Dropsaw

Newcastle's Dropsaw have just finished a national tour with Evergreen Terrace and Casey Jones, and released their third album "Hard Justice" through Trial And Error Records. The band's bass player Roffey answered a few questions for us.

Start off by stating your name, what you do in Dropsaw, and the first pet you ever owned?

Roffey - The first pet I owned was a budgie I named it Jimmy after “Jimmy Barnes”.

The band’s third album “Hard Justice” was released last week. What are your thoughts now the album is released?

Relief, after spending close to a year writing and organising the trip its great to finally have the finished product.

You recorded the album earlier this year in San Diego, USA with As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis, Kelly Cairns and Daniel Castleman (Austrian Death Machine, Winds Of Plague, Sworn Enemy, Impending Doom). How did the band hook this up?

Through Nigel who runs our record label Trial And Error. He worked on the Australian As I Lay Dying tour and became mates with Tim. So Nigel sent an email through to Tim. Tim replied he has keen and it all went from there.

What has the overall response to the album been like so far?

Everything we have received has been positive. There is obviously always going to be people who won’t like the record, but we are all really happy with how it turned out.

What was the reasoning behind looking overseas to record rather than recording somewhere in Australia?

One of our favourite bands collectively would be Sworn Enemy. We loved the sound of their last few albums and were keen on recording where they did. We also wanted to go for the experience as well, none of us had been to the States before this trip.

Are you happy with the result from recording overseas? Do you think it is better than what you could have achieved recording here at home?

We couldn’t be happier with how the recording went. It’s infinitely better than anything we could have done in Australia. They’re all really professional guys that have a load of experience. The amount of time they spend on the smallest of details is amazing.

Have you got any stories you would like to share about the USA trip?

In Vegas some of the boys decided to go to a strip joint. They got themselves in a private both with a $400 bottle of Vodka and thought that was all they had to pay whilst the girls danced in front of them. After an hour one of the girls came up and asked how they were going to pay for each of the girls? They were also $400 an hour, which ended up in a $3000 credit card debt.

Other than that we went to a few NBA and NHL games, bars and drank heaps of beer. Also Sam’s pants came off at the wave pool in San Diego and some girls saw his little tally wacker.

Did the band’s new guitarist Jason Parrish have much influence in the writing of the new record?

Yes, Jason wrote a few songs on the new album and took some of the stress of Sam. Jase also brings a more metal influence to the band.

How do you think the band’s sound has evolved since the release of “Victims Or Killers”?

VoK was very rushed, our song writing has improved so much since that record. The new songs are more structured, heavier and more metallic.

You released the album through Trial And Error Records once again; do you think Trial And Error is the perfect label for the band?

We are good friends with Nigel and he has always been great to us so we’ve had no thought of going anywhere else.

The band just recently finished the Evergreen Terrace/Casey Jones tour. How did the tour go for the band?

We’ve been together for so long and this was our first full international tour support. The turnouts were good and would have played to people who had never heard us before, that’s always a good thing. ET and CJ were all really great guys. We had a 3 on 3 basketball game against the Evergreen guys, unfortunately it was Sam, some Byron Bay kid and I. The Byron guy could hardly dribble the ball, he needs to pick up his game. Needless to say the ET guys beat us.

You’re playing the Hardcore 2010 festival in July, what are you looking forward to the most about this show?

Its great to see a lot of mates from other states all in the same room, it usually ends up quite a party. Other than that just playing the new songs for the punters.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Dropsaw would be the first ever Newcastle hardcore band to release three full-length albums? How does the band feel about this achievement?

Umm you might be right about that, either way we have put a lot of time and effort into the band. We’re proud of what we have done considering the drunk dropkicks we are.

Does the band have any plans to release any of the albums on vinyl?

We would love to! Hopefully sometime in the future we will get the opportunity.

Last year the band had beer coolers, and this year you had bottle openers. What is next for Dropsaw in terms of beer related merch?

We talked about some home brew and making our own Dropsaw label of drop. Somehow I don’t think the pubs and clubs we play at would like that to much.

What is your favourite thing about being from Newcastle?

The Falcons - Butch Hayes, Tony Jensen and the boys. Probably the fact there’s still interesting things to do without the amount of people in a major city.

Who are some local bands that we should be keeping our eye on?

Taken By Force, they are playing our Newcastle CD launch at The Cambridge on June 18th.

The band is known to enjoy having a beer or twenty from time to time. What is your current favourite beer you have been drinking at the moment?

There’s plenty of beers I like when I’ve got money. At the moment I’m poor like usual so I’m sticking with the classic Tooheys New.

Are 100 Demons the toughest band on the planet?

Listen to “In The Eyes Of The Lord” and you will say yes. Then take a look at their photo and you will shit your pants.

What are the band’s plans for the rest of 2010?

We have another national tour through late July/August that we are co-headlining, it will be announced this week. We are also heading over to Perth in September and that’s all we’ve got planned so far.

Thanks for doing the interview. Any last words?

Thanks Maddo, if anyone is bored you should check out our new record “Hard Justice”. It’s a big step up from our previous albums.

http://www.myspace.com/dropsaw
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http://www.dropsaw.bigcartel.com
http://www.trialanderrorrecords.com.au