Tomorrow, Australia's 5-piece pysch-rock band, Sticky Fingers drop their 3rd album Westway (The Glitter & The Slums) and kick-off their North American tour!
The follow-up to their critically acclaimed sophomore album, 2014's Land of Pleasure, has already been getting praises for the first single, "Outcast at Last" released earlier this year. One of the stops on their 15 show run is this Saturday night at the Rickshaw Stop!
Here are some questions I for the band before they hit the road answered by keyboardist Freddy Crabs!
Q: I've read that the founding members of the band met while busking, does the band still busk these days?
A: Yeah, we met Diz, our lead singer, buskin' on the street as a kid when we first came Australia from New Zealand. Fortunately for the general public we don't busk on the streets anymore, but occasionally we might have a guitar in hand being a nuisance in a park, the beach or somewhere out in the open so if that counts then we still do.
Q: What's the inspiration behind the album cover artwork for Westway (The Glitter & The Slums)? It reminds me of Boulevard of Broken Dreams painted by Heinwein, the painting with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and James Dean at Phillies Diner.
A: Ah that's fair! We had a bit of inspiration from the Streets song, "A Grand Don't Come For Free" and from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. We actually though of the stain glass idea when we were playing pool in the local lawn bowls club across the road from our studio in Marrickville, Sydney. We saw this real classic stained glass window and thought, fuck wouldn't it be cool if we just got our own? I originally wanted my character to be naked with one of those classical biblical small penises but that didn't quite workout, unfortunately. We were stoked with the final product. A lotta people don't realise that the album cover is actually taken of one of our local drinking holes called The Gladstone Hotel. The stain glass window is also real, so if ya ever in Sydney go check it out.
Q: Rumor has it that the new album features a collab with a hot new artist. without giving anything away, who are some of your favorite new bands/artists this year?
A: Man. I'll give it away cos it's out soon. His name is Remi and he's a fiercely talented rapper coming out of Melbourne. He's got his own unique flavours and will do some big things around the world soon. I have no doubt. The track he's on is one of the more fun flavours off of our album and it's prob one of my favourites. Some juicy bass lines, big guitar lines and solos. In a nutshell that's usually me, done!
Q: Westway (The Glitter & The Slums) drops on September 30th, the same day as your North American tour, is this a coincidence or intentional?
A: Pure coincidence my (wo)man. We didn't plan on playing heaps of the new album on this tour but now that's it's out there for the world to peep so we have no choice! We're pretty stoked to get some of these new songs in the set. Sometimes when you play the same songs over and over again you need to mix it up and keep it fresh and that's what new material offers. It's def sounding hot in rehearsals so we can't wait to show the North Americans.
Q: Any venues or cities on this tour that will be new to Sticky Fingers?
A: A few joints like Edmonton, Winnipegand. Also over in the States I haven't been to Minneapolis before. That will def be a vibe, keen to hear that accent! Places like Montreal and Van City and obviously San Fran will be super fun again. Plus these shows are bigger than last so that's real exciting for us. It's been an upward ride for us in terms of venue increases so we've never really stopped being excited bout coming to the Americas knowing that more cats are jumpin' on us. It's a crazy feelin'!
Q: Favorite album(s) of 2016 so far?
A: It's worth checkin' out our pals The Delta Riggs Active Galactic. Real good groove rock with some disco flavours and fat bass lines. A solid listen. You won't go wrong.
Also, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' most recent record, Skeleton Tree is real moving. Cave's teenage son died recently and this album deals with his intense emotional response to that. A must listen.
Thanks for the awesome insight Freddy!
The Sticky Fingers show at Ricksaw Stop this Saturday is sold out!
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