Hammers

New South Wales "turbo blues" four-piece Hammers are coming down to Melbourne this month for Night Of the Living Shred. With a new album released in 2015, Killyourstereo.com sat down with the locals to get an insight into the last 12 months and plans for the future.

Busy to be honest. We were seriously under the pump to get this album out in time because we stupidly booked the tour expecting the album to be done, then both Todd (our engineer) and I wen't and got crook, so it took for ever for the vocals to be finished. Then just before the tour, Tangles hit us with the news that he was going to have to move on. It sounds like a bloody script from The Bold and the Beautiful, doesn't it?

You guys have Night of the Living Shred scheduled for August. It’s a good local line-up. What can we expect from Hammers on the live front?

We've never been down that neck of the woods so you're going to have to expect a good time. High energy drinking, a vulgar display of foul language, a laugh or two, and four blokes who will leave every thing on the stage and be keen for a few cold ones before, during, and after the show.

For yourself personally, what’s it like balancing band commitments with outside priorities like work? As you said, Tangles recently left to focus on life outside of the band. Is it easily managed or sometimes the two conflict?

We all lead such busy lives. The hardest part is finding time in all our schedules that allow us to be all in the same place at the same time for an extended period. We're all lucky enough to have jobs, partners, or wives who understand that this is part of what we need to do and are probably just as happy to have some time to themselves.

The band received good support with your previous Pozible campaign. How important are avenues like this to helping out local bands today?

It's a fantastic way for bands to directly connect with their fans and give them an insight into the ins and outs of recording an album. Having them purchase the album before it's completed and basically 'loaning' the band the money takes a huge weight off a bands shoulders financially so we can just focus on the recording.

You’ve described your sound as like a, “drunken bourbon fuelled bar fight with Zakk Wylde and Satan himself in some hell hole biker bar or pool hall.” Now that the debut is out, where does the band go next? What’s the natural progression from a “hell hole biker bar”?

Well we're currently in the studio recording a new track for a sampler style EP that will be released by our label Cement Records, and this track is shaping up to be by far the heaviest tune we've ever done. It's actually sounding tougher than ten tough things taped together with tough tape, So I guess it may escalate from a straight up bar fight to an all in brawl.....