Band Interview: Avalanche

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are pleased to bring you an interview with hard rocking/rock and roll band, Avalanche.

1. How did you get started as a band?

Steven Campbell (lead vocals/bass): We formed in early 2018, we used to jam in Ryan, our drummer’s dad’s steel factory late at night after work, writing and working on original material. He and Veronica ‘V’ Taleski, our lead guitarist have been jamming together for a few years, she went to school with his sister and that’s how they met, they had another rhythm guitarist and bass player at the time and eventually reached out to me on a musicians forum as they needed a singer. Soon enough, the rhythm guitarist gave up, the bass player stopped showing up so I thought I’d take up bass too, and we continued as just a 3 piece for a while before we found eventually Arthur Divis to take up rhythm guitar.

But we’ve been around since October last year, when we started playing the local pubs and music venues around Sydney and a few out of town shows as well. Between gigs we spent a lot of time in this very well set up home recording studio, recording a total of 4 songs for our debut EP, SENT FROM HELL, which just came out on May 1st.

2. How would you describe your sound?

Our sound is like a punch in the face. Were a guitar band, and play a very fast, mean and high energy type of Rock ‘N Roll, similar to late 70’s early 80’s when rock bands were starting to get faster and harder but remain a rock n roll band, so there’s lots of blues elements and turnarounds but its heavy and loud, and it’s really bare bones rock which you don’t find a lot of these days.

3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?

As a band, our influences are definitely 70s/80s Aussie rock bands, namely AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, the Angels, Stevie Wright, the Easybeats, and my dad’s band Avalanche. We’re also inspired by all the big rock and metal bands like Guns n Roses, Led Zep, Metallica, Sabbath, Motörhead, and also earlier bands like the Rolling Stones, The Who, the Yardbirds, Chuck Berry, and we also have a lot of blues influences as well. We’re really inspired by all the early rock and blues pioneers from the 50s/60s because thats where all the heavier music came from, so thats really helped shape and inspire our music; when you can go to the beginning of the rock/metal genre and see where all the riffs and attitude came from and put that into your own playing.

4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?

I would say the rise of digital media definitely has helped us along our way, instantly we could put our music up for anyone to listen to and that’s a pretty awesome thing, but at the same time it has saturated the market quite a bit and made it harder for new bands to cut through everything that’s out there, but I guess you just gotta keep at it, find your audience and play to them.

5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?

I used to be the the junior national Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion in my teens, actually I won it twice, so I’d probably say martial arts outside of music. But music is the main thing, we’re always either gigging or practicing or promoting our music in one way or another and everything in our lives seems to revolve around music, Veronica works as a roadie for example, both she and Ryan collect vinyl and CDs and a good night out for us is either going to our own gig or a mate’s gig.

6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?

Well we’ve just released our debut Double EP, Sent From Hell, it’s a wild and raw rock n’ rock record about sin, sex and good times. It’s a mix of 4 studio recordings, including our 2 single releases, and 4 live recordings. It’s fast and it’s heavy and it’s LOUD!

We’ll be gigging non-stop all over Sydney over the next few months to promote it, we’re already booked out until the end of July and are constantly booking more shows and working as hard as possible to make em our best shows yet. Sent From Hell is now available on all streaming platforms, so you can grab a copy online, and we’ll soon be selling physical cd’s online as well. Also planning a tour for the end of the year! Lots to come from us so stay tuned!

Band Links

Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Soundcloud