In a city dominated by pop bands, one can’t help but notice the over-the-top rock and roll antics of Perth’s Jed Whitey; who along with the 3 Orange Whips, Fourstroke and Capital City form the cornerstone of a small but devoted Perth rock scene.

Since forming over two years ago, Jed Whitey have gone from strength to strength, supporting the likes of The Rollins’ Band, Trans Am, You Am I, Rocket Science, Magic Dirt, Shihad, Tumbleweed and 6 Ft Hick. Earlier this year they released their debut EP, Alrighty!, which is only available on double 7 inch vinyl and they already have their next EP, Superfly Bigmuff, ready to roll. On top of this, they are also set appear to appear on numerous compilations both here in Australia and overseas, the most notable of which is the Fistful Or Rock And Roll series, where they will appear on volume 11 alongside such bands as Fu Manchu.

With an uncompromising yet tongue-in-cheek attitude and a reputation for playing fucking loud, Jed Whitey are all set to leave the safety of Perth and take on the world, beginning with a short tour of the East Coast of Australia early December. Before they left, I managed to catch up with lead singer and guitarist Luke Marinovich, who graciously answered some of my boring questions like how the band formed...

How did the band form?

We were bored, we knew each other, we formed a band. Boooring.

But if you’ve gotta know, my band (Pb), Dan’s band (Six Pack of Pigeons) and Louis’ band (Pathogen) all dissolved at around the same time. We had a jam, since we acquaintances through RTR-FM, and it just clicked. That will be two years ago in mid-December.

Who would you say are the band’s main influences?

I know that Dan and Louis will have a completely different answer to this, so I’m speaking personally here. I’m very influenced by the whole approach of the Dictators. I really like the fact that they’re obviously exceptionally intelligent dudes working very hard to hide it. And they wrote some neat tunes. The whole smart/dumb thing in music is something that I find really appealing. Like the Ramones, you can’t tell if they’re really smart guys acting dumb, or really dumb guys who got lucky. Same with AC/DC. Another band that were hugely influenced by the Dictators, and who I draw from a lot, is the Angry Samoans. Apart from the Saints reference in the title, ‘(I’m) Retarded’ is a total nod to the Angry Samoans. The sleeve of the Superfly Bigmuff EP features record sleeves from bands that we’d like to think are our antecedents. So there’s the Dictators, Samoans, Saints, Meatmen, and some metal stuff like Sir Lord Baltimore and Pink Faries, amongst others.

If you asked Dan and Louis this question, they’d succinctly say Birdman, Napalm Death, Impaled Nazarene and Black Sabbath. So there ya go.

How do feel about Jed Whitey being called stoner rock?

Ah, whatever, y’know? People can call us what they want. I get a bit frustrated with Fu Manchu comparisons because it’s just lazy. Like, if people had any brains they’d pick the fact that we rip off a whole bunch of bands endlessly, but we’ve never copped a Fu Manchu riff. I guess it comes back to the fact that, by and large, people are stupid.

Over the last 12 months, Jed Whitey seem to have taken a more straight ahead rock approach. Has this been deliberate or just natural progression?

I’d like to think that as we’ve developed our own style, the more generic elements have dropped away. I guess it’s more straight ahead rock, but I’d be disappointed if an ‘80s hardcore punk influence didn’t come through. It’s difficult to introspect about this stuff, because we play what we play and don’t think about it any more strategically than that. I do think, though, that a lot of this new rock and roll stuff is totally fake. There are some great bands, and a percentage of these seem to have a similar approach to making music that we do, but most of it I can live without. And the whole glam revival thing can go get fucked as far as I’m concerned. It saddens me that we’ve stooped so low as a society that Poison can become cool among a group of people who call themselves punks.

Your first release was on vinyl. Was this a deliberate ploy to appeal to a certain audience?

No, we released it on vinyl accidentally. Heh heh...

We all love vinyl. I’m a record collector nerd, Dan buys vinyl pretty much exclusively, and Louis’ extreme metal record collection is pretty amazing. It’s just the right thing for us to do. Everything we release will come out on vinyl.

