Filler: All Systems Go.

“We’ve just finished mastering the new EP in Sydney,” Filler guitarist Brendan explains. The follow up to their debut The Red Light Epidemic, new recording Underworld Overlord takes the Brisbane rockers in new directions.

“We’re really happy with it. I think it’s still Filler, but it’s different as well. It’s a bit of a blend between the old and the new. One song, Homage To Nothing, is really just straight ahead rock; it’s one of our favourite tracks. It was recorded after the rest of the disc in two days. We spent nothing on it at all, but that’s always the way. It was awesome, we were writing as we were going along in the studio.”

“It’s a progression to a more straight rock sound. We started out as a band without a singer, so you can imagine it was pretty boring doing four four shit, so we just started writing wacky riffs, and over time we learned to write songs.”

Rating pretty highly in the coming gigs department is the support slot for the System Of A Down sideshow gig. System’s metallic fury a stark contrast to psychedelic rockers Nebula, the last internationals the Filler lads shared a stage with.

“We heard they were looking for a support and put together a few tracks from Red Light that we thought they’d be into, and the next thing we saw our name on the poster. Holy shit, we’re on. It was a shock, but it was awesome. We’ve been frantically rehearsing three times a week to get ready for that.”

With the diversity in the material, Filler are in the enviable position of being able to put together a couple of different sets to play different events. There’s a metal kind of set, or a rock set…

“That’s right. Our older stuff is a bit more metal. But what we’re doing it more of a rock thing now. We’re thinking of pulling out some older songs for the show, but we’re not sure how it’s going to go at the moment. I think we’re just going to try and rock as hard as we possibly can. I just can’t wait. It’s going to be nuts.”