From the ashes of Gerling, RunHide, and other fallen Aussie acts comes Betty Airs. I caught up with the band’s frontman Darren Cross in the middle of their Aussie tour to chat about their forthcoming live shows, the new single “Juvenile,” and what’s coming next from this exciting new act.
It’s fairly early days for this band. For the uninitiated, how would you describe your sound?
’50s grunge. Melodic. Old and new. Like The Kinks on a 4-year bender.
The band is made up of musicians from some other notable Aussie acts like Gerling and The Vines. How did you all find one another?
Well I, who was in Gerling, started the band with Cris [Campano] and Zag [Michael Zagoridis], who were mutual mates and were in a tough band called RunHide. We used to drink at the same pub each week and started talking about doing some harmony based ’50s style music. At this stage it was just one guitar and drums and all three of us singing, Cris playing a mighty fine tambourine and sharing the lead vocals with myself. Pat [Matthews], who was the bass player in The Vines, was off his face at a Royal Headache gig and bailed me up saying he would love to play bass for Betty Airs. As I produced and recorded Betty Airs songs I usually played bass on the tracks as well, and we thought it would sound more traditional live with a bass, so we called Pat up. We like Pat.
Betty Airs is a pretty quirky name. Where did it come from?
It took us about 330 weird band names. Cristian and myself … well we’re gung ho about a “great, classic” name. We all agreed on Betty as a starter … like a female skater. Cris had just sent me 50 shit names as an SMS when I was touring solo as The E.L.F. I was at an airport waiting for a plane and in desperation I looked out the window, saw an aeroplane taking off and said out aloud “Betty Airs”. YEP. We all loved it.
You’ve just released your new single “Juvenile.” What is it about this song in particular that inspired you to release it?
It’s an immediate garage pop song with great hooks. Short and sweet. Good energy.
The song was used to launch Triple J’s new Unearthed Digital radio station. What does that sort of exposure mean to you?
It’s awesome. Triple J is a powerful force and we love and are very grateful that they play our music! We use the Triple J Unearthed platform for uploading our songs for free download to y’all sweet, fine people. It’s cool! The Digital Unearthed radio station is also great for giving new bands a go. Very encouraging!!!!