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Neon.
I can see a pattern forming. Australian band writes a bunch of songs in their bedroom, plays a handful of shows to nearly nobody, and then ventures out of the country. Suddenly, the wheels start turning, people start noticing, and without further ado the band becomes more popular in England or America than they ever were over here. If it worked for The Vines and Jet, there's no reason why it couldn't work for Sydney harmony-based pop-rockers Neon.
"It's pretty good," says drummer Jamie Gurney about having the money to fly rather than drive around the country, touring with Rocket Science. "This tour is just, kinda one big party, really. The Rocket Science guys are dear friends, so it's just like hanging out and getting to play a show in between."
When I mention the whole big-overseas-unknown-in-Australia thing, Gurney is quick to set the facts straight. "We'd done quite a lot of shows in Australia before we left. The English thing was quite accidental, really. I think we'd done about 200 shows in the last two years, or something, and a few people had heard of us in Australia, but it seemed to work really well in the UK. We've only really done six shows there, so maybe it's more of a UK sound or something... I think it's a great way to get your music out there. Because it's very hard to make it in Australia just touring around, so it's a good thing to get Australian music out there."
Gurney says that they went to England without any real expectations, just a bit of recording time. "Graham had contacted us before we left and said that he'd heard our demos, exactly how I don't know, and said that he wanted to release us..."
Graham, incidentally, is Graham Coxon, who is the head of Transcopic Records (Neon's UK label) and is also the former guitarist of Blur. Having Graham Coxon just call you one day must be quite something, really.
"Well, of course there's the 'yeah, sure it is...'" Gurney muses. "But after some convincing we kinda shit our pants, and said, 'yeah, I'm sure we can squeeze that in.'"
Neon has also spent some time in Japan which tends to appreciate Australian music more than any other place outside our own fine brown land. "It was absolutely fucking surreal; they treated us like royalty the whole time," Gurney says of the Japanese. "Tokyo's an amazing place; we can't wait to go back. It's really, definitely on the number one list for us. They clap politely and stuff, I can't describe it. They don't seem to drink as much as Australian crowds. But at the same time, they're very into it; they're all there listening. It's like they go there specifically to see the band. They 're actually searching for what's new and happening. So if you're willing to tour there, the people there are more than keen to be fanatical."
Ben Revi
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Neon's A Man single is out now through Liberation.
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