Breakbone: What's Piss Off all about?
Arran: We're a rock and roll, punk rock band from Brisbane, Australia. And we're playing for the youth; for the ones who can't get into proper venues.
Breakbone: How would you describe yourself as people?
Arran: We're just soul searching. We're kind of soul searchers. We're looking for places to be, places to go to, people to meet.
Breakbone: What inspired you to take up music and form a band?
Johnnie: We listened to a lot of music. Arran got me into punk, Nirvana and all the grunge stuff. That got me into drums because I had never played an instrument. I played guitar, but I'd never played drums before. Asha, our bass player, hadn't played bass either. So, we both got into our instruments right as we joined Piss Off. Inspiration has been pushing us forward ever since.
Arran: With all the technology available nowadays, it's quite easy to find anything, and I'm very grateful for that. Because I always wonder if I was born in the 60s or the 70s, would I have ever gotten into any of the music that I like? Probably not because the plethora of music that is available online allows you to expand your taste and expand your mind.
Breakbone: Considering that you guys have become older, will you still be part of the all ages scene?
Arran: I think once you turn 20 or 19 it's weird hanging around with 15 or 16 year-olds. I know other gig promoters who used to do stuff, they're a bit older now, and it's just weird. So I reckon give us like, give us a year or two, and you won't see us at all ages gigs anymore. That's the unfortunate reality of these kinds of things.
Breakbone: Who are your biggest inspirations?
Arran: Bo Diddley? Maybe Vince Taylor and his Playboys, they were pretty good; that song 'Brand New Cadillac'. Robert Johnson, maybe, great player, great musician. You got anyone?
Johnnie: Jim Morrison.
Arran: I'd also say Ian MacKaye. I feel like we don't have a particular set sail, which is probably bad. You want to be definable and recognizable, and I don't think we're there yet. Other influences include Minor Threat, Subhumans, Radio Birdman, The Saints, MC5. It's moving more toward Radio Birdman than The Saints. We're doing faster, longer songs.
Breakbone: How does your sound fit into the scene?
Arran: Everything goes in cycles. We showed up three years ago; 2023 was a dead year, but now lots of new bands are in our old position. Even 'Triple J-esque' Antidismal are doing cool stuff. I fucking hate 4ZZZ though.
First, their music catalogue: maybe 20% local, 80% interstate or international. You're a community radio station from Brisbane, play more local bands! They even have a subscription service: pay X dollars, get five guaranteed plays a week. That takes away airtime from broke local bands that are better than some pay-to-play acts. They need to start listening to children, the youth are the new torchbearers. That's my gripe.
Breakbone: What's the gorm philosophy of Gormless about?
Arran: We were looking at words in a dictionary.
Johnnie: We were looking at words in a dictionary and we just found it. It was funny. It was a word of the day in the urban dictionary.
Breakbone: How did you guys blow up in the scene?
Arran: It was through Casualty Records. Everyone who is enjoying the all ages scene is indebted to Kaleb Collings, the founder of Casualty Records. He was the guy who started it all. He's not doing it anymore because he became a Bronco and aged out. Project Punk and Antidismal were inspired by what he did.
Breakbone: I know you read a lot of books Arran, what books have changed your life the most?
Arran: The Doors of Perception by Albus Huxley. I've been getting into Freud a lot. A lot of Sigmund Freud's ideas are... Pretty weird. One of his ideas is that children learn about sexual activities through their parents, and that kids have a fear of losing their balls.
To be fair, I think that was taken pretty out of context. It's sort of more like kids want to do things. He calls it the sex drive. Kids want to do things, but their parents and authority figures in society say, 'no, you can't do that'. So that causes them to develop like a resentment and want to do that towards the authority figure telling them not to do that.
I'm a big Dostoyevsky fan. Albert Camus as well, he's probably my favourite author. Stranger by Albert Camus.
Breakbone: Good stuff. Any concluding statements?
Arran: Fuck 4ZZZ. All I can say is fuck 4ZZZ. Never play us on your fucking radio. Play your fucking subscription services instead dickheads. What can you do? If you can't join them, fight them. Keep on rockin' in the free world.
From the archive. Interview · November 2025 · transcribed verbatim.