CASSETTE KIDS [02:04:08] THE KIDS ARE HUGE Causing a ruckus in Sydney’s indie music belly for more than 12 months now, four-piece outfit Cassette Kids are proving to be hotter than the midday sun. Nabbing front woman Katrina Noorbergen, the conversation stumbles across black eyes, band competitions and awkward dates. Cassette Kids recently made the final of the Garage 2V Festival comp. How was that experience? Interesting. It was a different but valuable experience to be playing under that kind of pressure. It would have been great to win but we weren’t as disappointed as we thought we’d be. In the end we know how close we came and it made that kind of scenario (playing a big festival) seem all the more achievable. For those who've never experienced the Cassette Kids live show, what can punters expect from you guys? Energy, mangled mic stands, some fanciful spirit fingers courtesy of Dan (guitarist) and maybe if you’re lucky one of us will hurt ourselves. You might hear some stuff you’ve never heard come out of a guitar before. People talk and we get labelled as all kinds of shit that doesn’t make sense. Everything is done with the very basic elements that constitute a band; guitars, drums and vocals. It’s all live. There’s no backing tracks, laptops or synths despite what people might assume. What's been the strangest moment the band has had live onstage? I was smashed in the head with the full force of a man behind a bass guitar. That was strange because it gave me a lump the size of a golf ball and a black and purple eye for two and half weeks. Not that I remember all that much but everybody kind of lost it after that. Everybody in the band was looking at me checking to see if I was going to pass out or not. Dan looked so worried, he later told me I should have died. You're headed north for the Huge in Japan show in Brisbane next week. Are you bringing any surprises with you? Um ... yes. Backup dancers dressed as pumpkins. And glitter. When can we expect a Cassette Kids album to arrive? Soon. We have taken our time with the first release but it’s ready to go so listen out. It shall be named ‘Forwards/Backwards’. When you're on the road touring, is the band a well-behaved group or a motley crew of deviants? Let’s just say you think you know a person until you go on tour with them. Protect your towel racks or you could be sorely disappointed in the morning. We definitely try to make the most of our time spent in other states. Cassette Kids influences are? Hard to talk about, not to give a cliché band interview answer! Only because we all come from really different musical backgrounds. It’s good we’re not all into the same stuff. I think it adds diversity to our writing. When it comes to playing music, do you prefer MP3s or cassette tapes? What's an MP3!? Never heard of it. Nah we have the digital era to thank for a lot of things, but we were born in the era of cassette tapes so they’ll always have a special, if somewhat dusty, place in our hearts. What's next for the Cassette Kids juggernaut, aside from world domination that is? We’ve been writing and making some crazy noise so hopefully after the EP is out it wont be too long before we can share the new generation of songs. The EP is like where we have been and the new songs are where we are going. What was your reaction when you first heard one of your songs on the radio? I was on a date which got a bit awkward because I was trying to listen to myself in the background without making it obvious that I was listening to myself, which is not very cool. Aside from that we were all pretty stoked to finally get that kind of support. The Matchstick Cassette Kids join Harris Robotis, Belgium, G.L.O.V.E.S., Knife Machine and others for the Huge In Japan ‘Monster Rave-Up’ at GPO Friday April 11. back to top ^

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