Ahead of their January 2010 tour, Dane Wang had the chance to speak to lead singer Benjamin Grubin of fast up-and-comers Hockey - set to play Laneway, amongst a couple of sideshows!

Dane: You guys will be making your way to Australia for the first time next year for our prestigious Laneway Festival, what are you looking forward to most while here? 

Ben: We’ve never been to Australia or anywhere near Australia; we don’t know what the crowd will be like so we’re really excited to be finding out and what’s going to happen.

What is the Hockey live experience like? What can fans expect from your shows?

A more energetic version of the album!

How did the band come together?

It came together in two parts, first part was in California me and my roommate played with each other for four years with a drum machine, then we realised we were bad then got our other 2 and moved to Portland, Oregon.

Let’s talk about your album Mind Chaos, what was the main inspiration behind it?

I just wanted to write dance music because to me it has this crazy energy and rhymes

Walk me through the writing process, Are you the main songwriter?

Yes

What was life like while recording?

Pretty insane, it was freezing cold; we were recording 12 hours a day in the basement.

I heard that Jerry Harrison was meant to produce your debut album, what happened with that?

He produced the song called ‘Song Away’ but that's it. We didn’t have a record deal when we recorded it so we didn’t have any money to pay him anyway, so we just did it ourselves.

Are you happy with the way it turned out?

Yeah most of it, there’s a few things that I would like to have changed but yeah most of it.

Tell me more about your song ‘Wanna be black’. I absolutely love it; my itunes play count is up to 251 now.

Hahaha, I wrote that song about when I was a kid growing up in New
York. I love rap music and the whole black culture that was around and
it’s just about that.

You recently got the chance to play on Jimmy Fallon Live, what was that experience like?

It was so scary; I didn’t know how to deal with that I was freaking out. They put you on stage and it was freezing cold and you play one song. It was a learning experience. I need to figure out some meditation for next time

2009 has been an amazing year for you guys, what has been your highlight so far?

I would say playing our headline shows in England. You play a festival show one day then a club show the next and all these people come to see you. It’s a great experience and a really cool, unusual feeling.

Critics have compared you to The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem, how do you feel about that?

I don’t mind it; I listen to both of them a lot and there’s an element of truth to that. We don’t rip either of them off so I don’t worry about it.

Finally, what do you hope to achieve with Hockey?

I hope we get to find out the extent of what we’re meant to achieve with this album just to keep playing shows and just see where we go.

Thank you for your time Ben 

Yeah you too, Thanks!

--------------------------------------------------

Hockey's debut album Mind Chaos is out now, featuring 'Too Fake' & 'Song Away'

LANEWAY SIDESHOWS - TIX ONSALE NOW

Thursday 28th Jan, Metro Theatre, Sydney
www.metrotheatre.com.au phonecharge: (02) 95503666
or www.ticketek.com.au phonecharge: 132849

Wednesday 3rd Feb The Hi Fi, Melbourne
www.thehifi.com.au phonecharge 1300THEHIFI, Polyester, Greville Records.