After the Sex Pistols inverted the concept of what it meant to be a band, acts were able to get by on just their image and attitude alone. If they had the right mix of both of those, the music came secondary. When The Libertines brought this mentality into the new millennium it spread like wildfire and raw DIY outfits sprouted up across the world.
Sprouting out of a shed in Sydney, three piece The Debt Stars get by on their leather jackets and ironic, surrealist humour – meaning their grungy, in-your-face post-punk sound comes secondary. Their big appeal however, lies in the combination of these three elements in their live show; captivating, energising and bewildering audiences.
Ahead of their performance at HOUSE on 18th October as part of the Oxjam Liverpool Takeover, we caught up with lead guitarist and frontman Sean Regan…
How long have you three known each other?
Me and Timmy the drummer met up in London a few years back. We used to spend the weekends recording Run DMC covers and getting messed up in a flat off Edgeware Road. Then I moved to Australia to tour with another band and work in the mines for a few years. That band fell apart last year, so when Tim came to Sydney on holiday we decided to start playing together again. We’ve just met Saskia who had recently got back from touring the Japanese underground circuit and somehow convinced her to move with us to Liverpool and play bass for us.
When did you start making music together?
We all got together around March this year where we spent the first few months writing and rehearsing in my shed in Sydney. We went and did a few gigs and they went well so we thought we’d come back to England as it’s easier to write music in cold weather.
Has your style changed much since then?
It changes pretty often, we started doing a lot of post punk and spook pop, now we’re incorporating more lo-fi and noise elements into the sound. It’s more important to us to find new things that people haven’t written about before. When we started we went through the usual “hipsters are idiots” and “things were better in the day” songs that everyone else has been doing. Now we’re writing about how everybody is off their faces at funerals, people getting married for visas and even a song about how we’re being oppressed by tea.
Where did the name come from? Do you all have maxed out credit cards?
Well it’s a name that reflected the fact that we were all skint and owed a shit load of money, but still wanted to throw on our leather jackets and go out and party like a bunch of rock stars. Sounds a bit reckless but hopefully that’s something everyone can relate to even if the word rock star is a bit cliché. We can’t have credit cards on account of being unemployed, so the only money we’d be likely to borrow would be from Wonga… We do have some eye watering student loans though.
The Libertines are clearly a big influence on you. What is it that makes you connect with them so much?
When I was growing up the general consensus was that in order to make it as a musician you needed a few things; talent, good songs and a second album that wasn’t akin to shoving your head in a bucket full of porridge and moaning about the hospital parking scheme. Then the Libertines came along and I realised that wasn’t true and if I just wore a convincing enough jacket then I could be famous too.
You actually got to meet Pete Doherty didn’t you?
Yes that’s right, it turns out he’s a bit of a fan so he invited the band to come visit him in Paris. I’d actually already met him once before when I was working behind the bar in a London pub. He was giving a lecture to members of the Pipe Club of London, something he’s a bit of an expert as it turns out, after which he came over and ordered a pint of Stella and a bag of dry roasted nuts.
You even gave him one of your “Timmy Tea Time Mugs” Why was the handle scorched though?
That’s right, quite a lot of our merch was damaged in a fire a little while back so we had a load of spare mugs we couldn’t charge full price for. Fire’s do seem to be a bit of a regular occurrence, my bass player in my last band even burnt down a large portion of my house when he unsuccessfully tried to pack up a barbecue.
Who is Wheel Stealer Steve?
He’s my singing teacher, we met him while we were doing karaoke over at the Big House a few months back. He’s a great singer, but to be honest he’s pretty crackers. We were driving him home down the East Lancs road last week when we we accidentally ran over a hedgehog. He made us pull over, scrape it off the road with one of our spare demo CDs and hold a funeral for it in his back garden back inSalford. He’s a pretty tough bloke except when it comes to animals, he was in tears all evening and didn’t touch a single sausage roll at the buffet.
Are you working on any new tracks at the moment?
We’re currently working on a new track called Flux which is about how we’re having a tough time adjusting our lives to society now that the Internet is destroying all our jobs and messing up our social lives… so lets forget all that and get wasted in meat space!
Is there a release on the horizon?
We’ll be putting out our debut single early next year for everyone who signs up to the mailing list, but until we get some money to record more songs everyone can have to keep coming to the shows to hear what we have to say. We also have a track called Shallow Grave which people can check out on Soundcloud.
Will your set differ much from the one you played at our Battle of the Bands?
Yeah we’ll be mixing it up a bit with a few new songs like Beat the Bankers and Visa Wedding to keep it fresh. Also, as it’s a Saturday night, we’ll be putting on an a series of stylish improvised dance routines from midnight until 4am all over town which the audience can join in with.
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