So, tell us about yourselves…Who are you – who who? We really wanna know…
We are the brothers from the ‘Burg. We are Red Aces.
‘Fess up. What records have you stolen from your parents’ record collection and why?
Oh, all the choice cuts. Joe Dolce, Demis Roussos, Jackson Browne… I also found a fairly thoroughly ruined copy of Hunky Dory when cleaning out the basement recently that I destroyed at age 4 because I wanted to hear the “Major Tom” song. Shame I wasn’t quite ready for “Queen Bitch”. And Dad, if you’re reading, I think I still have your copy of “12 Golden Country Greats”.
What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod right now?
The Stones’ “Can’t you hear me knockin” is a perpetual fave. I am still listening to Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night on repeat even after all this time. Ryan discovered Marquee Moon recently which, as expected, blew his mind into a million bits.
‘Home taping is killing the music business’ was the catch-cry of the record industry in the 1970s and 1980s, but it managed to survive until now. What do you think is the difference between mates taping copies of friend’s records back in the 80s and 90s and file sharing now?
The quality, speed and scale. The mind boggles at the sheer number of songs you can store in your pocket with no loss of fidelity and the speed with which you can duplicate them. But predictions of doom for artists are greatly overstated. I’ll only start panicking when you can digitally steal t-shirts and concert tickets.
You must answer this question honestly or we steal your rider. What was the first gig you went to? Where was it and what was the venue?
The first one I can really remember is seeing Franciscus Henri dancing around in his white pyjamas. The ones with the bright purple polka dots. Whatever happened to that guy? He was awesome!
What’s your favourite site to download music from and do you ever pay for it? Can we find any of your releases there?
The best sites to download from come printed on little slips of paper inside vinyls! It’s hilarious and brilliant that the CD is now completely obsolete, but you can buy a vinyl with a token that gives you a CD quality download. We’ll be offering our first single “Death Closes All” as a free download from redacesmusic.com in the coming weeks, but unfortunately vinyl is a bit outside our budget this time around.
What artist made you want to pick up an instrument and/or sing?
East 17. The desire to never be that terrible proved overwhelming.
Have you ever been arrested?
I slugged some jerk in Tahoe, they gave me 1 to 3. My high priced lawyer sprung me on a technicality. I’m just visiting Springfield Prison, I get to sleep at home tonight.
Do you have any particular ritual before you go on stage, or even a lucky charm you take with you?
I promised I wouldn’t make dick jokes.
Supposing you were to be playing sold out stadiums on your next tour, what outrageous rider requests would you submit?
I suppose we won’t know just how much everything has to be folded until we get there. We do strive to be professionals, though.
Because it’s more fun to do things together, which living Australian artist would you most like to collaborate with? Tell us why?
Red Aces feat. John Farnham – Whispering Ace. On the scale of “one” to “national treasure”, he goes up to 11.
Right, let’s get really intimate. Tell us what releases you have that we can listen to with the lights down low, or even better, where we can see you play in person next.
I suppose it would be trite (and a bit presumptuous) of me to suggest “Let’s Spend The Night Together” at this point, but it would be ever so nice if we could spend the 29th of July together at the Cherry Bar.
Naturally, don’t forget to give us the link to your Facebook fan page too.
