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The Fumes
 Steve Merry is on the line on the eve of the first gig of The Fumes' tour which is kicking off in Surfers Paradise. He sounds decidedly laid-back and down-to-earth. The Fumes - Steve Merry (guitar/vocals) and Joel Battersby (drums) - got started a mere three years ago and have managed to charge their way onto the Australian music scene, winning the admiration and respect of many for their dynamic songwriting and potent live shows.
After supporting acts such as Dallas Crane, Ash Grunwald, Cog and Hayseed Dixie - and not to mention having many of their own headlining gigs - The Fumes have been scrambling up and down the East coast and across Australia. They have definitely proved their mettle and gained praise from a growing fan base and the music media.
Of their live shows, Merry's voice brightens: "It's great man, it's unreal fun going on tours, I mean, it's good and bad obviously, you know, you are away for a long time and it can get pretty tiring staying up late, playing late and then not getting to bed till pretty late...Then sitting in a car for nine hours and then playing again that night. But it beats digging a hole."
Their debut album 'Guns Of Gold', which was released late last year, has received plenty of airplay. It's a varied piece of work tied together by skilful and dedicated musicianship. "Yeah, well, it's a couple of years' worth of songs in the one album, we have been playing together for a few years and writing different things. So when we got the chance to do an album we had a whole broad spectrum, a broad range of songs to use," Merry claims. A lot of songs to choose from then? "There was a fair bit of deliberating there, yeah, but it wasn't too bad, it came down to the quality of the recordings for some of them."
With 'Guns Of Gold' receiving the praise that it has and considering the amount of songs the duo have come up with, I wonder if there will be another album coming out soon...but Merry surprises me with his casualness. "I just started working on another album the day we finished the last one, I guess. We got a bunch of tracks, we are not there yet, maybe this time next year, ah, we will definitely start looking at it pretty soon though, I think."
Joel Battersby's drumming is tight, the perfect accompaniment to Merry's gutsy guitar work. I am told the two met through mutual friends living in the same area. "Joel wanted to play and I needed a drummer. I was playing with another guy for a while and he got pretty busy so we had to can that. Joel was the first guy that came along after that.
"We have always been a two-piece, like you know, I can't see that changing any time soon. It seems to work alright, it sort of came about because I was playing in another band, with another drummer, he and I lived really close to each other and really far away from the rest of the band, so he and I started rehearsing a lot and they got the shits with us and they booted us out so he and I got going."
This situation defined and strengthened Merry's guitar playing skills, negating the need, as well as the want, for a bass player or any other instruments to fill up the sound. ''I use a lot of finger picking techniques that carry the bottom end a lot," Merry points out.
Having been to Adelaide three times and to Perth only twice, The Fumes don't seem to be in too much of a hurry when it comes to gigging down our way, playing the east coast relentlessly instead. "I'd like to be able to warrant to be able to go over there, you know, it's such a long way to go and you've really got to be able to make it worth your while, well, at least be able to pay for it. But we're working on that, hopefully more and more people will be coming along."
Somehow I'm sure The Fumes will not have many problems when it comes to this.
The Fumes plays at the Grace Emily on Sat 24 March
'Guns Of Gold' is out now through Inertia
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