Shock Value At The Substation

Drummer George: Yeah, I reckon they're much better than our first album.

Breakbone: It's gonna be called Under the Red Flag, right?

Drummer George: That is true, yes.

Breakbone: So it'll be like, Under the Red Flag!

Drummer George: The idea came around because we made the song Under the Red Flag and we thought it was such a powerful song that it deserved to be the album.

Breakbone: What's the meaning behind the song?

Drummer George: It's very... What would you say? It's an anti-communist anthem?

Yeah, it's... That's about it. Well, yeah, we tried to...

I feel like the roots of the song is very anti-communist, kind of, I guess, Vietnam-era type anti-communist song and I feel like we've achieved that with the song. It's a very... I wouldn't say it's powerful, but it has the anti-communist rhetoric.

Breakbone: How did you learn guitar?

Isaac: I don't know, I... I learned myself. I taught myself.

I'm 100% self-taught. I'm... Lots of practice.

Years of practice. I don't have a job, so... That's all I did.

Breakbone: How long did it take you to join a band after playing guitar?

Isaac: Three years? Shock Value or any band? For any band I was in, it took me six months. Yeah.

Breakbone: How did Shock Value form?

Drummer George: It formed from me and George in a music class in school. He was... He came in the end of...

At the start of year 12 and we were in the same music class together and we just bounced a whole lot of ideas off each other and we came up with the idea of Project Punk together and the first... The whole... Sure, sure.

And the first few practices of Shock Value, it was just me and the lead singer George in a music room just fucking... I would play some random beat and he would sing over the top of it and yeah, that's kind of how it started. Our original bassist Krystina, she joined because she was in our class and me and her had mutual interest in music and we just fucking stuck.

And then one day we asked her to join in on a practice session on guitar and she just jumped in and then ever since that point she was a part of the band pretty much and then we... George met Isaac on a gig. Isaac and George met over there.

Shedfest. Yeah, so I was supposed to... Me, George and Isaac were supposed to first meet at Shedfest but I couldn't go.

So our first ever meeting was at a band practice.

Breakbone: Yeah. And I fucking love your first album, mate. My favourite song on the album is I Want a Gun.

Isaac: Yeah, fucko.

Drummer George: Yeah, I love I Want a Gun because me and Krystina both got a part in shouting I Want a Gun in the song.

Isaac: Yeah.

Drummer George: And it's such a fun song to play live and it's so energetic and powerful.

At the start of the song you hear like the kind of... Like the old kind of... What do you call it?

The talking over the start of I Want a Gun. Yeah, the... Like the news presenter kind of...

Yeah, it's... I feel like a lot of what we try to go for is a bit of like a Vietnam-esque era kind of anti-communist kind of feel to our song.

And I feel like that comes through.

Breakbone: Right. And... Yeah, do you have anything else to say about your band?

Drummer George: There's big things coming. I mean, I feel like our second album is going to trump our second album. Our second...

I mean, sorry, our second album is going to trump our first album. Like the songs we've made since are so powerful and like have so much energy and they're just pure shock value. And I feel like it's going to be really good once it hits the fucking...

Hits everyone.

Breakbone: And you guys are going on tour, right?

Drummer George: Yeah, so we have a Melbourne tour coming up. The 14th to the 17th.

Down in Melbourne. Are we going to Sydney, then back to Melbourne, then to Europe?

Isaac: Yeah, whatever.

Drummer George: And then later in the year, unfortunately, I'm not able to go, but the other boys are planning a Melbourne... Sorry, a Europe trip going around Germany and France and a few other... Switzerland and a few other countries to spread our music and to hopefully get a bigger stronghold in Europe.

Breakbone: Are you high right now?

Drummer George: No, I'm not. I'm just drunk.

Breakbone: What do you think about Gormless Records? Is it a successor to Project Punk?

Drummer George: I feel like Project Punk was almost a... Like a... What do you call it?

Like a first iteration of... It really showed that young people can put on gigs and can get local venues and get local bands to play gigs.

Issac: Yeah.

Drummer George: And I feel like... Because after, you know, the pandemic and everything, there was really a lack of DIY young gigs, young bands and stuff like that. But I feel like Project Punk was really...

Along with Casualty Records as well, they're really a pioneer in re-sparking the youth scene and, you know, starting gigs like this. And Gormless Records... I've been mates with the guys from Gormless for a long time and, you know, they've really just taken what we created and made it so much better.

Breakbone: Oh, George! Oh, shit! George! I'm doing an interview. Fucking George, man! What inspired you to start Project Punk? Was it Project X?

Singer George: Why didn't you ask me that, like, a year ago?

Drummer George: I love that movie.

Breakbone: Oh, fuck! I love Project X, bro.

Singer George: Why didn't you ask me that a year ago?

Drummer George: Doesn't matter [talks to Isaac about Project X].

Breakbone: Nice shit, nice shit.