The Diecast are one of Melbourne’s hard working bands out there doing the circuits, playing their songs and trying to make a name for themselves. They’re three hard working young musicians with some really infectious upbeat tunes. If you’re after a fun night out with a band who have a strong party vibe then you’ll want to check out this band. They’re not taking any short cuts, they’re out to win the fans over one by one.

 

      "The Diecasts are an awesome band with high energy shows and really catchy songs. Their

pure musicianship makes them arguably one of the best bands in Melbourne."

-- Marie Foley.

 

            "With their ballsy guitar riffs that will have you toe tapping before you know it, catchy tunes

              guaranteed to stick in your head for days, & fast paced, tight, energetic rock shows, this

                    three piece feed are finger lickin' good! Keep you coming back for more."

-- Sonia Donnabella

 

The band answered some questions for Rock Support about being a young band in the local circuit, financing and recording their music, and plans for the future.

 

For someone who hasn’t heard The Diecasts, how would you describe your band?

 

The DieCasts are three noisy blokes that sweat all over their nice guitars. They also talk about themselves in the third person a lot.

 

How did the three of you come together as The Diecasts?

 

We’re a pretty tight-knit group. Tim (guitar/vocals) and Jez (drums) are brothers and Tom (bass) has been mates with Tim since Grade 2. So when we started learning guitar in High School it was pretty evident that we’d all get together in one way or another. Jez joined up with us in early 2014 so our first show as this line up was April 23rd at Boney Bar in Melbourne. We’ve actually been a band for about 4 years now, kicking off in 2011 at the Ferntree Gully Hotel with Calling All Cars, not a bad first show!

 

How does a young band go about getting gigs in and around the suburbs of Melbourne?

 

Email, email, email. Also book well in advance, probably about 2-3 months. It’s a little bit different each time. Depending on if you’re playing with a bunch of bands that you know, you might get asked to play, but if you’re organising your own shows, get emailing. Also try not to play at the same venue too often, and try to book a few shows at a time. It’s always cool seeing a band’s gig poster with maybe 3-4 dates on it.

 

Melbourne has such a strong live music scene, with countless bands doing the circuits. How do you go about promoting your band and getting your name out there?

 

I think just from trying to gig as often as you can. All our favourite bands got to where they are by working really hard and playing live all the time. You have to make sure people know when and where you’re playing, so being active on social media is a must. Get a killer EP out too so when people come to your show they can walk away with something whether it be a link to a Bandcamp page or Soundcloud or a physical copy of the CD.

 

What challenges are faced by young band starting out and trying to get some gigs, and what sacrifices have had to be made?

 

Probably the biggest challenge is having the venue trust you to put on a rad show and bring a bunch of punters which is really hard when you’re just starting out. This is something we still go through, not every show has a good crowd, you’ll still play to 5 people some nights but they can also be really fun shows, it allows you to be a bit more personal with the crowd and treat the whole show a bit differently.

 

There’s a killer guitar tone on your EP. What equipment do you use and was there anything special you did in the studio to achieve this tone?

 

Many thanks! A good tone is always hard and always changing, it’s something guitarists are always chasing. So the rig I ran for the whole EP was a VOX AC30 and Fender 2x12 extension cab which on its own sounds huge. We used a few different pedals but nothing too crazy, more so to enhance the tone with a compressor and the BOSS giga delay. The craziest effects used were a BOSS OC2 Octave on ‘The End’ and chorus in ‘Runaway’. That leaves the guitars! I’m a religious user of Gretsch guitars, which were over the whole record. Mostly a ’95 White Falcon and ’98 Duo Jet but I also borrowed a Brian Setzer 6120 from Pete Satchell (Dallas Crane) just for something with even more spank.

 

How did you go about financing the eight track EP?

 

We all have day jobs so we never really found it too hard to put money away for it so it was all self-financed. We recorded for 2 days at Basin Productions, tracked everything live so we got the expensive studio time out of the way pretty quickly. The next 4 months were spent with Tim Smyth at One Punch Records recording vocals and mixing. We’re all good mates so everything was pretty cruisy in that respect.

 

What first got you guys interested in music and who are some of the bands who inspired you to pick up some instruments?

 

At the Burton household we always had good music on. Our parents always had bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple on vinyl so it was a pretty rockin’ upbringing. My earliest recollection of being blown away by a band was The Beatles. They we’re easily my earliest influence though I didn’t start playing guitar until years later. Then in High School we were into Green Day and The Living End. Even Fall Out Boy, Patrick is a really good songwriter.

Now we’re a bit older I guess we have more of an appreciation for songwriting, so listening to Paul McCartney and Neil Finn have been pretty influential.

 

The rock n roll cliché is that its rock n roll all night, party all day, but the bands who have ‘made it’ have always been professional when it came to the business of their band. Do you guys have a set plan of attack for the next couple of years?

 

Oh we know how to party! It’s a bit hard at some shows, if you’re on first it’s good, you can have a drink and enjoy the night. When you’re headlining you have to take the night seriously and keep your wits about you. You could be a rad band but if you get too sloshed and play like shit, no one’s going to want to know you.

 

Our mindset is gig as much as we can, write as much as we can and just keep putting ourselves out there. We’re hoping to be back in the studio to get a couple of new tracks down and then get writing on an album. The writing path we’re going down now definitely seems to be dictating the path we want to take our music, it’s pretty rockin’!

 

How would you say the band has progressed in terms of song writing and performing?

 

We’re definitely a tighter unit than when we started. We don’t screw things up or have to concentrate too much on what we’re playing and you can focus more on performance and putting on a really good show.

 

As far as song writing goes, it’s getting better and better. You get into a mindset that you have to top each song with a better one and don’t settle for anything less. You get very picky about the songs you write. Last year I studied at Box Hill TAFE and learned a whole new set of chords and scales and techniques that have been applied to our sound and it’s giving the songs more intricacy and colour.

 

Will there be a new release this year?

 

I think so, we’re writing a bunch of songs at the moment and looking to record 2 tracks to release online so once we work them out we can hit record and upload.

 

What would you guys like to achieve as The Diecasts?

 

World domination through Rock ‘n Roll!

We’d like to have a good crack at Australia and then maybe head over to Europe. Touring through England and Germany would be insane. Anything after that we’ll have to deal with when it happens.

 

More information about The DieCasts can be found on their Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/thediecasts/timeline

 

Their EP Getting Out Of Dodge can be found at Bandcamp

http://thediecasts.bandcamp.com/album/getting-out-of-dodge-ep

 

The End - Live at Chelsea Heights Hotel