Your new EP, Superfly Bigmuff, shows a definite improvement both in the recording and performance. Do you feel that this is a more accurate portrayal of the band?

Yes and no. The problem with having no money is that by the time people get to hear your last recording, you’ve moved on already. It’s also a problem inherent in doing vinyl too - it’s a bit more fiddly and the turnaround time is longer. We’re all really proud of Superfly... - the sound of the recording is pretty much perfect for us, and the songs are all really strong, I think. But we’ve written a stack of new tunes since then. It’s a good thing really, ‘cause we’ve basically got the next record written.

There seems to be an underlying sense of humour to most of your songs. Is this a deliberate approach to songwriting and do you think it is important not to take everything so seriously?

It’s deliberate, but at the same time it couldn’t really be any other way because of who we are. We do have a couple of songs with lyrics that are just nonsense, but I’ve gotta say that I’m quite proud of ‘Pull My Finger’. Farting’s the universal language, y’know? It goes back to the Dictators thing - smart, but dumb. Or dumb but smart. Whatever. Besides that, yeah, it’s healthy not to take songwriting so seriously I think. We have absolutely nothing to say of any redeeming social value, so why try? Song titles just kinda come out of our conversations, and we write songs around them. Louis said something the other night that I mis-heard as "Are you ready to hate us?" - bang, a new song.

You are also about to appear on numerous compilations, both in Australia and overseas, including A Fistful Of Rock And Roll. How did these come about?

We sent Sal from Electric Frankenstein a CD, and he dug it, so the overseas comps basically stem from that. The Australian ones were just responding to requests.

You seem to have utilised the internet a lot. (mp3 etc) Has this helped increase the profile of the band out of Perth?

Definitely. I’ve gone from being someone who scorned people who spend all their life on a computer to a full-blown internerd who spends his time updating webpages, maintaining mailing lists, and pestering people by email. It’s kinda sad, but the internet really has taken the place of the ‘80s fanzine underground, to a large degree. This pains me since I really do love zines, but online communication just cuts out all the waiting, basically. MP3 is neither here nor there to us really. A lot of bands view it as a money making exercise, ‘cause if you get tons of downloads you really can rake in the cash, but we have better things to do than try to get rich from mp3.com. It’s a good way to get people to hear your music who may not have heard it otherwise.

On a similar note, have you had much feedback from overseas?

Yes and no. We get emails from people/labels/radio overseas a bit. So I guess there’s interest there, but we’ve been reluctant to go on the attack overseas with Alrighty. We’ll do it a bit more with the new EP because it’s a much stronger recording. As in everything in life, first impressions are important, and I think Superfly... is the kind of first impression we’d like to create.

What would you say have been the highlights of the band so far?

The true highlights are playing great shows - last weekend’s show with You Am I comes to mind because we pretty much nailed it and it felt great. But I guess the tangible things are what we’ll be able to look back on when we’re old codgers, so just being able to put out vinyl is a highlight too. It feels great, after feeling for so many years that records were some magical thing that other people made, to be able to understand the process, follow it through, and have vinyl in your hands that has your music on it. Sounds lame, I know.

Your about to tour the east coast for the first time. How did this come about?

Dan has contacts at Highbeam in Sydney, and they cobbled together some shows for us. It’s all fairly hurried, and we’re treating it more like a holiday than a tour. We’ll get a break from work, hang out and shop for records in Sydney, and just happen to play a couple of gigs while we’re there. It’ll be fun.

What can we expect from Jed Whitey in the future? Any plans?

Well, we’re launching the new EP officially on February 16th next year at the Amplifier, which we’re kinda excited about. At the moment we’re just finishing recording four songs for a split LP with Fourstroke - that should be out in the first few months of next year. And as I said before, we’ve also got a bunch of new songs that we’re looking to record early next year too, so that’ll be another EP. Basically, the plan is to keep recording and releasing things as often as we can.

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