Bodyjar
By Blunt Magazine
After fifteen years, three EPs, seven studio albums (and a live album!), countless shows (from dives to festivals and everything imaginable in between) and a whole lot of sitting in a van, sharing showers and sleeping on floors, Bodyjar are throwing in the towel and moving on to new projects (still, of course with a very definite slant towards punk rock). Frontman Cam Baines and drummer Shane Wakkerman are doing the rounds with the slightly heavier and edgier rock act, Cola Wars, not to mention bassist Grant Relf and guitarist Tom Read's involvement in Burn The City. After one final tour, the foursome will split, but before they do, Blunt got a chance to ask guitarist/vocalist Cam Baines a few questions.
What album are you most proud of and why?
“I think the Red Album (self titled), there's something really special about it for me, it was a real band effort we planned and did everything ourselves including the tour and everything, we had lots of help but it felt like it was really from us. It was more satisfying that any of the others, probably sold the least being on an indie but it recouped easily and was the best musically too, it covered a lot of ground.”
What was the most stressful situation that the band ever encountered (and if it was deciding to call it a day on the band, what was the second most!)?
“Calling it a day wasn't stressful. [The most stressful situation was] a long time ago; finding out we were in a lot of debt without knowing it wasn't easy, like getting letters from the tax department was weird when you think everything is fine, but that was ages ago.
We had to go through a lot of that stuff and it definitely created a lot of tension within the band and we were pretty angry for a while but its a waste of energy to stay that way.”
Is it still exciting for you guys to play your older material; will this final tour be enjoyable for you guys or is it more for the loyal fans?
“Its gonna be so much fun for us, I reckon we've all enjoyed just jamming this new stuff and I think having Ross (Heatherington, the band's original drummer) on the road with us will be fun too its pretty cool.”
How much of an influence has this band had on the kind of person that you've become?
“A lot I reckon, you learn about yourself pretty quickly when you're traveling in a band. At night, when everything is quiet... I sing to dead people.”
A lot of bands would now say that you guys have had a big influence on them, how does that make you feel?
“Really good. Make all current and future royalty cheques out to Jar Industries, PTY LTD. No coins, no chit chat.”
If you hadn't spent all of this time making music, what do you think you would have been doing?
“Selling shoes and riding my skateboard... My god. What have I done?? (inconsolable crying is heard for the next thirty six minutes).”
Where do you see yourself in five years from now?
“Hopefully doing some production work with other bands and writing songs with other people, id like for Cola Wars to be on their third album by then too.”
How would you like fans to remember the band?
“I guess that I'd like to be thought of as a great live band first and foremost and as a hard working band that did things there own way and had fun. A band that encouraged people to think for themselves.”
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