The Hotseat – Tim Maxwell of Apart From This
on February 2nd, 2014Last week saw Apart From This begin their tour supporting The Bennies. It’ll keep them busy all through this month and well into next month. The band continues to plug their ‘In Gloom‘ album which was released last year on Poison City Records / Hindsight Records. You can expect some new material from the band this year, but for now, it is tour time. This week will see the two bands hit Geelong and Melbourne, next week it all heads to QLD. This week Tim from the band took the time to answer our Hotseat questions. Expand this post to take a read of his answers and remind yourself of all those tour dates.
THE BASICS
Name : Tim Maxwell
Band : Apart From This
Job In Band : Vocalist and Guitarist
Website Address : www.facebook.com/apartfromthis
HOME
Hometown : Sunbury, Melbourne VIC.
Hometown is best known for : The Ashes, scumbags, mental hospital and Apart From This.
Best venue in your hometown : Sunbury is a small town and not many bands come and go through here so there is barely any venues apart from a shitty club and a youth centre. So out of those i would have to pick the youth centre.
THE BAND
How did the band first come to exist? It started out with our old guitarists Jai and Stevo. They both wanted to start a pop punk band and they jammed for a year or so before our current bassist Rathead (the only orginal member) joined. The band then played for another year or so under the first official lineup and then they were left with no vocalist. I came along and auditioned and they were stoked with me, so I was in. Our drummer at the time couldnt keep up so we got our good mate Jake on board and have kept him ever since, soon enough we kicked Jai out and I filled in for guitar aswell. After playing a a fair few shows with a lineup we felt happy with our guitarist Stevo then left so we recruited my brother Will on the guitar duties and that’s a brief timeline of the bands history so far hopefully this lineup sticks haha!
How long has the band been going? Well technically it’s been going for about 5 years, but most of the first three years was spent feeling it out, playing locally and trying to make a name for ourselves. As for the last two years we have started to take things more seriously by being on two labels, playing shows constantly, writing all the time and crafting a mature sound that we all love.
Any particular story behind the name? Not really hey, our old guitarist Stevo just thought of it out of the blue and nobody in the world had that name. So we figured we’d stick with it and to this day we are still playing under the same name.
What’s your most recent release? Tell us a little about it… In the middle of last year we released our debut album ‘In Gloom’ through Melbourne label Poison City records on vinyl and through Perth label Hindsight on CD. We recorded it with the guru Sam Johnson at Three Phase Studios over a few weeks and it is our favourite material we have produced so far.
Got a personal stand out achievement of your band to date? Would definitely have to be holding the In Gloom LP in my hands for the first time and playing with one of our biggest influences Title Fight at the best venue in Melbourne ‘The Reverence Hotel’. In a short amount of time I never thought we could achieve any of these things and I am forever grateful and still overwhelmed.
OFF THE STAGE
What was your first introduction to music that made you think seriously about playing it? Luckily for me my parents grew me up on great music, strictly Sabbath, Zeppelin, Motorhead and many other great bands. My dad had an old plexiglass Dan Armstrong copy that he kept in the cupboard and he always wanted me to play it but I had no idea what I was doing. As soon as I was introduced to Metallica by my cousin Renton I was in awe over the guitar riffs and that really made me want to start playing.
Any particular band / album or song that you personally credit as a major influence? Metallica and Black Sabbath. Both bands have influenced me majorly throughout my whole life and I will never stop listening to them.
Your first band name, and what style did you play? Oh god.. Okay, so my first band name was Into Oblivion and we were a metal band. None of us could sing so we just wrote technical guitar riffs, the band only lasted a year or so and then we called it a day haha.
Most prized music related item you own? An original press of The Beatles ‘Help’ record.
When you’re not doing band related stuff, what are you usually found doing? Usually I’m either skating, bushwalking, swimming, getting high or writing more music.
The thing you most look forward to just before a tour is… Getting the hell out of my hometown and being on the road with my best mates sinking multiple beverages and causing a ruckus.
The thing you least look forward to before a tour is… Nothing at all!
—————
—————
ON THE STAGE
When on offer, whats your one must have item on the rider? Either a slab of Budweieser and a bag of weed. Picking one is harder than I expected..
Favourite place youve toured and why? Would have to be Hobart, Tasmania. The locals there are completely different to anywhere else and you just feel so welcome there. It is also
home to one of the greatest and loosest venues in Australia, The Brisbane Hotel.
