Cherrywood
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Cherrywood

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In light of that tale, it probably won’t surprise you to find out Cherrywood are a raucous, Melbourne-based four-piece cowpunk outfit who describe themselves as a “talented train-wreck” and a “dancing and drinking band,” all of which makes for a fat old time but also means sometimes, shit gets out of hand. “Often it’s because of us,” admits Drane, somewhat sheepishly. “But sometimes it’s because the crowd just gets out of control. We played a gig at Harrietville the other day and this guy was incredibly drunk. He started off dancing but he ended up completely naked, rolling around and grabbed Tim’s guitar. He and Tim were dancing together and falling over tables and the band just played on in the background, watching. I had this full-frontal nude dude in front of me, just dancing away, and we were like, ‘Well, we can’t really beat that – I think it’s the end of the show.’ Sometimes people just feel the need to get up on stage and show everybody their little talent and we’re always willing for them to come and join us.”

Careful dude – that sounds like an invitation. Anyway, that shit doesn’t bother them so much now. It’s one of the benefits of being on the other side of the bar. “It is pretty gratifying,” Drane laughs. “Both Tim and I used to work at The Corner Hotel. We met there cleaning urinals and serving beers. It’s always a good feeling when you get to go backstage because you’ve been invited, rather than told to go back there to clean up after somebody else.”

Cherrywood are used to handling distractions during gigs though. “We often seem to play shows like that,” Drane observes. “Take Chopped, where you’re competing with the sound of these huge hotted-up engines and it fuels the punters.” Then there was the time they played alongside a tank full of mermaids. “That was very distracting,” Drane chortles. “Any time you’re playing beside mermaids, it’s gonna’ be hard to tell whether they’re really there to see you or the mermaids, but I think that’s always gonna’ be one of my favourite shows.”

Drane’s a veteran of a number of bands (he plays in anywhere between two and five other bands at any given time). So, what brought him to this point? “When I was a kid, I was playing drums – I was pretty lucky that my parents were keen on that, I think a lot of parents want their kids playing something quieter, so I was always asked to be in bands, even before I was very good, I was the only drummer around, so I had to play.”

Then, after listening to a lot of punk and heavier stuff in his youth, the step to cowpunk seemed natural. Drane’s often espoused the view that country in fact leads to punk. “It makes a lot of sense,” explains Drane. “They’re both heart-on-your-sleeve-and-go-for-it and there’s the simplicity of both genres – they have simple song structures and chords. They just seem to work perfectly together – you see crusty punk dudes singing along to sad old country songs and vice versa.”

BY MEG CRAWFORD