Interview by Kris Peters
Amyl & The Sniffers are fast becoming a festival band - for better or for worse.
Whether it is their shock appeal, intense and unpredicatable stage show, or general apathy towards authority, one thing you can always guarantee from the infectious rock/punk outfit is that they will inevitably deliver the goods.
After performing at most of the countries major home grown festivals it is only fitting that Amyl & The Sniffers join the line-up for a major international showcase. Not only have they earnt the right to represent on the big stage, they have also demanded recognition through sheer volume of performances and quality of material.
This April Amyl & The Sniffers trek around Australia on The World Is A Vampire Tour, headlined by the Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction. They are seemingly an odd choice to support two heavyweights of a more rock inspired line-up, but going by past efforts will undoubtedly steal the show at some stage of the tour.
HEAVY caught up with guitarist Dec Martens to discover more.
"It should be good," he enthused. "I'm really looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to playing some of those places out of the city."
We bring up the fact that Amyl & The Sniffers have little in common with the two headliners, but in his typical laconic fashion Martens shrugs off the fact that their music might be a little on the heavier side for some of the fans there to see the two internationals.
"I think it should be good," he shrugged. "We're at least in our home territory, so there will be - even though we're different - we'll probably be a little bit familiar to people compared to when we did the Hella Mega Tour through Europe last year with Green Day, Fallout Boy and Weezer and I think a lot of that European crowd didn't know what to expect from us so we kind of just alienated the whole lot. Because we're at least a bit more accessible here in Australia hopefully we won't make the whole crowd feel weird (laughs)."
In the full interview, Dec talks more about the run of shows, the strong Australian representation with RedHook, Battlesnake and local supports, the wrestling side show, potentially jumping in the ring, recent happenings in Amyl & The Sniffers, new music, losing out to The Wiggles at the ARIA's, getting their revenge, what to expect from their shows and a special challenge throwndown by HEAVY and accepted!