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Champion.
 According to Champion's guitarist Aram Arslanian, the Australian hardcore scene is one of the best in the world. "And that's straight from the heart. There aren't many places you can go and see so many incredible bands where people truly love the lyric and the message." Unlike the American scene, Arslanian explains, where hardcore is in a bad place right now, "I'm a little worried about it, it's anti- everything the music is supposed to stand for."
Plagued with violence, too many record labels and bands, and too much of an emphasis on money, the scene is falling to pieces, Arslanian says. "I don't think there's a lot of heart in it right now, people are looking at their bands in terms of a career and not as something meaningful to be apart of. It's not about getting out there and playing songs you believe in and enjoy anymore, it's about how many units these bands can push and how many high profile tours they can get on."
There's disgust in Arslanian's voice as he confesses, "You wouldn't believe the conversations bands have - I don't care how many thousands of records you've sold, I don't care how many thousands of records I've sold, what I care about is the stage-diving, sing-alongs, and talking to people at our shows. Those are the important things. But that's OK, because the bubble always bursts, man. Music goes through cycles and right now hardcore's super-huge. And when the bubble bursts and hardcore's not a 'thing' anymore, people that really cared about it will stick around, and the people that don't will just move on to the next 'thing'."
And that's why Champion loves Australia, because our bands come from the real hardcore mindset. Perth, in particular, is an old fave, as Arslanian reminisces, "Oh man, where do I start! The memories... god, there's tonnes. We got to hang out with koala bears and I got to drive on the left side of the road for the first time! But seriously, we've got a lot of friends in Perth, it's great going to a place like that where they get less touring bands because the shows are a bit more intense and that's cool. Miles Away are unbelievable, they're gonna be on our tour."
And when you think about it the fondness is not all that surprising, seeing as Seattle, the band's hometown, is almost as isolated from the rest of America as Perth is from the rest of Australia.
"Literally, to get to San Francisco from Seattle you have to drive like fourteen hours! All the other major cities are pretty close together. But the good thing about isolated cities is that they develop their own music, their own sound, their own taste and style. It's cool because they're usually like this weird little breeding ground for great bands."
Champion being one such, of course. Pushing their sixth year together, the guys have managed to release a full length album, sign a deal with record label Bridge Nine, and tour North America, Japan, Europe, and Australia. A pretty amazing effort for a band who's had something of a revolving door of members over the years.
Arslanian laughs, "On our last tour we had a different drummer, but our old drummer is now back in the band. We've changed so many bass players too. This Australian tour will be the last for our current bass player, so we'll have to get a new one again. But basically, the band has always been myself, the singer [Jim Hesketh], and the other guitar player [Chris Williams] and the drummer [Todd Preboski]."
Nevertheless, as far as the vision for the band goes, Champion has never lost it.
"We've always been on the same page of what we wanted to do with the band. I mean, we might argue about songs here or there, but in terms of touring and really getting things out there, we've all been of the mind that you put everything to the side and you go out and you do your thing."
And it's thanks to that ethic that the guys have been able to establish themselves to the point they are at right now.
"The great thing is that we've worked hard together and now we can do the things we want to do instead of having to go out and kill ourselves and tour like crazy all the time, which was cool and we wanted to do that for a long time. But now we're a lot more interested in quality rather than quantity."
Nina Bertok
 | Champion play an all-ages show at the Enigma Bar on Fri 9 Dec with Miles Away, Internal Affairs and Betrayed. |
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