We sat down with Tone Porno, singer/ songwriter and guitarist of the Brisbane two piece Sonic Porno for a Saturday morning cuppa and some interrogation about the band. Here’s what he had to say.
BrisbaneMusic : Hi Tone and welcome to BrisbaneMusic.com
Tone Porno : Thanks for having me.
BM : First of all, tell us a little about the band. What’s the lineup?
TP : The lineup is Rob Sonic on drums and Tone Porno on guitar/vox
BM : So, right off the bat.. why the name Sonic Porno?
TP : Sonic Pornography was the name of an album I released as Alien Punk…it was a prodigy-esque breaks/guitar project of mine….whilst trying to come up with a name for the band, my wife was lookin for the CD and asked me if I had seen the Sonic Porno, it sounded great as an abbreviated name so I pitched it to Robbie and he loved it….the name is the concept that music is pornography for the ears, as opposed to traditional porno which is for the eyes and vagina.
BM : Indeed, without a doubt, my favourite type of porn involves midgets and fruit. Lots of fruit. And lots of midgets. Does the band have a particular favourite type of pornography?
TP : We are big fans of celebrity porn…Paris, Tommy, Pammie, ….still waiting
on the Bert Newton vs Casey Donovan sextape to make its way out into the
public domain…hey midget porn is cool too, everyone’s gotta make a living
without being subjected to being thrown at a velcro wall
BM : I understand you guys have a new EP out?
TP: Yeah, our debut EP “Grunge is not Dead” is available at Skinny’s, Rockinhorse and Butterbeats, as well as on our myspace at www.myspace.com/sonicporno and at any of our gigs….we are currently negotiating with MGM to distribute and the CD is out on Alien Punk Records….it was recorded completely live, what you hear is what you get at
a live gig, although the addition of our Line 6 Amp has meant we now have a heavier, raw sound which some have likened to Nirvana and early 70’s punk….we recorded at Alchemix studios in the Gabba and are very proud of the result…our live set includes lots more screaming, swearing and smashing things, as well as a Burlesque dancer named Miss Mindi who has been known to drink punters beverages and cut off her own shirt, occasionally revealing a little nipple action…..without Sonic there is no Porno
BM : That certainly sounds entertaining. Now, your new EP is titled ‘Grunge Is Not Dead’, tell us what you mean by
that, because to a lot of people, it certainly is. Convince us otherwise.
TP : Grunge was really just a marketing tool…it’s roots trace back to The Ramones, Melvins and Green River….Nirvana became popular and suddenly a bunch of major labels grabbed on to the fashion of Pearl Jam and Kurt, when really they wore flannelette and ripped denim because they were middle-low class kids growing up in rainy, miserable weather…..grunge is just 90’s punk, and when the hype died down suddenly grunge was pronounced as dead and
as a fad, which is fuckin bullshit, because essentially punk, garage and grunge are the same thing; lyrics laced with political overtones, rebellion, and the do-it-yourself ethos of recording will always be well and truly alive….Brisbane and particularly The Valley are proof of that fact….grunge never died, it’s just that the bandwagon riders got off when
the cart slowed down….look at Violent Soho, Elephant Mojo, Sonic motherfuckin Porno…. Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Helmet, The Melvins…
BM : Where was the EP recorded and tell us a bit about the process of making the EP.
TP : We recorded the album at Alchemix in Woolongabba….we went in high on Redbulls and went balls out for two hours….I was so nervous about capturing the live sound that I kept fucking up easy lines, so Matt Whitehouse our engineer said, thats it, we are going to get a carton, drink, and do this all over again…..a competitive game of handball went down on
the studio carpet over the next couple of hours until the beer was drunk, at which point we went back into the studio and ripped out all four tracks one after the other to perfection…we owe alot to Matt for handling our nerves the right way….with handball and drunkenness….in the end we had an EP we are stoked with and which stayed in the 4ZzZ charts for 6 weeks, getting up to number 2
BM : That’s a great achievement. So where can people get hold of the EP?
TP : At all live shows, at our myspace page on www.myspace.com/sonicporno or the label myspace at www.myspace.com/alienpunkrecords as well as at Skinny’s, Butterbeats and Rockinghorse, with plans to go global in the next couple of months
BM : So what’s next for Sonic Porno? A distribution deal? More writing? A full length record?
TP : Plans are afoot to tour the East Coast, hopefully supporting a high profile Aussie or International act… (contact our myspace or email music@alienpunk for bookings) ..a distro deal with MGM is being hammered out as we speak and
we would love to sign to a major label and have the funds to record a full length album by year’s end…we have over 40 songs in our live repertoire, and our best tracks have yet to be recorded…..I write at least 1 new track every week and we jam constantly and play live on average twice a week….we would love to get over to the UK and Japan in the next 12 months and draw larger crowds…the dream is a festival slot at Homebake or BDO….we are busting our balls to get on the 4ZzZ Market Day Bill this year and are playing the Under The Blue Moon festival and support to the Black Market for
their CD launch…we also want to keep exposing the public to new up and coming bands through the gigs we put on and the support slots we offer to local young bands….we just want to keep rockin and prove to the rest of the country that BrisAngeles can compete with any city in the world for honest music, whether it’s grunge, punk. hardcore, hiphop or reggae… the vibe in Brisbane we have found to be supportive and non competitive; we are all at the end of the day muso’s so we need to look out for each other
BM : Thanks so much for the interview Tone, any final words to our readers from the mouths of Sonic Porno?
TP : If you are racist, homophobic, sexist or a macho fuckwit , then please don’t come to our gigs, don’t buy our music and move to Antarctica … just FUCK OFF WE HATE YOU. Grunge is not dead
BM: I’ll be sure to pass that on.
QuickFix
http://www.myspace.com/sonicporno
http://www.myspace.com/alienpunkrecords