Most memorable show you’ve played? and why? Title Fight at The Reverence Hotel in Melbourne. Title Fight are one of our favourite bands and for us to be supporting them at our favourite local venue was overwhelming, it felt surreal almost. We had one song left and I snapped a string on my guitar, so TF guitarist Jamie handed me his one and only guitar he plays live for me to finish the set with and that’s why it was my most memorable show we’ve played.
Got a favourite song to play live? Lately we have been playing a new track we wrote called ‘Spinning’ and that would have to be my favourite track to play live at the moment.
Any embarrassing on stage moments come to mind? Once we were playing a festival in Geelong called Spudfest. Before the show started my machine heads on my guitar got fucked up somehow so I had to borrow a guitar, the only guitar I could get my hands on was a caparison 7 string so at this point I was already dreading playing. Anyway we end up playing halfway through the first song terribly and then our guitarists head blew up. We were then left with three members so we busted out our stoner jams and left the whole crowd very confused.
Any pre-show rituals? Usually we will either sink a few beers and smoke a jazz cigarette or two.
What do you find is the hardest aspect of touring in a band today? Getting people to notice and care about your band, with half the world polluted in shit music it’s very easy to get distracted by what’s on the radio or what’s being advertised around you. All you can do is write good music and tour the shit out of the country and hope that people will care one day.
RIGHT NOW
Last song you listened to? Balance and Composure – Reflection
Last album you picked up? Daylight – Jar.
Which band or album is currently on high rotation? Dinosaur Jr – Farm
Tell us an up and coming band or artist you think we should go and listen to right now? Ceres, a small band from Melbourne who deserve all the recognition they can get. Go listen to their EP ‘Luck’!
What’s on the cards for the next few months for the band? Over the next few months we will be touring throughout Australia with The Bennies from Jan through to March, after that we will be doing a few weekenders and recording some new material!
IF ONLY…
You can pick any one album for your band to cover in full, what would it be and why? It would have to be Sublime – 40 Oz To Freedom because it is one of the greatest albums ever written and us and The Bennies have talked many times about covering the whole album together.
You can pick any one band / artist to cover one of your albums in full, what would it be, and why? I’d love to hear Tenacious D covering In Gloom in full, I couldn’t imagine what Jack Black would do with it and it would be fucking hilarious.
One band you wish you were able to see live but never had the chance? Pantera, RIP DIME.
One venue you have yet to play that you would love to? Sun Distortion in Brisbane, I’ve heard great things about this place and I’m keen as to play there.
The chance comes up to fill in for a member of a band for one tour, which band would it be, and why? Metallica. I would replace Lars to put people out of their misery.
A headline tour overseas comes up, tell us two bands you’d take along to support your band. The Bennies and Rancid, now that would be a party!
PLUG TIME
Got any final words? So we are touring throughout Australia from Jan to March with our good friends in The Bennies on the Knights Forever tour. Make sure you make it out to a show and support a good cause! We will hopefully have some new tunes for you all in the coming months, stay tuned!
——————————————
APART FROM THIS – ‘In Gloom‘
Available now on Vinyl through Poison City Records [Here] and on CD through Hindsight Records [Here].
Also available on iTunes [Here].
——————————————
THE BENNIES
With guests APART FROM THIS ( Except * )
FEBRUARY
6th – Barwon Club, Geelong [18+] w/ Japan For, Wil Wagner
7th – The Reverence Hotel. Footscray [18+] w/ Wet Pensioner, Rise Of The Rat
14th – The Spotted Cow, Toowooomba [18+] w/ Jack Flash, The Flangipanis
15th – Crowbar, Brisbane [18+] w/ Not Ok, Fire Away
16th – The Time Machine, Nambour [AA] w/ Goon On The Rocks
28th – Soundwave Festival, Melbourne [AA] *
MARCH
6th – Ya-Ya’s, Perth [18+] w/ Grim Fandango, Sail On! Sail On!
7th – Prince of Wales, Bunbury [18+] w/ The Bob Gordons, 10 Points For Glenroy
10th – Pushover Festival, Melbourne [AA] *
13th – The Phoenix, Canberra [18+] w/ Rather Be Dead
14th – Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle [18+] w/ Adeline Pines
15th – Hermann’s Bar, Sydney [18+] w/ Luca Brasi, Postblue
16th – Beatdisc Records, Parramatta [AA] w/ Luca Brasi, Postblue, Oslow
—> For more information, visit [Here].
——————————————
Punknews.org