Busy Kingdom
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Busy Kingdom

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“I like the fact that it’s got a bit of groove to it, and a bit of headbanging-ness to it,” he laughs. “Mick had kind of gone through a bit of a rocky relationship and a tough time, as a lot of songs are inspired by. The song is sort of themed around when someone close to you feels like they know what’s best for you when they don’t really. Ultimately we just wanted to write a good, riffy rock song.”

The single will be officially launched at the Penny Black this weekend, which kicks off a big run of shows that’ll see the band through until the end of the year. The run of gigs includes a few very high profile support slots.

“We’ve got the Good for You single launch on Friday night,” Etheringtonsays. “Then we’ve got a couple of shows coming up, opening for Thirsty Merc, and then we’ve got one playing with The Getaway Plan. Then there’s one a little bit later, we’re opening up for Jon Stevens. So yeah, that should be good, hark back to the good old days, the ‘80s. I love Noiseworks, they’ve got some awesome songs.”

Etherington has a very positive philosophy when it comes to creating music, and the same goes for the presentation of Busy Kingdom’s live show. “We take our music seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” he says. “I think with our live show, people are going to hear songwriting, they’re going to hear melodies and choruses that they can hopefully sing along to or get down to. I think at the moment, half our set is pretty upbeat, up-tempo sort of stuff, and the other half is just songs that people can enjoy. We always try to put on a pretty good show, because when people go and see a live band, they want to be entertained, and they want to pay for their ticket and take the ride. They don’t want to just watch a bunch of guys staring at their shoes for 45 minutes.”

Busy Kingdom’s self-titled EP is only a few months old, and Etherington feels this EP is more representative of the band’s sound than their previous releases. “Anyone who has heard our name, or is reading this, or wants to hear our music, this EP is our best. We’ve released a bunch of stuff, but this is the best thing we’ve done yet.”

Having produced their strongest release to date, Etherington isn’t afraid to think big when envisioning the band’s long term fortunes. “Selling out Wembley,” he laughs. “I wish. That’s the dream. But realistically, in the next two years, it’d be great to have a really strong national following in Australia. And then I think the goal would be to have a serious crack at Europe, more so than America. I mean, we’d love to go and play something like South by Southwest and a few of the other big showcases. But the plan is to start in Australia, get some radio airplay, and then, from what I’ve read and gathered, Europeans really get into bands. America does too, but I think America might just be a lot trickier to crack. Maybe we could busk at Wembley on our first European tour.”

BY ROD WHITFIELD