The Melbourne-based BATRIDER have just unleashed debut album Tara and now they’re taking her on the road – but it’s more than just a trip down memory lane as the band’s SARAH CHADWICK tells RICHARD MACFARLANE.

The last time I saw Batrider was in Wollongong at the Oxford Tavern. The room was spare, all beige brick walls and pokie machines and a strange array of bingo tables. It was weird, but also strangely suited to Batrider’s grungy punk sound, caterwauling through the sparse décor. The Oxford is not a great example of a ‘normal’ bar show, but Batrider like playing everywhere – house shows, warehouse venues and bars alike.

“It’s better to do them all. There are different audiences at each. In Melbourne, there’s a little bit of DIY stuff happening, but I think there’s a lot more of that going on in Brisbane and Adelaide and Sydney. There’s a real old school rock thing going in Melbourne that people tend to adhere to more, like there are some classics venues with longstanding reputations that everyone plays at. There’s that and then there’s the really ‘sceney’ places in the city, the more fashiony stuff. It’s a bit more trendy or whatever than what we’d normally prefer to do, but they can be pretty funny”.

Sarah Chadwick (vocals and guitar) and the band (three girls and one boy) have a bunch of friends in Adelaide, which is lucky because there’s a terrific venue there called Urtex – an old office building that you’ve got to press the buzzer to get into. Not nearly as exclusive as it sounds, in fact, quite the opposite, and it’s where all the best and most ridiculous dancing and fun goes on. Also, it reminds them of home – Hamilton and Wellington in New Zealand.

Elsewhere in our lengthy interview Sarah and I (both NZ expats) resort to gushing about old Flying Nun bands like The Clean and The Verlaines and The 3Ds. There’s a definite hint of this stuff in Batrider’s sound, particularly the punkier side of the Flying Nun ‘80s and ‘90s. There’s an ugliness to this rock; chugging guitars, The ethos, too, crosses over; no interest in ‘making it’ (surely a band that focuses on making it these days is missing the point, putting themselves automatically into the disposable category).

“My ideal idea of a musical career would be someone like Chan Marshall or Steve Malkmus. People who started making music in their teens and have just trucked along for the next 15 years or whatever making exactly the stuff that they want to; sometimes it crosses over into more commercial territory but it’s always for themselves”

The grunge tag seems to get chucked around with Batrider a lot, and it’s an easy label to slap on. Sarah likes Hole or Nirvana as much as the next person (Live Through This – fuck yes!), but they’re definitely not just a trip down memory lane. It’s true, they’re loud, but the album Tara sees a more even spread of dynamics.

“Tara definitely has elements of what we’ve done in the past, we haven’t changed radically, but it’s definitely showing us going in a good direction. The first 500 copies got pressed with an acoustic CD as well, which has new songs and old ones. I think Tara combined with this EP (it’s called Pink Guitars, Yellow Stars) is a good indication of where we are as a band right now, moving towards a middle ground where we’re not so loud, but not totally acoustic either.”

Batrider play an acoustic ‘house’ show on Thursday August 23 (word-of-mouth only folks, sorry) and the Troubadour on Friday August 24. Tara is out now through No Promo/Remote Control. (www.myspace.com/batrider)

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