Vocalist Scotty of Oz rockers The Reasons Why took the spotlight for our questions…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re Australian. Coming from Melbourne’s south east.
How did you meet?
Most of us were playing in other bands and sort of came together through these bands. Brodie and I have pretty much been together since the start, we met through my brother and started jamming, so we pretty much started The Reasons Why.
Shev and I met through this guy who wanted to start a band, I was playing guitar and Shev on drums, but the guy was a complete wanker and I remember saying to Shev “Fuck this, come join my band I need a decent drummer”, and Shev was like “sure”. Shev was already playing in a band with Paulie, who jumped the fence and joined The Reasons Why. Locky was in the same band with Paul and Shev and thought “fuck it, I’ll play too”. It’s a long story short but that’s pretty much how we got here.
How long have you been playing as a band?
With this line up, like 4 years? but all in all like, 9 years?
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
I guess it just means why do we do the shit we do? It’s not some spiritual or sensitive bullshit, just more on the lines of questioning why things are the way they are, or why do things happen this way and should we question the foundation on which things are built. This idea reflects the tone of the lyrics and the songs I think.
What are your influences?
Most of us are metalheads. But all in all, we love our 90s. We all love our grunge with metal on the side. We all grew up in the era, so it’s pretty much the foundations of what we first fell in love with.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
As saying before, were all metalheads really, and I always loved the slower, more meaningful/deeper song on a metal record. I think that’s what we aim for, something unique that everyone can listen too, that’s doesn’t have to be intense or typical. Funny enough, that the process so naturally becomes grunge, you wanna sing but you wanna shout, you want fat riff but you want to slow that down to feel it. Then “bam” you got Soundgarden or Alice in Chains. But even after that, it changes and becomes our song, unique and moulded into our feel. It’s kinda hard to describe?
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
No love songs or songs about love. I fucking hate it! So I always avoid writing about that sort of stuff, there’s enough of that out there already! All the lyrics and song themes are always based about mental states that I go through. Whether that’s anger, sadness, determination etc. I try to write about what’s real and what’s relevant to everyone. It’s honest, they’re not always peachy or happy or even positive, we’re all humans pushing shit uphill, sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t and I’ll write lyrics/songs through that whole process.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Our live shows are nothing crazy, like running around or anything. We just do what we do in our element. Maybe Paul will be moshing, while Locky is staring into space! I am known to fall of the stage a lot…. So there’s that! But we are pretty interactive with crowds and try to have a beer with everyone afterwards. I couldn’t tell you how many shows we have played…. It’s gotta be over the 100 easy.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
I guess when we first started out, we hit the beers and other things pretty hard and jumped on stage, it was so awesome to feel that way when you’re playing, feeling every note and snare hit, but I can definitely say there were times we went too hard and fucked up so bad, we prob sounded horrible!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Shevs loves his TAMA drums, Brodies plays Axe FX with fender tele, Paul plays Marshall amps with ESP guitars and Locky plays a Musicman Bass… I actually don’t know what Locky’s bass head is…. I never even looked! And I use shure mics.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Well if anything we are trying to get more fans and just put as much music as we can out there.
What are your plans for 2019?
Everything! We have no intention of slowing down any time soon!
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We would support Alice in Chains for sure! I think I would be happy to be hit by a bus after that show! Life goal complete! But supporting us would be Die in a Dream. An awesome Aussie band from the country. Great dudes, great music!
The Reasons Why: facebook
