Look at drummers out there someone like Brad Wick (from Rage Against The Machine), he would really fuck you up”.
Aside from this Percussion Junction have just collaborated to create a debut album Ben said it was “Really interesting for us, because we’ve been playing together for quite a while before we decided to make the album. The whole process took like a year… it was a big learning curve 'cos none of us had ever made an album before”.
With influences from a vast array of sources from Billy Joel to Basement Jaxx to Fort Knox and some world music too it means the new album is really diverse, says Ben. “I played the guys a lot of different music, cos I’m fortunate enough to work as a DJ, so I’m forever making them little compilation CDs to show them new stuff, and influence the way they think about music, as well as our sound as a whole”.
Getting your hands on a new album these days has become easier and as convenient as turning on a computer and connecting to the Internet. Though Percussion Junction’s album is available for download through the people distributing their album Vitamin Records, Ben mused “We kinda didn’t really go down that avenue just yet. Which is more of time thing rather than us not wanting to embrace it. People can download or buy the album. We encourage people to buy the album, for me there is nothing more beautiful than having an album…I went through that stage of downloading everything, then I went out and bought everything I’d just downloaded. I think when you have kids, you are not going to say ‘oh here is a burnt CD that you should listen to’, you’ll want them to go through your CD collection and find music they like that way”.
MySpace has also propelled our access to bands and their latest ventures and bands are utilising this forum more and more too because “It’s great for meeting new bands in Australia or around the world. Every day you find someone new or they find you. It’s a really good networking tool for that purpose.”
So out of the digital age and into reality Percussion Junction, like every band worth their salt, are touring with their latest album. “People should expect amazing live performances from us. We function really well as a live band; you know that is definitely where our strength is. There is a whole lot of energy and a whole lot of enthusiasm that we bring to the stage. We just love to play and get out and about, we are pretty excited about doing shows”
A diverse band like these guys would occupy a stage space with some differences; “You’ll have someone up there on the decks (Ben), refining the sound and three guys jumping around on drums and percussion (Matt Bourne, Kane Goodwin and Paul Issa). People should be prepared to have a dance and a damn good time!”
‘A damn good time’ in the dictionary according to Ben: “Dancing from beginning to end” he continues “I guess I haven’t done that in a ling time, thinking back to when I first started going out clubbing. You’d get there at whatever time and you wouldn’t stop dancing till the end of the night, if you could convince someone to get of the dance floor and buy you a drink that was good because you didn’t have to stop”.
Wrapping up the chat we get cosy and homely with this band boy talking about the affections of a pet “I grew up on a farm, quite rural, so I’ve always had dogs. I miss having a dog, me and my girlfriend have always talked about getting a German Shepard. If I could have a pet again, a German Shepard, I’d be happy”. Nyaw.
