nitocris

Nitocris have been called anything and everything; from the Trans-hemispherical Babes in Toyland, to Australia’s hardest working & noblest punk band. They measure up to all of that and dish out a whole lot more. Hailing from inner-city Sydney, they’re no longer four bored High School girls with a dream, they’re five women living it. After 8 years of solid giggage, they’ve just released their second and self-titled LP, and are receiving the national airplay and exposure they deserve. Nitocris are indeed an overlooked national treasure, but with current burgeoning technology, they’re ready to be unleashed on the world. Watch out for them come summertime in the US, whipping up their signature storm of wrangling guitars & earth pounding bass beneath goddess-esque vocal assault.

The lovely Kira took a few minutes out from a hectic tour schedule to answer these questions…

You started out in high school as a quartet and found Gana via an ad. What did the ad say?

It said "Female singer wanted for all girl funk/thrash band. Influences include Sex Pistols, Black Sabbath, Guns n Roses, Metallica..." or something like that.. I cant quite remember.. but I know that they made a spelling mistake and thought that we said FUNK when we actually said PUNK.. We nearly died when we read it, we thought, who is going to reply to an ad for a funk/thrash band?!?!?!

No.. not really (I think this was due to the spelling mistake). We had about 4 people try out.. and one male rang up and asked if we needed a lyricist.. we laughed at him and said "no thanks". There was one girl who was really nice and had an alright voice but she was a bit 80s and a lot older, there was another girl who was cool but didn’t have the best voice and there was another who was a big glam metal screamer..

Obviously the naturally talented Gana stood out from the pack..

she pulled off everything really well.. she was also really nice and was the only applicant who told us to get fucked when we asked her to do some dumb "joining up" ritual that we concocted as evil 14 year olds....

Is Nitocris more of a live act or a studio band? Where are you more at home – on the stage or in the studio?

I would say that although we love both aspects of being in a band, we are definitely more of a live band.. but this is not necessarily by choice.. It is probably because both our managers have had a motto of "the more you play, the better" and also because we are on an independent label, we don’t have huge budgets to sit around in a studio for months.. we do all our writing and arranging OUTSIDE of the studio.. therefore the studio is always a whirlwind "get in there and record quickly" kind of affair..

You recently released only your second full-length LP after being together 8 years, is there a reason for gaps?

There were no gaps.. we released something every year!! They were just EPs or singles and stuff.. again I think the main reason for this was because we didn’t have huge sums of money lying around.. and some of us were still at school and we were touring our asses off, so it didn’t leave much time to write new stuff.. Fortunately our writing process is much quicker now!!

You all seem such superlative musicians, is your writing process a conventional one?

Excuse my ignorance.. just checking the dictionary meaning of that word.. hang on.. WOW.. thanks Lia!!

What is a conventional writing process?? ummmmmm... We actually don’t seem to stick to one formula.. some songs Gana will write the whole thing and come in and show us and we all put our bits in.. other songs me and jess will write together on acoustic guitars.. others we all write together in the rehearsal room.. We just pick out the best of what we write.. anything that gets left behind, we come back to, fix up and try to recreate...

Your new album shows tremendous musical growth and maturity. Firstly, when the hell have you had the time to grow up?

You grow up very fast when you are 17 and playing shows all over the country, seeing, hearing and doing some of the weirdest shit.. A travelling musician will live 20 lifetimes of an average person. that’s why we all look so old and worn out at an early age!!!

Secondly, was there any conflict within the band as to your direction? I know a lot of bands who get torn apart by metal vs. rock, are you all on the same musical wavelength?

There will always be conflict in any type of creative group.. it cant be avoided.. it is how you deal with the conflict that gets you through. Sure we all have different ideas and musical direction but we have learnt that all these ideas can be worked together to make a beautiful final product...

You all started very young, does writing/recording/performing all come as 2^nd nature now?

I think we are all different in these respects.. personally I find that performing has always been 2nd nature to me and writing and recording is something that I have had to learn to master.. whereas people like Gana and Jess are naturally gifted at song writing but have now also learned to master performing..

I’d imagine touring Australia with acts as big as PJ Harvey, Queens Of The Stone Age, At The Drive In, would seem sort of a rock n roll dream. What do you do on tour to keep yourselves grounded?

Hang out with each other!!! hehehe.. We keep a close raincheck on our fellow band members.. We constantly remind each other of "the ground" but if someone is getting "ungrounded", we let them know!!

We play lots of dumb games, listen to lots of music, argue about directions, make lots of wee/food stops and constantly ask our Tour manager questions.. Is any of that surprising??? hehehe....

You’ve played with lots of amazing local & international acts. Have you got a most memorable?

Especially when we drove up to the first one (the Gold Coast) on only 2 hours sleep and saw how big our stage was!!!!

You’ve gotta be one of the most energetic live bands that I’ve seen, how much have you suffered for your art? Any serious onstage injuries?

Nothing too serious.. lots of minor ones though.. and I think lots of permanent ones too ie tinnitus and back strain..

You’ve been playing widely around Australia since the Big Day Out festival in January, what’s the plan for the rest of the year? Do you feel it’s time to break beyond the Australian Market?

Although the Manic tour is coming to an end we still have 2 more tours to go so we don’t actually stop touring until mid June.. that’s over 6 months of non stop touring!! SHIT!! After that we are gonna have a little break, go over to the US then start work on the new album!