Playing their first Victorian shows ever in October, The Weapon is Sound (TWIS) are very excited to be back out on the road again in support of their latest EP Direct Dub. With a gig at the Kennedys Creek Music Festival, I recently sat down with Dom Pearce, bass player from the band, to have a chat ahead of their east coast appearances.
“Mate, it’s been pretty busy of late in The Weapon is Sound! We haven’t really been playing too many gigs because we have all been working towards this EP. It’s taken a while to put together but we are very excited to have it out to the world. We recently played a show with Forte friends The Fire Alive, which was a really sweet show. It was the first show back in a while for us and by the end of the set we were really rocking. It’s great to be back in saddle once again playing shows,” Pearce said.
Although you may not have heard of The Weapon is Sound (primarily due to the fact they’re from WA), the roots of their sound is in reggae and dub music. There may be no actual Pete Townshend windmills on stage on their upcoming tour, but the experience could come close to being matched due to their sound and visual guy. “If you’re tripping balls at our next show, there is quite a distinct possibility that you may see Pete Townshend doing windmills. For those punters that are still tossing up about whether or not to come to Kennedys Creek, take some acid and come see our show. We definitely will not disappoint.”
The latest EP from TWIS is a lot more refined and structured than the loose ‘jammy’ vibes of the upcoming Direct Dub. Chatting about the writing and recording process behind the first EP, Pearce believes that two years of constant gigging allowed for the process of recording to be quite quick. “We actually did all the tracking for these songs live and then went back for vocal and instrument overdubs. They also weren’t recorded to a click track, which is quite possibly the least traditional way to record dub music. We felt that as a band it was a lot easier to record it that way.”
If you have been following The Weapon is Sound’s social media pursuits of late, you will no doubt be familiar with Ziggy, the band’s mascot and on-off roadie. “Oh yeah, he really is the backbone of the band. He drives the tour bus, sauté’s the mushrooms for when Jerome is cooking up a big breakfast. He’s a great listener, so if any of us have any troubles on tour we just turn to him. He really listens like nobody else and helps get us into the zone for the gig,” Pearce jokes.
Tayo Snowball, the frontman for the group, played at Kennedys Creek last year with Man the Clouds and will return to Kennedys’ and rock it with The Weapon is Sound. As you can imagine, everybody is excited about what the upcoming tour has to offer: “This is our first trip over to the east coast with the band and I think it’s going to be very fun to branch out and play to a whole new audience. We always feel at home on a dusty outdoor stage in the bush, so bring it on!”
When&Where: Kennedys Creek Music Festival – October 26-27
Written by Tex Miller