Melbourne rockers Skymbombers are flying high with their debut release, Take Me To Town, and to top it off they’ve just returned from their debut US tour as well as supporting the Foo Fighters in New Zealand. Bassist Ravi Sharma is looking forward to what the future holds for this hot prospect.
“It will be interesting to see what goes on, hey,” Ravi says.
Was the making of Take Me To Town an easy undertaking?
“We went to LA to record it over six weeks last November. It was fun to make and we didn’t feel nervous or anything like that. The opportunity to record the album is just so awesome as it was something we thought would never happen when we started out, resigned to the fact we’d just be playing shows. There were no expectations on ourselves for this and we went in for six weeks and came out with this product.”
When you hear that a band records their debut overseas, does that increase the expectations somewhat?
“I’m not sure. It’s just about perception I guess and some people must think that LA is pretty good, but to us that doesn’t really matter. The reason why we went to LA to record was that our producer [Rick Parker] was there in his own tiny home studio, which he knew inside out. We couldn’t get him to come to Australia and it made sense to go there. Awesome albums are made everywhere and I don’t think it matters where you made it.”
Does the LA vibe add extra flavour to the album?
“I guess it would. The environment around LA especially! We were partying every night and were full of energy. It is an energetic record, which I think comes across and that was something we worked hard to capture. Recording in Hollywood was great and there was so much shit going on. We’d be excited, as we had met stars like Snoop Dogg, which pumped us up going in to another recording session. It was good to get away from Australia to record because we didn’t have any distractions like parents calling or your mates or girlfriends wondering where you are or stuff like that. Being on the other side of the world was like lockdown for six weeks.”
Did you meet any other stars?
“Snoop was two doors down in the same recording studio and he was great. We also played a show at The Viper Room where we got to meet Slash and he is the coolest. He had his top hat and sunnies on and when I shook his hand he had the boniest fingers, it was mad! Lemmy from Motorhead rocked up on the night as well and everyone there was a celebrity in some kind of way. I guess some have had their 15 minutes a little longer than others.”
How was it supporting Foo Fighters in New Zealand?
“That was on the way home for us. We played a couple of shows with those guys and to meet them was insane. We love the Foo Fighters and basically grew up on their music and even Nirvana as well. They are like rock gods in our eyes.”
Were you well received at those shows?
“Their fans were really getting in to it, which was interesting given that we’d never been to New Zealand before. We were scared to say we were from Australia because we didn’t know what sort of response we’d get. It was then like, fuck it, ‘We’re from Australia’. The crowd cheered, which was good because we didn’t know what to do if they were hardcore Foo Fighters fans. At these shows there was only a 10-minute change-over so by the time we were finished the place was packed. We were expecting to be booed or fans yelling out ‘Get off stage’ but they were really appreciative, clapping and cheering after every song.”
Do you think the overseas touring so far has given Skybombers a good launch pad for the remainder of this year?
“Totally. Our album was released in the US first on May 13 and I think we’ll have to go back there at some stage this year to support that. Before that we really want to build up our name here in Australia more than anything by playing more shows around the place. It will be a case though of making the most of our opportunities as they come up, as there is already talk of a European and Japanese release. It’s awesome being able to see the world and playing music at the same time.”
Having those sorts of opportunities must be great rather than having to play every dive around the country to get noticed?
“Don’t get me wrong, we like playing the Aussie gigs. We’d rather be big here in Australia than anywhere else as there is nothing better than your home crowd and that’s why we’re touring all June and July here. I think we’re going to try and get to the other side of the country playing in Perth and come back to Adelaide. Our Adelaide show back in February was really cool, so we hope to back a couple more times this year.”
Will there be a couple of covers thrown into the set next time? “We’ve been playing this song by The Easybeats called Sorry recently. Back in the day we used to play a lot of covers from The Dandy Warhols to Blur to Grinspoon. We haven’t played any other covers for a while but there won’t be any other surprises apart from a really entertaining show.”
Skybombers play Enigma on Thu Jul 17. Take Me To Town is out now through Sony/BMG.