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Something Corporate.
 Am
I completely ignorant of what is going on in the international
music scene, or do I just get landed with bands that have big
followings everywhere but Australia? The answer is probably
"yes, in some ways" on both counts.
Regardless, as has happened several times before, I had not heard of America's Something Corporate before I was asked to interview them. Their new album 'North' was pressed into my na•ve little hands. The only other fact I knew was that they were accompanying The Offspring on their upcoming Australian tour.
Having not listened to The Offspring since they 'Smash' oh-so many years ago I envisaged a thrashy punk band, but it was not to be: Something Corporate are a strange entity incorporating piano on many tracks as well of plenty of distorted guitars - not what I expected at all.
"I think that we are just a rock band that has definitely not tried to fit into a genre," guitarist Josh Partington happily declares.
"We have always just tried to write really good songs, and I think that if we write the best songs that we can, perform them well and have them well arranged then it doesn't matter what genre you are. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers are an example; there are no bands that really sound like them and in fact in so many ways they are a funk band yet they are still probably considered one of the top five alternative bands in the world. They can get played on almost every radio station there is, and that is simply because they write great songs. If you write really great songs you can leave it up to other people like journalists, people who work in the music industry and fans to put you into a category. I just don't think you have to cater to a specific genre to be successful."
I'll happily admit that Something Corporate crosses a few musical borders on 'North,' so I was curious whether it would matter to Partington how the band were perceived.
"No matter how much you want to be in a category, or don't want to be in a category you are always going to be characterised by someone, somewhere in a way that you don't want to be," he shrugs. "As a band we focus on being Something Corporate and if people want to call us emo, alternative or commercial they can go ahead, because either way we're still going to be the same band.
"I think we would fail miserably [trying to fit a genre]. We are really good at being the band that we are, but I don't think that we would be very good at copying other people because it's just not our thing. We would probably implode or stop playing music altogether if we tried to do thatâ" Partington insists, with a hearty laugh. "If you were doing that you would really have to ask yourself what the point of it all was in the first place because effectively you are just regurgitating what other people have already done."
Sam Vinall
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Bodyjar and Something Corporate support The Offspring at the Jubilee Pavillion on Sat 26 June.
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