Lo-fi blues meets garage punk in our Album of the Week from Sydney foursome Royal Headache. The self-titled debut LP is a plethora of short, sharp tracks bursting with infectious melody and sing-ye-grits-off vocals. We had chats with bass-player and all-round nice guy, Joe, about the road from lounge room gigs to supporting the Buzzcocks.

Fbi: So kicking off, let's talk about your music. Your sound has been described as everything from pop-punk to lo-fi rock, so there's obviously quite a few influences going on there. Who or what influences you guys to make the music you do?

Joe: I dunno, we all listen to so much music from so many different times and places it’s really irrelevant sort of. Essentially every great song has heart, honesty, a great melody and people playing them with everything they’ve got. Whether it’s Lesley Gore or Negative Approach, you know, it’s all the same shit. I think that’s what we’re attracted to in music and want to create ourselves. I guess a lot of that comes from the frustration of working ok/stressful full time jobs and, you know, whatever, dissatisfaction with whatever’s surrounding you. Boring stuff.

How did you all meet? What's your This Is Your Life tale, for want of a better metaphor… a betterphor?

We were all assembled by the Shogun after he decided he needed a band that would convince girls he was the sensitive, caring man they needed in their lives. He taught us how to play our instruments and cuts our hair at every band rehearsal.

Token interview question: Where did your name come from?

I actually don’t know. I think Shorty had the name for a while. It’s really good, it sort of suited what the band became before we even knew what we could possibly sound like.

So Royal Headache is your second release, after your highly celebrated EP. What's new about the LP, and how did it all come together?

It was so long ago now that we recorded I can’t actually remember the situation that made us think we should make an LP. We just had lots of songs and sort of just decided it’d be a good idea to record them all instead of playing shows all of the time. So we drove to Melbourne one weekend in May 2010 and recorded everything in a day with Mikey Young from Eddy Current Suppression Ring. So really there’s nothing new about the LP; pretty much anyone who saw us playing live in 2009 – 2010 will know the songs. They’re just now presented in a way where you can play them in the comfort of your own home and not get kicked in the face by one of your drunk friends.

How did you get signed to R.I.P Records?

Basically Nic [CEO of R.I.P Society] had his future told at a really young age and the fortune teller laid out everything that he would need to do in order to become the super success he is destined to be. So far he’s followed everything truthfully: attended the same high school as me, forced himself to be friends with me despite my dismal social status, convinced me to leave my small hometown in North Queensland to move with him to Sydney, forced the members of Royal Headache to let me join their band despite never having played bass before in my life and then finally just make us [Royal Headache] believe that he was our great friend who we could trust to help us put our record out. We really had no option but to sign our lives away to Nic. Today’s his birthday as well.

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