After scoring the coveted support slot for The Living End’s Perth leg, it seems Sons of Rico are impressing all the right people. I caught up with the band’s frontman Alex MacRae to talk about the honour, their new single “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing,” and what we can expect from album number two.
You just scored the support slot for The Living End’s Perth shows. How does that feel?
Kind of bizarre! Here’s a band that we’ve all been fans of since our high school years and seen play on all sorts of stages ever since, and now we’re sharing a stage with them. Really cool, but kind of surreal too.
The support slot can be a tough gig when you’re playing with such an esteemed band. How do you intend to win the crowds over?
When supporting any band we adjust our setlist to include songs that we think will resonate best with a particular crowd. In the case of The Living End this weekend we’ll probably be cranking more of our guitar-heavy tunes. The hardest part for me will be trying not to upstage Chris Cheney with my super badass guitar solos.
After those shows you’ll be headlining your own gigs to launch your single “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing.” What can you tell me about the song?
The song has a bit of a cheeky origin. After a show in Sydney, Adam and I went out in search for a post-gig kebab and were accosted by a transgender lady of the night. Since she wasn’t offering kebabs we kept moving, but not before she said to us “you don’t know what you’re missing”! So I thought to myself “good point”, and the rest is history!
Do you approach a support slot differently to a headlining show?
A little bit yeah. You’re pretty aware that the audience is not your own, but we’ll still try and perform at our best as if it were our own show. There’s a little bit of readjusting that subconsciously happens when you’re onstage as a support, but we’re hardly going to get into leather if we were to support Aerosmith, although Rob has been looking for an excuse to bust out his leather.
You’re cramming plenty of gigs into November, so you must love performing. What’s your favourite part?
Besides a slot at Bigsound in September, we haven’t played a gig this year, so we’re all itching to get back on the road to play these new tunes. The best part is definitely performing, followed closely by sinking beers with the other bands.
The single comes from your second album. How’s that coming along?
The new batch of songs are all done and dusted; we’re just deciding how best to put them out next year. We want to make sure they reach as many people as possible because we feel they deserve a good and proper push!
I believe you’re working with Magoo, who’s an absolutely industry legend. What has he brought to your sound?
We finished up with Magoo back in August after staying out at and working at his Applewood studio (an hour out of Brisbane) for nearly six weeks. Seeing how he works (i.e. extremely well) was a real education for us. He has these “laws” hung on his wall that we saw and were reminded of each day. Things like “thinking is stinking” and “it’s not the difference between gold and platinum” will remain in my mind when writing and recording in the future.
How do you think you’ve grown between this album and your debut?
I’ve definitely paid more attention to the core of the songs, making sure the songs when stripped back are still solid. Crafting the perfect pop song is one hell of a hard thing to do!
I’d be remiss not to ask about your band name. Who is Rico?
I’m sure you’ve guessed Rico might be Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite already, and yep, you’d be right! When that movie first came out we were taken by all these offbeat and unique characters (unique to film anyway). The idea is that Rico, being the ladies man he makes himself out to be, had probably fathered a bunch of illegitimate kids along his way. Enter us, his sons.
Also, he has a bitchin’ mustache.
Do you have anything else on the horizon that you can tell me about?
We just finished doing a music video with Melbournian crew Oh Yeah Wow which should be on an internet near you this week. It was an excuse to throw a party and sing karaoke to our own song, was a cracker of a good time and should be a great video!
Check out Sons of Rico when they perform at a venue near you next month!
1-3 November 2012 – Rosemount, Perth (supporting The Living End)
9 November 2012 – Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne
10 November 2012 – The Lansdowne, Sydney
23 November 2012 – Rosemount, Perth
Image source: Sons of Rico’s website