interview: the coolies
Auckland’s totally unpredictable punk band, the Coolies, are set to wow Australian crowds when they return to Melbourne and Adelaide for the first time in eight years this October. Lip caught up with singer and guitarist Tina who, along with Sjionel (vocal and CZ1), has been with the band since its first song graced the tapes of a ghetto blaster when they were in high school.
More than ten years have passed since then and the Coolies have shied away from their punk rocker lifestyles, and the teenage fire lighting fetishes, which seemed oh so rock and roll at the time, are far behind them. Now they are more likely to be found at home in New Zealand with their families. They have day jobs and are all fighting the never-ending battle to ‘do all the boring things like get a house and not pay rent, and live the dream – just like everybody else’.
Tina admits that over the past few years they’ve been taking it slow when it comes to records, but reveals that a change is on the way.
‘Like, we’ve recorded and kept them and just sat on them. We’ve never really put them out. But now, we’re ready to just start pushing our music. It feels like there’s a sense of urgency. We really want to put another effort out now, and we want to put another couple of singles out really soon.’
Now that they have families and solo projects, The Coolies can no longer give the band their undivided attention.
‘We feel very lucky each time we can actually get together and play,’ Tina reveals. While a great outlet from their otherwise normal lives, they are happy to take it a bit slower and relax with it.
‘We still get pumped up together and shit,’ she emphasises. ‘That’s part of the fun.’
Songwriting is a group effort and the trio has a really relaxed arrangement that suits their impromptu style.
‘I guess we all just come up with some lyrics and then we practice,’ she pauses, laughing. ‘Nah, we don’t really practice. For the last five years we haven’t really been practicing. We just kind of talk about it. Maybe we’ll have just one practice if we’re playing a show and that kind of works for us.’
Despite not as much band activity the last few years, Tina, Sjionel and drummer Stefan are keen to get out there and share their music, although ‘they don’t really care what anyone thinks about [their] music really’.
‘Fuck it,’ Tina says. ‘We don’t need this; we’re just enjoying it.’
Unfortunately Stefan hasn’t been able to come out with The Coolies the last few times and it seems this time is no different. Instead, fans will be treated to the drumming prowess of another New Zealand rocker Michael Prain, aka “Mikey” from rock band Die Die Die.
The band are really excited to come out to Adelaide and Melbourne – despite their ID being stolen ‘not once, not twice, but three times’ the last time they came out. For a band that admits to ‘trying to stay out of the music industry because it’s just horrible,’ the Coolies are anything but.
Catch them at the Festival of Unpopular Culture Opening Night at Format Space in Adelaide on October 8th or at the Workers Club in Melbourne on October 9th. You don’t want to miss out!
