INTERVIEW
THE RABBLE
by Taron Cochrane, October 2007

Hey, really great meeting you! Tell me a little bit about your band, THE RABBLE.

Chazz:
The Rabble is a three-piece Punk Rock band from Auckland, New
Zealand. Myself (Chazz) and Rupe have been together for around 6 years playing music, but with the current line up consisting of the new bass player (Jamie) and ourselves - only
around a year!

To date you have released a debut full-length “No Clue, No Future” and after that there was an EP “This Is Our Lives”. Both stand-out in my mind as excellent pieces of work. What inspires you to produce this music and who are some of your influences?

Chazz:
Well i think our biggest influence in writing music is life itself! Each day has something new in store for everyone, whether its good or bad, both are inspiring enough to write about ya know?!...Aside from that, The Rabble takes many influences from all kinds of music. For me, it's gotta be original - not just another rip off of something thats been done before. Our main Punk Rock influences would be The Clash, The Unseen, Rancid, Social Distortion, Far From Finished, The Briggs, Dropkick Murphy's etc. I think every one of those bands has a unique sound which puts them a step above the masses of shit out there!
Rupe:
In saying that, each member in this band has their personal musical tastes and we try and encompass that in the delivery of our style, but at the same time, we don't want to be stuck in a box...So we try and make it our own, or "Rabbletise" it - for lack of a better word!

Thanks to my good friend the Internet, I noticed that you have a new album on the horizon entitled, “The Battle’s Almost Over”. What can we expect from this one musically? Any surprises in store?

Chazz:
I think this album is a huge step up for us. Not only in sound quality, but musically also. It has a huge range of styles in it - ranging from the hard as fuck songs, sing-a-long Punk Rock tunes to almost psycho sounding Johnny Cash! In my opinion there isn't another album out there which is as diverse as this, yet consistently one sound. This album is slightly different from the other two also - in the fact that we have lost two previous members which to my surprise has definitely worked out in our favour! It has always been Rupe and I writing the music but now we have three people chipping in, who are all influenced by the same things.

I also noticed that a video is in the works for the song, “This World Is Dead”. Is there a general theme behind the video? When will it be unleashed to the masses?

Chazz:
The video was shot on Fort Takapuna inside a gun-turret pit, which was built during World War 2, but never actually used!
Rupe:
It was an amazing location. We were very lucky to find it. It really suited the feel of the song! Seeing as it's a poem put to music on the subject of the end of the world due to the global warming situation and what it would feel like at the very end, having it in a run down hole felt right to us. Haha!
Chazz:
This video also features Mark Unseen. He's a really great guy and has helped us out loads with not only singing on the track but getting us valuable contacts and networking etc. He was the one who hooked us up with Jim Siegel @ The Outpost in Boston, so thanks to that our album is of high quality that is hard to find over here in NZ.
Rupe:
We really appreciate it and his voice just kicks arse!

In all of your videos (which are available on your Myspace page!) there is tons of energy and excitement. Is this what one can expect from a live Rabble show?

Chazz:
We definitely try to put as much energy into both our songs/videos and live performances as possible! We like to give the crowd a show, even if it means compromising SOME of the sound. I'd rather watch a band that look amazing live and sound pretty awesome - as opposed to someone who sounds exactly like they do on the record but look boring. That's how I feel anyway.
Rupe:
Also, we generally just ENJOY what we do! So we have a lot of fun with it, ya know? Although we are serious about all of this, if being in a band starts to feel like a boring job, then before long, someone who thinks that way is only going to end up leaving. Seen it happen time and time again...So yeah, all and all you can expect a lot of energy at the live shows, same as you see in the videos, because we do give it our all!


Is a tour in the works in support of the new album? If so, what places would you love to play?

Chazz:
We are working on the touring side of things as I write this. We would all really like to play in and around the States. Around the L.A./California area would be ideal but also we want to encompass the whole world! Japan, the U.K. Australia, Europe, Ireland and all the other places one would want to visit.
Rupe:
Eyes and ears peeled!

To date, what has been the best & worst show for the Rabble? Any hilarious road stories?

I can't say I remember the 'worst,' but there have been some pretty fucked up shows. I remember this one in a place called Wellington, where a whole bunch of "crust" punks came along with the FULL intention of beating the crap out of us that night. That was actually a really fun show! It just happened to be on the song "Enemy" where the fight broke out, we all dropped our instruments - had a few punches, spit was spat, shit was said, bottles were thrown and then we simply got back into it and this carried on for our whole set! Haha - really weird moment. Some annoying bitch with too much metal in her face was pulling my Mohawk so hard that night that I thought I wasn't going to have any hair left the next day.
Rupe:
There was this other time on the road, that our gig manager Andrew down-trailed our bass players pants in the middle of a K.F.C. in butt-fuck nowhere. Let's just say that when his boxers came down also, the people around didn't seem too impressed with the fact that they were trying to eat lunch and instead got a good look at some Punk dudes cock...

Who is one band you would love to play with? Why?

Chazz:
I would love to play with Rancid. They have been a huge influence on us for years. That band got my brother Rupe through some hard times so I know he would love to play with them also. I think that Rancid has done a lot for Punk Rock. Would be an honour!
Rupe:
So many bands, so little time...

Completely side-tracking...I noticed that in some of your songs there is a heavy Celtic-influence. Is this due to the fact that your from New Zealand or are you all just fans of the Celtic music?

Rupe:
We have always been huge fans of groups like The Pogues and we just wanted to introduce that kind of sound into our style. Chazz bought a second-hand mandolin with no idea of how to play the damn thing, but wrote the riff 'Carry On' in around ten minutes, so all and all, not a bad thing really! Haha.
Chazz:
It was really exciting writing something on a new instrument! So anyway, we played the song and it just came together really quickly and easily!
Rupe:
Ireland has always fascinated me, so when bands like Dropkick Murphy's and Flogging Molly started mixing Punk Rock into traditional folk songs, like the Pogues had done previously, it was like a sigh of relief! The two mix like bread and butter I think...

That’s it for me...Thanks for the great interview! I really appreciate you doing it. Any famous last words?

Rupe:
Um? Sweet ass! Haha
Chazz: Check out our myspace page myspace.com/therabble for the new video / new tracks.

Links:
The Rabble | http://www.therabble.net

The Rabble @ MySpace | http://www.myspace.com/therabble

The Rabble Videos | The Rabble Videos