Melbourne favourites, The Smith Street Band are heading out on the road this August for a national tour, and the band have now announced that their forthcoming trek will be in support of a brand new release, a five-track EP (out August 9 through Poison City Records) titled Don’t Fuck With Our Dreams.
The band’s talented chief songwriter and frontman, Wil Wagner, has explained that the new EP was inspired by a tragic incident during the band’s extensive Young Drunks tour earlier this year, in support of the quartet’s critically acclaimed second studio album Sunshine & Technology, which scored an 8/10 from our Tone Deaf reviewer.
“It was the longest Australian tour we had ever done and by far the most eventful,” says Wagner, “This EP is about that time, all the songs were written during or just before that tour,” adds Wagner noting that what the band gleaned from the gruelling tour “was a sense that we had been galvanised and strengthened as a group, not just within our own bands but the entire touring party, and that we were hungrier than we had ever been.”
But the EP’s title and themes were directly inspired by a show in which a member of a fellow Melbourne band opening for the group was hospitalised after being stabbed with a broken whiskey bottle by an intoxicated punter at an all-ages show.
Julien ‘Jules’ Rozenbergs, guitarist for ska/punk/reggae act The Bennies, was the victim of the stabbing at Byron Bay’s The Shed earlier this year, after he attempted to calm down the aggravated gig-goer before attempting to restrain him outside the venue in a scuffle that resulted in the guitarist receiving a “20cm by 20cm” gash in his armpit.
“It was so shocking to us and something that we had never experienced, let alone expected at one of our shows,” says Wagner of the incident in a press release today. “In the aftermath we really questioned what we were doing, what difference (if any) we were making and if there’s anything we could have done to have stopped the awful incident, or to stop things of that nature happening in the future.” The statement continues:
There were vans pulled over, shows cancelled and then reorganised and moments where we all wanted to give up on music. But in direct juxtaposition to this were some of the most inspiring acts of human kindness and friendship I have ever witnessed, and that is the overarching theme of this EP.
‘Don’t fuck with our dreams’ is something Jules said during the incident, and that kind of became a motto for the rest of the tour. It isn’t about us as individuals or even us as bands, we want to make a positive change in the world and we want to create the happiest, best party environments for our shows and we are not going to let the dickheads win!”
The title track of Don’t Fuck With Our Dreams even features a backing chorus of The Smith Street Band’s touring partners; “I wrote that part with that in mind,” says Wagner, “all of us there sining in the same room felt so good and like we were salvaging something from the wreckage of that night.”
The majority of the new five-tack EP was recorded live with producer Matt Voigt (Paul Kelly, Big Scary) a “legendary and INCREDIBLY patient” individual according to Wagner. “It was the first time we’d ever tried recording that way and it was great having everyone in the same room, playing off each other.”
The Smith Street Band embark on their Australian Tour in August with US band Joyce Manor and Cheap Girls, playing shows around the nation before concluding with a sold out headline show at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel as part of the annual Poison City Weekender Festival; the group then head overseas for touring through Europe, the UK, and the US.
Before the full band tour in August, frontman Wil Wagner is warming up with a string of solo shows, “it’s a belated launch tour for Laika, the EP/album (it’s 8 songs, I don’t know what it’s supposed to be) I put out through Poison City Records at the start of the year!” says the singer-songwriter.
Pre-orders for Don’t Fuck With Our Dreams begin from Tuesday 18th June through poisoncityrecords.com, artwork and tour dates below.
The Smith Street Band 2013 Australian Tour
with Joyce Manor (USA) and Cheap Girls (USA)
Tix on sale now at www.thesmithstreetband.com
Thu Aug 22 – Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA*
Fri Aug 23 – Prince of Wales, Bunbury WA*
Sat Aug 24 – Adelaide Unibar, Adelaide SA*
Sun Aug 25 – Karova Lounge, Ballarat VIC*
Wed Aug 28 – Brisbane Hotel, Hobart TAS*
Thu Aug 29 – The Zoo, Brisbane QLD
Fri Aug 30 – Hotel Great Northern, Newcastle NSW
Sat Aug 31 – Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Wed Sep 04 – Transit Bar, Canberra ACT
Sat Sep 07 – Poison City Weekender – Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC (SOLD OUT!)
Check out The Smith Street Band UK/European dates HERE. More to come!
Wil Wagner 2013 Solo Tour
Friday June 7th – House Show, Perth
Sunday June 9th – Yah Yahs, Perth
Friday June 14th – Crowbar, Brisbane (Tix here)
Saturday June 15th – Kill The Music, Brisbane (Free/AA/Arvo show)
Sunday June 16th – Blackwire Records, Sydney (AA/Arvo show)
Thursday June 20th – Yours and Owls, Wollongong
Friday June 21st – The Lass, Newcastle
Saturday June 22nd – House Show, Newcastle
Saturday June 29th – TASSIE (TBA)
Saturday July 5th – Longplay, Melbourne
