The Outsiders Newsletter Interview

Thanks to Stuart for answering these questions for muzic.net.nz:

What can we expect to see from The Outsiders over the next year?

More shows around New Zealand!! We have spent a lot of time and energy touring the United States in the past 18 months, in 2011 we played 3 times as many shows in the US as in New Zealand. So we should be doing a bit more at home and in Australia this year. We’re touring the North Island with our new EP in March and we should hit the South Island in early Winter. We’d like to do another release soon but right now we’re pushing ‘Shallow Graves’, it feels good to have lots of shows coming up in New Zealand.

What will The Outsiders’ next release be?

We have just released ‘Shallow Graves’ in New Zealand through Deadboy Records. Its a new 5 Track EP we recorded mid 2011. The EP came out in the United States when we were touring over there last November and we’re really happy to have it available in New Zealand!!

How do you come up with your lyrics?

3 of us write songs in the band so it works differently depending on whos working on tunes. Niam and Dan have been prolific song writers for years. Somtimes I wonder how they keep churning songs out the way they do. We do spend time working on songs together, its rare for a song to be totally finished when someone brings it into practice or a demo-session. I’m still new to writing & playing bass at the same time, so my songs are usually pretty quick little things that I spread out and work around other ideas for tunes, dynamics and vocal lines.

What is your favourite NZ venue?

It’s changed a little in the past few years but I always loved The Crown Hotel on Rattray Street in Dunedin. I’ve played and been to so many shows there I couldn’t work out how many. The place has been having bands play forever, I saw my first Ho Dogs and The Hasslehoff Experiment shows there, so many crazy bands & performers have graced that building it should be declared a historical landmark. Venues like the Crown Hotel have almost dissapeared from New Zealand these days.

What is your most embarrassing on tour/gig moment?

Throwing my bass guitar up in the air onstage during a show at a squat venue in Northern Germany, the head of my bass went through the roof and all this plaster and dust came down on my head and face. I played the rest of the set looking like an asbestos sniffing clown.

What is the best gig you have ever performed at, and why?

I think the best gig we have ever performed is at the music festival FEST 9 and 10. FEST is a really fun music festival which has been held in Gainesville, Florida, USA for the past 10 years. Around 300 bands and 15 000 people from around the world converge on this small city for a huge punk rock party with great headline acts and shows everywhere all across town. We’re the only New Zealand band to play at FEST and we’ve played there 2 years in a row now. Our most recent FEST show was sold out just before we started to play, lots of people came to check us out and we had heaps of friends there from touring around the states for weeks before then. We played well, had some free drinks, the crowd enjoyed it and we sold a lot of shirts & CD’s. That was a really good gig.

How do you keep in contact with your fans?

Through our Facebook and Bandcamp pages.