The Rip

Two years after their inception, local punk outfit The Rip are now set to unleash their first self-titled release. With the impending release, guitarist Andrew Malone tells me the lowdown on the product, the launch and his personal thoughts on the local Adelaide music scene.

"We have got a show coming up on the 19th and then another one on the 20th, so we are going to do, like, a double release. On the 19th we are playing at the Jetty Bar with Line Of Departure and Magentaline from Melbourne and then on the 20th we are playing at the Jade Monkey with Unpaid Debt, I think. We have got Line Of Departure playing on the Saturday night - they actually had us supporting them at their own EP launch last year so we are now deciding to return the favour, which is pretty cool, I reckon."

And what are the details on the release itself?

"A lot of the songs we wrote probably in 2004 and then our other guitarist Jono [Kingston] went overseas for a year so we had another guitarist come in and fill in for him for a while. We went into the recording with him in the winter of 2005 and ended up punching out five tracks at the Sound House. We finally put it together a year later and we now also have Jono back on board as well, which is really great," Malone explains.

So, with a year having passed since the recording, will it take that long to produce a follow up EP?

"We decided we were a bit slack with the last one, so we have really got to keep on the ball with it, we realise that now. At the moment we are just trying to write some new songs to take into the studio with us in November and Two Bucks Records will probably jump on board with it at a larger scale, I am sure. This release we are doing now is an independent and Two Bucks are supporting it by agreeing to release it as a limited release with, like, a 100 CDs being printed only. First in, best dressed really, I suppose!" Malone laughs.

With a lot of trends that pass through so quickly, it is refreshing to hear that The Rip are taking the only approach to music that they know - the honest and genuine one by not taking part in the fads that consume the majority of the youth of today. As stated in their bio, 'The release of their debut EP has given the band a renewed energy and passion to play exciting music that doesn't bend to fashion or trends'.

Malone chips in with his opinion, "We are probably better off being known as just a punk band, but we do have a screamer as the lead singer," he laughs.

"We don't think too highly of that whole poseur fashion or emo-rock or whatever it is, or whatever you would like to call it. We prefer to keep things straight down the line, you know - we like to be only who we are and we are the kind of people that anyone can relate to, that's what I think. We are just everyday people and we don't need to try and be people who are posing their way through life," Malone declares.

"I'm not sure how long the emo thing is going to last, to be honest, it seems to be doing all right at the moment and there are heaps of people doing it, but at the end of the day, we are going to last as long as we can and we are not here to make money or anything. We are just here to do it for ourselves and for the people who come to watch us play, so we will just take it as it comes!"

Fiona Stafford

The Rip play at the Glenelg Jetty Bar on Sat 19 August and at Jive on Sun 20 August. 'The Rip' is out on 19 August through Two Bucks Records.