After winning a competition to play as Big Day Out’s 2014 opening act, things seemed on the rise for local grunge-rockers Audemia. Gaining them recognition from an illustrious list of Australian artists such as Phil Jamieson (Grinspoon) and Sarah McLeod (The Superjesus), Audemia quickly found their place on the road, playing support slots nationwide. With their unique sound and heavy riffs getting a lot of people talking, it’s been a busy few years for the lads, who are now sadly calling it quits.
Bass player and lead vocalist Tony Calleja explains the break-up isn’t due to anything in particular, but instead a result of life.
“Things just kind of fizzled out, we have gone through a lot of natural parts of life like growing up, people buying houses and working, stuff like that,” he says, “It’s a shame that we are calling it quits but we just didn’t have the sparks to keep it going. It’s unfortunate but these things happen, it could have been worse.”
As a final gift to the fans that have supported Audemia over their journey, the band recently released the seven track Fuck It EP for free.
“We weren’t going to continue as a band so we thought it would be a parting gift to anyone that wanted it. People aren’t buying as much music nowadays because they can download it for free, so we figured why not just give it out. If they like the music they will come to the shows,” Calleja says.
“It was the most recent stuff we had written at the time. But there was also a few old songs that we had been playing live. The recording is actually amazing, we were stoked with how it turned out so it is a shame we won’t be around to make more music, but who knows what will happen in the future. Everything continues on, music is music.”
Audemia will be playing at The Last Ride, their final ever show at The Deck Geelong this August. Featuring a stack of local bands including Sorrow Nation, there will also be a few debuts on the night with both Audemia’s Calleja and Jake Camilleri [guitars and vocals] supporting in their new bands High As Hell and 74 Kinks, respectively.
“I’m playing bass in that band; it’s a bit of a freedom for me to not have to sing. I get to rock out a bit more, it’s really hard to play bass and sing really well at the same time,” Calleja says before elaborating on High As Hell’s direction.
“It’s definitely different. It’s kind of more sludgy stoner metal kind of grooves, a little bit like Black Sabbath and System Of A Down so it’s been good fun,” he says. “We played our first show at the Barwon Club a couple of weeks ago, which was really good and I can’t wait for The Last Ride. We have sold quite a few tickets already, which is awesome considering we haven’t done a whole lot of advertising. We are really looking forward to it; it might be our biggest show yet!”
When & Where: The Deck, Geelong – August 26
Written by Alex Callan
