tommyGun

Despite being justifiably proud of their eleven year history, tommyGun's Adam Hollinshead and Craig Paterson do not feel at all like they're fighting a losing battle.

"It depends," begins Hollinshead, "I mean, if we were aiming for..." struggling for words, he finds telepathic support from his erstwhile silent partner, "Commercial success," interjects Paterson, before letting Hollinshead continue, "then, yes, I think when we were younger that was always a pipe dream, but the more we've gone on the more we've realised that there would be too many sacrifices to get to that level."

"It's not a big deal in the end," concludes Paterson.

That might be so, but you can't say that there's nothing more to tommyGun. After eleven years, these two have finally secured the dream Adelaide rhythm section of Justin Hermes (known for having played bass in both Rash and its later incarnation Diplomat) and, even more recently, Aidan Moyse (the unassailable sticksman of Bad Girls Of The Bible and, currently, Running With Horses).

"They're the heavyweights," Hollinshead agrees, "it helps having good friends. But they've always respected our band in years past, so when the opportunity came up they were pretty into it."

Despite Hermes and Moyse being top-class sound engineers in their own right and despite using Hermes' house as a studio, tommyGun's newly-released eponymous EP was aided by the masterly Melbourne-based Matt Maddock (Diplomat, Something For Kate).

"It was just so Justin could relax and play," explains Hollinshead. "Matt's done some really good work and we thought he'd respond really well to the sort of music we're making. And he did."

It's a great record in a strange format - seven songs, clocking in at around half an hour. A few more songs would have heralded an album; a few less songs would have saved a lot of money.

"We had eleven tracks initially and this is the issue with having the lineup changes over the years, we haven't had that much time to write new material because we haven't had everyone, so we just had this eclectic collection of songs that didn't quite fit an album. We didn't quite have a cohesive flow for eleven tracks. So we trimmed it back to seven."

Now that Hermes has moved to Melbourne, it will be harder for the band to rehearse, but that's not likely to stop them - "It's a good excuse to go to Melbourne for a weekend" - neither from playing, nor working toward Hollinshead's one lofty goal.

"I'd like to record in Chicago at some point," he confesses. "with Steve Albini. That's just a financial thing, if we can get the money together, that's a long-term thing. That would make me a happy man."

Funnily enough, in contrast to many of their peers, we haven't yet seen the end of tommyGun. They are, seemingly, one of the last vestiges of a scene that in the mid-'90s, threatened to explode - then didn't.

Hollinshead concludes, "It was devastating to the fans to watch that, especially Rash, when Rash was Rash, should really have made it. Flat out, should have. No question. They were fucking amazing. There's so much luck in the industry. I mean, they worked their arses off. Higher work ethic than I've ever seen in a band, ever....There was The Miltons [later Bergerac] as well, they were providing something new and they dispersed. It's music. It's not just, 'I'm in a band with my mates, we just get drunk.' It's music and as such it can be more frustrating. There's something to that, I think."

Sure is.

Ben Revi

tommyGun launch 'tommyGun' at the Exeter Hotel (Rundle St.) on Fri 1 September, then play at the Jetty Bar on Sat 2 Sept