High octane punked-up alt-rockers My Kind Of Chaos are resurfacing on the local music scene with a revamped line up and a swathe of tunes both old and new in tow, which they’ll be showcasing as part of their first live show in awhile at Vinnies Dive on 11 November.
We first featured them in the pages of Blank about a year ago, and at the time the band had just released their hard-hitting debut record, ‘The Monster Stirs’ and were ready to take it on the road, before the ravages of COVID put paid to the band's grand plans.
Says front man and founding member Nic Griffiths of how things have played out over the past 12 months; “Yeah we were all ready to go and then it all fell apart. As the guy who put all this together it hit me pretty hard but it was so providential, because the band that is now ‘My Kind Of Chaos’, is the band I’ve dreamt of being in my whole life.
“Mick Norris, our bass guitarist has been with me since the beginning and is without a doubt one of the best bass players I have ever worked with. When I jumped on the drums, working with him was just effortless. He is an incredible talent and he stuck with me through it all. It’s something I will never forget. Our guitarist, Cameron Appleton-Seymour, joined just before it all hit the fan. I’m so glad he did because when we had to convert all the songs into a three piece, he had to re-learn everything, but rose to the challenge without a second thought. He didn’t know what was going to happen with the band but he hung in there anyway. He is an incredibly talented guitarist and I can’t imagine this band without him in it.
“So we pulled the songs apart and put them back together as a three piece with me on drums. Cam and Mick are such talented musicians, they kept our big sound and we managed to do it without losing all the power and drive. We kept looking for drummers and finally we found Rick Zammit. Rick slotted in straight away and learnt all the songs in four days and was exactly what we were looking for. Being a drummer myself and seeing how he plays just blew my mind. Drummers like him are so rare and we’re all so very stoked to have him on board.”
Having utilised the pandemic induced down-time to solidify their ranks, the guys are now super-charged and champing at the bit to get out there and make up for lost time, as Nic elaborates;
Yeah we have been scrambling to book gigs before the year is out so we can leave a bit of a mark before the holidays. Staying fresh in people’s heads is key I think. We’re just so grateful that we were able to gig in 2021, ‘cos for a while there, it wasn’t looking good.
“Now that the gigs are lining up we’re going to hit the ground running, gig as much as we can and not look back. All of us have the same tunnel vision and that’s rare. Usually not all band members are as equally committed but we all want the same thing. Music is our lives and unless we’re all playing music together, we’re not really living our best life.”
In the mean-time the band have released some cracking singles, including most recent number, the punchy and funny ‘Calm Down Karen’, which is actually a sneak-peak of their upcoming second album. Says Nic of the machinations of the new material; “Calm Down Karen is off our upcoming second album, and I’m so happy to say that this new record is already written. We’re just putting the finishing touches on it now before we send it to our producer (Anton Hagop) in Sydney. It’s got a different sound to it but we’ve managed to keep our heavy riffs and big drums in there. If you liked the first album, then the second one won’t disappoint. I can’t wait to see what Anton does with it. “We won’t be releasing it till late next year as we really want to tour ‘The Monster Stirs’ properly, now that we can. We learnt a lot from the first album. By that I mean, what to leave in and what to take out. It seemed like the whole process was so much easier. We pretty much wrote it over a 12 month period. I have a studio at my house so I was able to write at my own leisure, and Covid provided plenty of that.”
Their long-awaited return to the live ranks sees My Kind Of Chaos step up to the stage at Vinnies Dive in Southport on 11 November, for which they’re raring to go, as Nic explains; “We’ve been rehearsing heaps and we feel the sound the four of us produce is solid and emulates the debut album “The Monster Stirs” really well. Being in the studio with these guys is so much fun, which is how it’s meant to be. The songs are so much fun to play and we simply can’t wait to play them to everyone.”
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And play them to the people they shall, as My Kind Of Chaos hit the stage across the following dates:
Vinnies Dive on 11 November with Middle Ground + The Fool.
King Lear’s Throne on 28 November with Seven Day Mask, Tripsitta and Bare Beets.
The Zoo on 13 January with The Silencio, Lunchtime and Supertrooper.
Banshees Bar on 29 January with Dirty Dead Dinosaurs and Supertrooper.