Hailing from Revesby in south west Sydney, Aussie rockers Pist Idiots are bringing back the wild days of punk rock. Known for their rollicking live shows where clothing appears to be optional, Pist Idiots have grown into one of Australia’s best live acts.
I managed to catch up with lead singer Jack Sniff for a chat (I think he was wearing clothes for this – it was hard to tell over the phone).
Brendan: Hi Jack, are you pumped for Laneway?
Jack: Yes!
B: Straight to the point – I like it! You’ve been touring in support of your new EP Ticker, how does playing a festival differ than a gig on the road?
J: Yeah, there’s a really different vibe, you can really feel the swell of the crowd at a festival.
B: This might be a bit of a hard question, but what’s the best place you’ve performed and why?
J: That is a hard one, they’re all great places to play, I guess we’ve had the most fun on the Gold Coast when we’ve been, but you just can’t beat Sydney – It’s our hometown and there’s no place like home you know?
B: No doubt about it. Now your new EP Ticker dropped last month. I’ve read previously that the crux of the band is a sense of fun, are your studio sessions pretty relaxed or a bit more organised?
J:There’s definitely some organisation but there’s a mix of fun as well, we’re not really on a strict schedule so there’s definitely some room to play. We’ll have written some songs at home and would bring it together when it comes time to record. Just being in there sparks some creativity, you know, something that wasn’t there before can come out, so that’s definitely fun.
B: You’ve said you’ve written some songs from home, do you guys write bits together outside of the studio or come in with separate ideas that get combined when you’re in the studio?
J:Most of the time a song is about 80% done before we get in there, we’ll come in and try it and occasionally throw it out the window if it’s no good. Everyone’s bringing in cool ideas and then we work through them and finish off the ones we like in the studio. Off our Ticker EP, tracks like Ticker and Love Nah have been in the background for about 4 years, so we’re bringing things together when we get in the studio.
B: You’ve mentioned before that spending time touring before you went in the studio helped you hone your skills, do you go back to those roots and try out new songs live now between EPs?
J: Yeah touring before recording meant there was no real complacency but new songs are harder to play live as we might not have worked them out yet. Touring in the pubs, playing new songs are really make or break, we gage the energy of the crow and their response to it. But really it’s more about whether we like the song or not rather than testing them on the road.
B: A lighter question now, is there any time you’ve lived up to your band name?
J: [Laughs] Oh mate, that’s a hard question! I don’t keep count of those things to be honest. I mean the amount of shit people do one night when they’re on the piss – you’re asking me to look through the last 9-10 years of my life for one moment.
B: Fair enough mate, last one here, if you could listen to one song on repeat for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
J:I want to be adored by the Stone Roses. It’s the song you can listen to when you wake up, go to sleep, making food eating food, if it’s going to be playing for the rest of my life, it’s a pretty good to be a soundtrack to every situation.
Pist Idiots new EP Ticker is available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Pist Idiots are playing Laneway in playing Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney from Sat 1 Feb to Sun 9th of Feb 2020. Tickets are available here.
