When catching up with Wil Wagner, the musician is relaxing backstage at an event on the Melbourne campus of La Trobe University. Currently on a solo tour, Wagner’s flown in just for this event, with plans to set to jet off again the next day.
While preparing to play to a bunch of intoxicated first-time students as well as returners, The Smith Street Band frontman reminisces about his brief study stint.
“I went for probably about three weeks,” he laughs. “I was doing a music industry course and we got offered a tour a few weeks in. I was like, well, I don’t really want to say no to a tour and stick around doing a course that was pretty much the same thing; it just didn’t make sense. So I said yes and didn’t really turn back.”
University may not have been a big influence on the band, but it seems the city’s iconic Smith Street was.
“It was Wil Wagner and The Smith Street Band – kind of like Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band – but then I dropped my name from the front because it was a lot more collaborative than that,” he says.
“I just didn’t feel like it should be me and a backing band, I guess. It is named after Smith Street, which is weird because I don’t live there anymore and it’s kind of gentrified. In ten years it’s probably going to be like, ‘Why are you called the Chapel Street Band?’ or something like that. I guess it works because ‘smith’ is so generic…and I like that it has ‘The Smiths’ in it.”
“I think, in general, it’s a really bad idea to kick a bunch of drunk people out on the street at 2am”“I used to live above the Birmingham [pub], just on the corner of Smith and Johnston…it got shut down for noise complaints, and I just can’t afford to live anywhere around Fitzroy anymore.”
The conversation then turns to Sydney’s recent lockout laws, where some Wagner made some interesting points.
“I think it’s bullshit, really. I agree with it in some of the circumstances, but I believe that there should be distinctions between the shows that have them and the shows that don’t. An acoustic show isn’t really going to cause any trouble. Everyone that comes to our shows is either drunk or stoned, and if you’re stoned, you’re not really going to start a fight.”
“I think, in general, it’s a really bad idea to kick a bunch of drunk people out on the street at 2am when they don’t really want to be there. I feel like that is going to cause just as many fights. It’s like it’s being policed by people who don’t really understand what’s going on. I think if they came down to the show I did at Black Wire Records in Sydney, they wouldn’t think of it as a dangerous environment. It should be more of a case by case thing rather than a rule.”
Last year saw The Smith Street Band release Don’t Fuck With Our Dreams – a critically acclaimed five-track EP that saw the four-piece tour Europe and sell out shows in the UK.
“We wanted to release something and we didn’t really have time to make an album,” Wagner says. “We recorded that in three days and did it all live in the studio – ‘cause we did that, we chose songs that were written really recently and were fresh and immediate. You don’t really get to do that with an album.”
Wagner explains the bittersweet story behind the EP name.
“…he turned around to this guy who had hurt him and yelled, Don’t fuck with our dreams!”“One of our mates Jules who plays in The Bennies got seriously injured – someone attacked him and blood was pouring out of his head, and he turned around to this guy who had hurt him and yelled, ‘Don’t fuck with our dreams!’ So that’s where that came from. It seemed like such a fucking beautiful thing to think of and say in a situation where you’ve got blood pouring everywhere, really galvanising in that kind of shit.”
The band is set to kick off a tour in a couple weeks with some of their mates – and a band they’ve never met.
“Yeah, we’ve got Grim Fandango from WA. We always wanted to do something with them and it seemed like this was the right time. There’s also The Menzingers from Philly [USA], and we haven’t met these dudes yet but they’re kind of part of this group of bands that we’ve all toured with. Like, someone will be talking and saying, ‘Have you met so-and-so from The Menzingers?’ and I’ll be like ‘No, I haven’t’. They usually seem surprised; it was inevitable that we’d end up touring with them.”
“We’re hitting all the major cities with a couple of secret shows and all-ages ones, and also regional towns like Nambour. I actually spelt it wrong on the poster. I always see tour posters with wrongly spelt names on them and I always think ‘Seriously? Just fucking Google it’, and then I did the exact same thing!”
This year is set to be a big one for the Melbourne lads. As well as the aforementioned tour, the band is set to record an album, release it, and then hope to tour it by the end.
“It’s nice to see it all mapped out,” Wagner says, “and also fucking terrifying.”
The Smith Street Band & The Menzingers Australian Tour 2014
With guests GRIM FANDANGO
MON MARCH 10 • PUSH OVER FESTIVAL • MELBOURNE (AA)* Lineup and more info here
FRI MARCH 14 • THE ZOO • BRISBANE
SAT MARCH 15 • CORNER HOTEL • MELBOURNE
WED MARCH 19 • PRINCE OF WALES • BUNBURY
THU MARCH 20 • HQ • PERTH (AA)
FRI MARCH 21 • ROSEMOUNT HOTEL • PERTH
SAT MARCH 22 • UNI BAR • ADELAIDE
SUN MARCH 23 • KAROVA LOUNGE • BALLARAT
WED MARCH 26 • BRISBANE HOTEL • HOBART
THU MARCH 27 • THE PAV • LAUNCESTON
FRI MARCH 28 • THE SMALL BALLROOM • NEWCASTLE
SAT MARCH 29 • ANNANDALE HOTEL • SYDNEY (AA)
SAT MARCH 29 • ANNANDALE HOTEL • SYDNEY (18+)
SUN MARCH 30 • TRANSIT BAR• CANBERRA
*The Menzingers not appearing
Tickets available at www.thesmithstreetband.com
