With the BrisIndie festival fast approaching, AINSLEY DOBSON catches up with local rockers CHRIS BARTLETT and MAURICE MOYNIHAN from the headlining four-piece, PINK BULLET.

There are a handful of quaint little proverbs that impart wisdom to everyone they reach. Teach a man to fish: he will fish for a lifetime. You lie down with dogs: you get up with fleas. Ask Chris Bartlett and Maurice Moynihan to describe the Pink Bullet sound: you will be waiting for a very long time. Knowing less about the six-month-old band than I ought to, I open our interview by asking, “Does the band fall into a particular genre?” Apparently stumped, the boys frown. The clock ticks. I mentally write my shopping list. It snows. After this monolithic pause, and now coated in a fine layer of dust, Chris (the band’s vocalist) begins, “We try to make a mix of everything. We’re alternative, we’re progressive…” He trails off, letting bassist Maurice have a stab: “We’re a psychedelic electro-rock band.” Chris tries relating the quartet to some familiar names, citing The Mars Volta and Queens Of The Stone Age as influences, but Maurice shakes his head and bellows, “That doesn’t encapsulate what we’re about!” The two argue like a couple of geriatrics as they try to find the right words, but end up babbling like, well, a couple of geriatrics. Chris bashfully explains how they once credited themselves as an AFI tribute band. Let’s face it: whatever they’re now playing, they’ve come a long way.

Though the band have opted to manage themselves since day one, they warn of the difficulties that come with wearing two hats. “It’s hard to strike a balance between managing a band and being creative,” Chris says. “One week we’ll focus on rehearsing and writing new material, but the next week we’ll need to neglect that side and concentrate on booking gigs.” Maurice has his own idea of handling public relations: plastering Pink Bullet stickers on the handrails of escalators. “That’s my idea of getting our name out there,” he says. “Spending the day sitting in front of the escalator and watching the sticker go round.”

Since the release of their self-titled EP, the boys have been booking shows all around Brisbane, and have been quietly checking out their local competition. “The Brisbane music scene is just like high school,” says Chris, who explains the music is dwarfed by cliques and appearances. “It’s an absolute wank,” Maurice throws in unapologetically. Ever the diplomat, Chris rewords him, saying, “You can dominate the scene easily if you get to the top, but the niches we appeal to are too small right now.” The BrisIndie festival is one of the band’s first headlining appearances and was designed solely to showcase the talent of local artists. The festival will cram shows from eight Brissy bands into a single day, and Maurice hopes their set will turn out better than their first show did. “We played a friend’s 21st at the Jubilee Hotel and we sounded like crap,” he laughs. “But if you jump around enough, the audience gets distracted by visuals and forgets the audio onslaught being blasted their way.”

Check out PINK BULLET when they jump around at the QUT Gardens Point Guild Bar as part of BRISINDIE FEST on Saturday July 26. Tickets available now through Oztix.

Comments (1)

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*