LION ISLAND – UNPRETENTIOUS AND QUINTESSENTIALLY AUSTRALIAN ROCK ‘N’ ROLL

By Dan Hutton on February 15, 2017 in Other

Lion Island are a home-grown hard rock band from the southern end of the Central Coast, featuring Rob Staines (guitar and vocals), Bob Trigg (drums), Arran Pratt (bass) and a bit of Eastern Suburbs flavour in the form of Johannes Leak (rhythm guitar) thrown in for good measure.

Bringing back the fuzzy guitars and crunching riffs of 80s and 90S indie rock, and drawing on punk, grunge and alternative rock influences, they stamp their sound with an unpretentious and quintessentially Australian feel.

Lion Island are currently putting the finishing touches on their debut album, which should be released in early 2017. The Beast caught up with Johannes during the month…

If I had to describe our sound in one sentence… I’d say it’s like that classic Aussie surf movie sound from the 80s and 90s.

My first memory of music is… piano lessons with my Grandma.

Growing up my parents listened to… everything from jazz to classical to heavy rock – Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Joe Jackson, Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly. Everything but Top 40 pop, really.

Our dream gig… would be playing the Bondi Astra in the late 70s sandwiched between The Saints and Radio Birdman.

If you come to see us play, you can expect… noisy, irreverent and catchy rock’n’roll.

There was one time when we were starting out… that we came on after a band of cute young guys playing to a room full of their cute young female fans and we managed to clear the room during our first song.

If we could have chosen one song to have written it would have to be… Gangnam Style, because we’d all be loaded.

Our favourite song to perform would have to be… Girlfriend’s Dead.

The best thing about the local music scene is… those venues on the Central Coast and in Newcastle and Sydney that still like to give noisy rock bands a gig.

One person we’d really like to record with is… Steve Albini. If he wanted to work with us we’d consider it.

Our biggest fan has got be… my old man.

We’ll know we have made it when… we need to employ a band shrink like Phil in the Metallica documentary.

To find out more about Lion Island, please visit… www.facebook.com/lionislandband or check out @lion.island on Instagram.