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 With a career spanning some 25 years and a music catalogue to match, THE HARD-ONS’ bassist RAY AHN spoke with BROOKE MCMASTER about playing in abattoirs, working in a record store and shitty band advertisements in great street press magazines.
You may not recognise Ray Ahn as he works in a record store in Sydney’s CBD, but he is actually bassist for one of the most revolutionary underground punk bands Australia has ever produced. Beginning as a rosy-cheeked 16 year-old when the Hard-Ons formed in 1983, Ahn, 42 and now corrupted by punk rock, is pumped about the upcoming Australian tour to celebrate the release of their 15th studio album, Most People Are Nicer Than Us.
So does Ahn think the music industry has really changed much in the time he’s been playing? “There’s been a big shift,” he begins. “Bands like Nirvana and Silverchair have been instrumental in the ideologies of this pristine underground rock world. Those bands ushered in a whole bunch of young bands who were wanting to become as big as Silverchair and Nirvana, so that they had something to grasp and aim for, which is unthinkable for most.” But we can’t forget that the world has had its fair share of completely shit bands also… “Yeah of course, that’s when there was this other twist where all these bogans saw this hole that these bands have punched in the wall, and they just ran through it. People are looking to do this for a career, which doesn’t necessarily work out.” The Hard-Ons have played everywhere, including Japan, the US, New Zealand and all over Europe. There have also been some pretty interesting venues over the years, but Ahn promises it doesn’t affect their playing one bit, “We played in Germany at this place called Karlsruhe, which is about 40 minutes out from Frankfurt in this abattoir, and our guitar player [Blackie] is a hardcore animal liberation activist and a vegan. By the time we had found this out the show was completely sold out and people were coming from all over the area, we even had a mate traveling some three and a half hours to see us, so what can you do?” We talk for a moment about how this is an untapped market and how we could make a mint off abattoir band tours. Of course splitting it 60/40 in my favour. Even stupid pun slogans like ‘guaranteed to be a grate show’ and ‘we can’t wait to meat you at the show’ are on the cards… “We have played in a lot of abattoirs actually – there was this one place called The Piggery in Byron Bay, we were playing on the steel grate that drains all the blood.” And how does the band get around such obstacles with their hardcore vegan frontman? “These days we just don’t tell our guitar player where we play,” he laughs. “Another time we were in Barcelona and lining the walls of the lobby of the place we were staying were dead pheasants and animals and I’m like to Blackie ‘Just close your fuckin’ eyes and run to your room. Of course after we checked out they told us of the side entrance. The bastards.” For a bassist who loves his protein, how does Ray respond to the epidemic of vegans coming out of the woodwork, especially in the music industry? “You know Veganism isn’t a fad, it’s a political statement now and there are a lot of musicians who are doing something about it. “And me? Well you know there are 6 billion or whatever people in this world and we have to eat it, I don’t mind a sausage here or there,” he says with a laugh. As I mentioned above, Ray works in a record store when not making music or playing in his other band, Wog. Drummer Peter Kostic works (ironically) in a drum shop and guitarist and vocalist Blackie drives a cab around Sydney; in which he gets recognised quite a bit. “It might have something to do with he’s the only white Anglo-Saxon Australian to drive a cab in Sydney.” He jokes. “Not many people want to work in a job like that. It’s shitty long hours and a really thankless job, but to a Middle Eastern man coming from a desolate country getting paid more money in one shift than he’ll see for a year; it’s a goddamn goldmine.” One thing we both find absurd are the band-seeking-musician advertisements you find in many music publications. People are no longer searching for the right sound and raw talent, but instead for logistical convenience and time to practice. “I find it so funny when you read those band advertisements and you see ‘band seeking bass player, must have own transport and good gear’, it’s like shit, say some Ouija (pronounced ‘weegie’ by Ahn) board spooky thing happened and John Entwistle from The Who comes back from the dead, reincarnated or whatever, and he’s like ‘hey guys I noticed you were looking for a bass player with good gear and own transport? Well I’m a shit-hot bass player and I used to play in this band called The Who, but because I’ve been stuck in a wooden box for a few years I don’t have a car.’ And they’re like ‘well sorry we really need someone with transport, can’t help you buddy’. “It’s like, my god, what has happened to ‘talent required’! Most people don’t have anything; they don’t have time to buy a car!” There are many more observations I could print, both hilarious and incriminating, but we just don’t have the room. However, I can assure you Ray Ahn is quite the comedian as he throws jokes out around, and even admits he does mini routines in front of the mirror and cracks himself up. I recommend he take a stint in stand-up as his new year’s resolution, “Oh I know I’m funny, it’s a great way to meet women,” he jokes. Ahn tells me he has just returned from his 14th trip to Europe. Not to mention clocking up some serious frequent flyer points, after all these years it seems the bassist is still intrigued with the world around him, and meeting new people, seeing new sights and living life to its maximum capacity is still very important. “Life is full of funny twists and turns and I welcome them,” he says, serenely. THE HARD-ONS play Club 299 in the Fortitude Valley Mall on Saturday Dec 15. MOST PEOPLE ARE NICER THAN US is available now on Chatterbox Records
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