“Matt Chow and I did karaoke at a friend’s buck’s party and we sang Ace Of Spades, then decided we should be in a band,” recalls Joel Morrison when discussing the origins of Tankerville.
“We were all at that bucks party, and then the wedding that followed,” says Chow.
“We describe it as putting music to our drunken, bullshit talks. We drank and talked for 15 years, and then we started a band,” says Morrison.
The guys from Tankerville are all members of other bands, including Cherrywood, Bodies and Graveyard Train. However, if you’re a Fitzroy local, you may recognise Tankerville’s name from somewhere else. “It’s the shittiest place around,” confirms Morrison, referring to the pub equivalent of the Last House On The Left. It’s the bar you hit up when you’ve lost all hope, everywhere else is closed and it’s a choice between that, or the gutter. “It’s where dreams end.” This ties in with Tankerville’s overall attitude, showcased by a distinctly chilled approach to making music and performing.
For anyone that’s seen Tankerville’s onstage banter, it feels like you’re having a beer and laugh with some mates. “It’s an extension of sitting at the bar drinking,” says Morrison.
“Sometimes the banter actually goes longer than the songs do,” adds drummer Chris Drane. “There was one memorable night where Chow and I indulged a little bit hard, and we talked for longer in between songs than the actual music,” laughs Morrison. “I’m sure we bored the shit out of everyone.”
All the blokes are on the same level, with the same fiendish sense of humour. “There’s no, ‘Uh, I don’t feel comfortable singing about that’,” says Chow. This comes as no surprise considering they’ve all been mates for years. “It’s been about being spontaneous. That’s why we did something like 30 shows in three months,” Drane says.
After forming a little over a year ago, Tankerville have hit the ground running. Despite not being around for long, they’ve already shared the bill with local legends including The Nation Blue, Flour, Shit Sex and Mutton. Surprisingly, the support from other Melbourne bands hasn’t been something Tankerville sought out on their own. “We organised the first show, and now the EP launch. Aside from that we’ve just been asked to play a lot,” says Chow. Such is the volume of shows they’ve played and their high-level of party, there are some gigs that Tankerville can barely remember. “There was one show recently that someone told me ‘That was such a great show’ and I said, ‘I don’t even remember being here’,” laughs Chow.
Tankerville released the hilarious video accompaniment to track Breakfast Kebab late last year, solidifying them as both a band to watch, a force to be reckoned with and a competitive Little Athletics team. The song doesn’t feature on the EP, this is in part due to the swathe of fresh material Tankerville recently recorded. Wanting to treat punters to a taste of something new, they’ve also confirmed there will be new videos in the near future. “We’ve got some good ideas coming up,” says Chow.
“There’s some pretty high-tech stuff, like paper mâchè and some LED lights,” adds Drane.
The EP I Want Your Blood serves as a teaser of what’s to come. “We went up and recorded 26 songs at Chris’s parent’s farm in March, over two days,” says Morrison. The resulting 7” is a full-throttle ride of six songs in under six minutes, with the rest of the material recorded to be released on an album later this year. “There are some messages on the EP though, like how to behave at a pub,” says Drane, referring to Bartenders Lament.
“You could just put it on a sheet with lyrics, and it could be the creed of the bar,” Chow agrees.
Morrison sheds some light on the instructions featured in the song, “I told you once, I told you twice, don’t be a fuckwit. Put down the beer, leave the bar, being a cunt won’t get you far.”
BY BEL RYAN