Ahead of this weekend’s Australia Day fundraiser at the Reverence Hotel in Footscray, Melbourne, supporting Oxfam and The Refugee Council, we’re catching up with a bunch of the bands playing at the event! Next up is Luke Shields, the guitarist and vocalist from Melbourne’s Have/Hold.
Tell us who you are, what band you’re from and where your band is from!
I’m Luke, I play guitar and sing in Have/Hold. We all live in and around Melbourne.
What is your latest single/album and where can we get it?
music wise… Late last year we put out a double A-side 7” called ‘Song For Bill Of The Trains/Dexamphetamine Blues’ through Midnight Funeral. We have it in a few independent record stores around the country like Poison City and Blackwire in Sydney but you can get it online at www.midnightfuneral.limitedrun.com if you’re so inclined. It’s been selling faster than we expected so we’re pretty stoked!
Tour wise, what do you have in store for 2014?
We have some huge plans for touring actually. We’re working towards another release at the moment so we’ll be touring that pretty heavily once we lock it all down. We set ourselves a massive show quota for this year so the release take up a big part of that with a bit of luck. We should be well and truly everywhere!!
How would you best describe your music?
A reviewer once described us as “prog inspired post-emo” if that helps? We try and aim at a healthy mix of Brand New, Something For Kate, Fugazi and Inxs. It ends up being kinda poppy in a dramatic and loud way without being completely full of itself.
How would you best describe your live show?
We’re a three piece so it has to be quite a simple set up but we’re punk kids at heart so we move around a bit. It’s loud enough to stop you in your tracks without losing any of the musicality we bust our arses for!!
What can we expect from this set in particular? Anything special planned?
We’ve been working on a reimagining of a song by one of our favorite Australian bands. What better way to celebrate the country we live in than pay homage to one of its better songwriters, right? It’s a surprise though so you’ll have to come along to find out what it is!
Anyone else you’re looking forward to seeing on the day?
I’m really looking forward to seeing how a Hoodlum Shouts acoustic show goes! I’ve loved hat band since I saw them at the corner a year or two ago and I’d love to see them pull it of in a more intimate and intimidating setting. Also it’s amazing being able to play alongside so many of our friends bands. Initials, Tigers, The Union Pacific and so many others all kill it live so it’s like a ‘best of’ collection of all the bands we’ve seen and played with in the last year or two.
What do you think is the perfect way to spend Australia day?
At The Rev of course, throwing your head around like a madman while simultaneously helping out people who need it most.
You’re performing at an event that is supporting Oxfam and The Refugee Council… what does this mean to you?
It means a lot actually. There are too many people looking to this country with all our ‘boundless plains to share’ for help and it breaks my heart to think that their pleas go unanswered. We live in an age where Ipads and stuff are part of some kids’ primary school booklists, surely by now we’ve grown up enough to have learnt to share unhindered. Especially when it means the difference between someone living and dying!
I know I sound like an idealist but we shouldn’t need people like The Refugee Council in Australia anymore should we?
Since we all just voted in the hottest 100, what was your favourite song for 2013?
Funnily enough I spent most of this year listening to older stuff, Peter Gabriel and Rites Of Spring to name a few. If I had to pick though it’d have to be ‘Survival Expert’ by Something For Kate or ‘Twin Rivers’ by Big Scary. There are finally a bunch of hometown bands giving the big guns a run for their money lately. It’s an exciting time!!
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Don’t miss Have/Hold at the Australia Day Weekend Fundraiser this Saturday and Sunday at the Reverence Hotel in Footscray. Details and tickets here: http://inkandlead.bigcartel.com/
