Blaze is bringing Garlic Nun to town
Subscribe
X

Subscribe to Forte Magazine

Blaze is bringing Garlic Nun to town

At the beginning of the year it was Ballarat, now Geelong has its turn this weekend. Her Highness and Resist Promotions present Blaze, a festival of musical delights that takes place at the Barwon Club on December 7.

Desecrator, The Resignators, Dreadnaught, Destruktor, Planet of the 8s, Muscle Car, High as Hell, Garlic Nun, Coffin Wolf, Filth Dimension and Deadweight 80 will be there. With the show in a matter of days, we thought we’d catch up with Garlic Nun for a bit of a chat!

The sound that you guys have developed has elements of punk, rock, heavier stuff, the list goes on. Which acts and bands have helped you guys to shape your sound?
We didn’t really talk about what style we’re gonna do at the start, Marky just had a few old riffs rolling around in the back of his car and we weren’t playing in any bands at the time and needed an outlet. We all grew up loving Frenzal and Rage Against The Machine and with this band, it was sort of an excuse to hang out together and get munted.

The group’s ‘holy’ theme, from the stage attire, the band name, even the little things like “Please consult your nearest bible, Mark 4:20”, and the contrast with your style of music and the themes you sing about, where does it all come from?
It comes from a place deep down inside our immortal colons. It actually only came about once we came up with the name.

The band name, ‘Garlic Nun’. Would that happen to be a play on ‘Garlic naan’? Is there a back story for that?
It sure is, Cazzy was eating at Saleem Resturant on Bell Street one time and was eating a naan. He then proceeded to say “Oi, Garlic Nun. Like instead of naan. Huehuehue”. All the religious themes came about because of a piece of bread.

Tracks like ‘Shame Warne’ tell a bit of a story, in this case, an epic bender. Do you find real experiences good sources for songs?
For sure, as I’m sure it would be for anyone writing lyrics. These songs aren’t concept songs.

Your music videos are anything but boring; self-described as “Best music video under 2 minutes long involving a nun and beer and pegging so far in 2019”, ‘Stick on Tic’ is entertaining, fast-paced and funny. How do you come up with videos like this?
That wasn’t a self-description that was straight from the mouth of Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio. That video was thought up in the shower where all great ideas happen. The ‘Stick on Tic’ video was a lot of fun, our new video will make it look like Sesame Street so keep your faceballs peeled for it!

With ‘High Society’ X ‘The Nunnery’ dropping in August this year, is there new music on the horizon for Garlic Nun fans?
There certainly is, we’ll be hitting the studio in the next two months to start tracking our first full length, hoping to have it out by February 2020. Eight new songs – they’re a little different from our first release and we’re freakin keen for our six fans to hear it.

You guys are playing at BLAZE Geelong at the Barwon Club, which will feature a mix of rock, punk, thrash, and metal music. What can people coming to see you there expect?
We won’t be sober and we won’t be tight but we’ll be there and we’ll give some Geelongonians a reason to drink to forget. It will be our first time in Geelong so we’re going to make the most of it.

Do you set out to offend the narrow-minded with your music, or is it just a fortunate side-effect?
People can take from it what they will, we’re writing for ourselves. If that means people being offended or being turned on then that’s cool. If you haven’t been to a show then come down and figure out which one you are or maybe a sexy mixture of both.