On one of those glorious winter days that Melbourne pulls intermittently, notwithstanding the fact that he doesn’t look like the outdoor type, one of Knapsack’s guitarists Sergie Loobkoff sits in the Exhibition Gardens to talk about the band’s reunion.
Apparently, it took a bit of Machiavellian contrivance to get it off the ground, but Loobkoff’s evidently pleased that it did, although there’s little chance that this is going to be permanent. “It’s easy to be all smiles and friends and joy, which every second so far it has been, from rehearsing, to playing shows, to getting on the plane together, to eating, to going to sleep,” laughs Loobkoff. “It’s all been like a fairytale relationship and that’s what it’s about, no one’s getting rich off this or anything, but because it’s so finite and temporary, none of the pressures that would plague a band or make for disagreements or unrest arise – they don’t have time to gestate you know? There are no dark days. If we were about to go on tour for six months and we were all going ‘oh, this is about to get gruelling’ maybe some of the darkness would arise, but I think we’re purposely not saying yes to any offers that might make that happen.”
It’s not a tale that you often hear, but the band split and are still on good terms. “All four of us just really like each other,” Loobkoff says. “When we go out to eat it’s not like two people go off in this direction and we just all scatter. We want to hang out with each other. I’ve been here for a week and a half playing the Samiam shows and every once in a while I’ll text those guys to build up their anticipation by telling them how much fun I’m having and the group texts back are really comical and sappy like ‘I miss you guys, can’t wait to see you’.”
Loobkoff didn’t always have that level of affection for the band. When his twin bro introduced him to Knapsack, at least initially, he didn’t really get it. “I think it’s pretty common that when you tour all the time you get kind of blasé because you see so many bands,” he reflects, having already been with Samiam for a couple of years by that point. “You get to be like a jaded old fucker and it takes a lot to be impressed. I just hung on to a nonplussed attitude when Knapsack were on the periphery of my field of view. When it came about for me to join the band, my roommate, who was the bass player in Samiam, we were nerdy dorks with nothing to do on a Saturday night and we were like ‘why don’t we drive and hour and a half away to Sacramento to see Knapsack play’ and they were really good, but they were without a second guitar player. I didn’t even think about it, I just said ‘I’ll play guitar for you guys’ because I really liked the show and they said ‘ok, you want to come practice next weekend?’ and I said ‘sure’ and bing, bing bang, I was in the band. It wasn’t like they were bad and got better. It was my jaded attitude that prevents me from seeing the good in the world that faded and let me in.”
Going back to the topic of growing popularity, Knapsack tattoos, which would seem to indicate a pretty dedicated level of fandom, are on the rise. Loobkoff plays it down though. “It does warm my heart, but it’s not that surprising,” he explains. “15 or 20 years ago, having a tattoo was a big commitment, but now 12 year old kids will get a tattoo on their neck or wherever and people don’t bat an eye anymore.”
BY MEG CRAWFORD
