Three years away from the spotlight, and BODYJAR have rekindled that lost spark. Guitarist TOM READ spoke to SEAN FRAZER about the realisation that the band had unfinished business to deal with.
You guys left, it looked like it was over, then you came back. What was it that changed your mind?
We had a couple of dream runs. We did the ‘No Touch Red’ tour of one of our old albums that we’d released on vinyl, and the shows went bloody awesome. Then we supported The Descendents, which was amazing. After that we thought, “Gee, we may as well have another crack at this, if it’s going to be this awesome all the time”.
I know you guys have always been big fans of The Descendents. How was it touring with them?
It was incredible! And for Grant and Cam, The Descendents were their childhood idols, if it weren’t for them, Bodyjar wouldn’t have even existed. We had some great times.
What were you guys doing in your time off? It was a three-year hiatus.
Um, I was making babies and working. Grant made a baby. Cam didn’t make any babies. Shane was doing his side project called Cola Wars, while he was still just working a day job. Grant and I did a band called Burn The City, but we weren’t really that active with that band either.
It’s been a long time between records; the last album you guys did was the self-titled one back in ’05. How’s the response been for the new stuff having been quiet all these years?
Yeah the response has been really good. People are saying that it’s like the old shit, which is awesome. I don’t think that we’ve got any new fans from this new record, but that wasn’t our intention. It was all about writing a good old school record.
Well you guys are taking Role Model on the road for a national tour. I suppose that will be the best way to see the reaction.
Yeah well this is going to be the first time that we’ve actually played those songs live so hopefully we can get a good crowd to each gig and we can make it a memorable one. We haven’t jammed it much either, so it could be interesting.
You boys obviously had a fair bit of time to write individually, was the record a mixture of ideas written alone, or did you guys write it all together, start to finish?
I think Grant might have written a few riffs that would have been considered old when he brought them to the table. The riff to ‘Stranglehold’ was sort of old, I think we jammed that guitar bit with Burn The City, but at the time it didn’t really work. But everything I wrote for the record was new. It’s mostly very fresh.
Nowadays you guys are busy with kids and other commitments as well as the band. Did you get much time together during the writing process?
Not really. We couldn’t just take a week off and write and jam. We pretty much jammed once a week and wrote songs at home. It took probably close to eight months. But it wasn’t a grueling process. We just didn’t have the luxury of just concentrating on writing the record.
My favourite track from Role Model at the moment is ‘Hope Was Leaving’, where you guys got Joey Cape from Lagwagon in to sing some lines. How did that concept come about?
I think I met him on Warped Tour in 2001, when Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were on that tour. I don’t ring him or e-mail him or text message him, we’re not that close [laughs]. Our manager, Caleb, he usually works for Lagwagon when they come out for tours, so he just gave Joey a call and asked him if he was keen to sing on the new album. So when the Gimme Gimmes came out last month, we did a show with them and he came out and sang that part of the verse live. That’s the footage you see in the video clip.
Are you guys the first band to release a record where you can get a bundle package of; the cd, a skate deck and a stubby holder?
And the deal is… you’ve got to use them all at the same time [laughs]. We just thought it would be a great idea to give skate decks out with the CD. The guys that did the artwork on the skateboard are from overseas. Cam was working in a skate shop and saw their artwork on a bunch of Zero skate decks, we thought their designs were awesome so we asked them if they’d like to make a couple for us. So they did!
You joined the band at the right time, punk and pop punk bands were blowing up all over the world in the late 90’s, and I can still remember hearing you guys while playing Tony Hawks 3 on my PlayStation. It must have been an exciting time for a little band from Melbourne getting some quality commercial play, as well as having a gold record.
Yeah, we had a fair old crack, back then it was interesting times. I had just been given a spot in the band so it was very exciting.
How long after you joined did Bodyjar reach Gold Record status?
It took us a while, so maybe a year after I joined. It wasn’t one of those records that just immediately went to gold status in a week. It gradually got there. But I’m very grateful for those earlier years in the band.
Can we lock you guys in to stick around for a couple more years to come?
Yeah totally! I think we’re going to hang around for a bit now. We’re just fresh again. We’re good to go and we’re not going to punish ourselves. We’re just going to have fun, hang out with our buddies, talk about the old days and drink some beers.