Sydney dark pop band RED RIDERS tell JADE PHAM a little more than she needs to know, “We’re more like pirates, really. Sometimes when we’re lonely, and there’s no one else around….”

Red Riders are two art school punks and two media degree dropouts who “love going to see bands that you dance to.” The sum of all parts is a sharp indie-rock band with a sexy disco flavour. The band are three weeks into their tour supporting The Living End, with two and a half weeks to go, when this manic interview takes place.

Meandering up to the table half an hour late are four scruffy-looking lads in tight jeans and faded t-shirts. Matt Chapman “the typical quiet, sulky bassist” who’s not very quiet at all makes quick introductions as the band take their seats. Tom Wallace, the redhead lagging behind is the reason drummer jokes exist, he cheerfully states, “Al says I put the ‘er’ in drummer.” ‘Al’ being Alexander Grigg, the flamboyant on who has been described as “a trainwreck that you have to watch: onstage. That leaves “the disciplined and organised” Adrian Deutsch who, although completely different in demeanor to Grigg, shares the role of singer/songwriter/guitarist in the band.

2004 saw the release of their self-titled EP and gigs with Franz Ferdinand, The Fiery Furnaces, Death From Above 1979, but it wasn’t until last year’s The Plan A (featuring the rhythmic single Call On Me) that Red Riders really started building momentum. 2005 kept them busy touring with Youth Group, The Grates, Faker, and more. This year brings the band’s impressive debut album Replica Replica, recorded over two weeks at Rockinghorse Studios in Bryon Bay.

There’s a plethora of immediately catchy melodies, and instantly infectious grooves to choose from; why did the band pick the slow-building Slide In Next To Me as their first single?

“It was a totally collaborative song, and when we were thinking about the first thing we wanted to present the album, it was the four of us together,” says Grigg. He can’t resist adding, “This isn’t some one’s glorified solo project. Even though I am the most talented one in the band, it’s not really about me.”

Wallace leans into the Dictaphone, “Footnote: sarcasm.”

Deutsch says more seriously, “Because Alex and I both share the basic songwriting, and lead singing onstage, we have a lot of people that somehow can’t handle that. They find it confusing that there’s more than one singer and it’s not just a one-man frontman band kind of thing.

“We were watching the Beatles’ Anthology and it worked for the Beatles, you know? It can work for us; it’s not such a crazy concept.”

“I don’t think it’s actually the people who have a problem with it,” Grigg says, for the first (and possibly only) time being sincere, “Record people are just – they have a formula they go by: ‘Okay, you need this front person to do this, and you need this person for that.’ And they ruin it for everyone; the music industry ruins the fun. When people come and see us, they have no problem dealing with the fact that we have two singers. People are all smarter than the record industry people give them credit for. I don’t know, maybe that’s why we’re on an independent label.”

Replica Replica is out now through Ivy League Records.

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