Super Best Friends

“I used to see Tony Abbott a lot around Parliament house and one time when I was working, there as a young journo and he’d be doing laps around the building. He ran past the coffee shop part of the building as I was coming out with a hot tray of coffees and he nearly collided into me and coffee nearly went everywhere. He didn’t stop to check if I was ok or even apologise. He is definitely an odd character,” Super Best Friends frontman Johnny Barrington relates as we begin to talk about their debut album Status Updates. The band is now infamous in the Australian music scene for their song ‘Round and Round’ which featured politicians throughout the video clip and lead to the coffee boy Tony Abbott story.
Johnny Barrington used to be a journalist for Hack the current affairs program on triple j, however decisions had to be made and he chose the opportunity to take his band – one of Australia’s finest punk outfits – Super Best Friends out on the road to play to the masses. Talking about the debut record on the day of release, Barrington is full of nothing but smiles.
“It feels really good to finally have this record out man. I’ve wanted to put together a full-length album since I was a teenager and so here we are. Maybe we have done the band in the wrong way up until now. We’ve always tried to make it pretty democratic and we could never decide past five songs. We may have had material for an album but some of us were unsure that it would work. Line up changes meant that we could get our arse into gear and to go for it. Nothing’s making me cringe yet though – I think we made a pretty solid album and I can’t wait to hear what everybody thinks about it,” he says.
The idea for the album originated when Barrington was house-sitting for a friend in Collingwood and talking about how long the process was – Barrington was able to put it in simple terms for me. “The album has taken about how long Tony Abbott has been in office for. We are bagging out on all governments really in this band, because of the trouble with the country spills over to previous governments – not just Tony’s,” Barrington says.
In 2015, most of the tours around Australia include the regional centres as well as the big city dates and that is something that you just have to do when planning a tour. Based in Canberra, the band has quite a soft spot for playing regional shows. Also, as I am informed, there are some cracking venues around the smaller towns, which lead to outlandish experiences as a band. “I’ve only been to Bendigo once and that was supporting Calling All Cars. It was actually one of the first lessons in rock and roll I got. Nobody turned up to that gig but that didn’t stop Haydn from playing a show like the room was packed. Even if it is a Wednesday and everybody’s got to work tomorrow, we rock out just the same,” he says.
“I cannot wait to head out on the road in support of what we have done and so everyone should come rock out with us. There are some wicked bands supporting us along the way, so make sure you come down early to see them!”
When & Where: Karova Lounge, Ballarat – April 15, The Black Swan Hotel, Bendigo – April 16 & The Reverence Front Bar, Melbourne – April 18
Written by Tex Miller