This is an interview I did with Cheyne from Fuck it I Quit when he was up here with 50 Lions for the Blacklisted tour in July. It was originally published in SOG#2, but since that zine is pretty much gone (and I doubt will ever be reprinted), here it is.
One of the big themes with the band seems to be fucking things up, when was the last time you think you fucked up?
You mean lyrics wise?
Yeah, you felt you fucked up a situation.
I dunno, it’s pretty gay but, I got dumped this year from a really long relationship. I guess that fits. But I haven’t written about that.
Not yet?
Nah, most if it is about fights with my mum and stealing shit from my mum and stuff. That’s what most of the stuff’s about like fucking up wise.
Was that what ‘Wishing for the World to End’ was about?
Yeah.
‘I’d just like to say that I’m a fucking cunt…’ etcetera
Yeah, that’s about just fighting with my mum. Mum’s are important ya know.
Mums are a bit better when you move out and don’t have to see them as often I think.
Do you write often? Like is it a kind of catharsis?
Nup, I only write either when we’ve got a new song to do or when I actually have nothing else to do and have something to write about, but I don’t write like everyday or whenever something pops into my head.
I’ve wondered about this a few times, so I thought I may as well ask, the passage in Change about getting in your car and just fucking off, did that actually happen or was it just a metaphor?
Yeah, I was out past Ballarat and I live in Essenden which is over a hundred k’s away, hence the line. That actually happened.
Why?
I lost the plot. I lost the plot, had a bit of problems with my head. It’s been sorted now recently, but that’s what most of the songs are about. I guess I could I say it’s a cathartic sort of thing, but not in the way you think it is. Like singing the words does make me feel better, so in that way, yeah.
What’s been happening with the band over the last few months? Considering the fact that you do nothing…
Ahhh nothing. We played a show while Mickey was over in
Do you get asked to play many shows?
Not really, nah. We used to, but we had to say no so much because of the other bands, we’re a bit of a backbench band…
That they just stopped asking?
Yeah, like the same sort of people used to ask all the time and now they’ve stopped sorta thing. Like all the same sorta promoters and what not.
Once you start playing more shows they should jump back on though.
Yeah.
When are you gonna tour?
Dunno. We were supposed to go to
Sean: Where did you get the money for the last split?
That was our own money and then Nigel paid for everything else.
Was it expensive? Because you recorded with Roman…
We’re mates with him, he hooked us up because he had no work on at the time. So we did the whole thing in a day for like 200 bucks or something like that.
Sounds fine for a days work.
Sean: and what Nigel had it all pressed and stuff or…?
Yeah, Nigel paid for the mastering, pressing, artwork, all that sorta stuff.
How much did the artwork cost? It’s simple as shit…
No, actually, we paid a dude 50 bucks to draw whatever he drew. Nigel paid for it to get printed and everything, we just had to give him a high res version of it.
Do you like the artwork?
Yeah, it’s what I wanted on the demo, but we ended up going with the dude with the grenade thing.
The pin in the mouth?
Yeah, gaffa taped on. I wanted something more like that for the demo but it never got done. H remembered, it’s one of H’s bogan mates or something, I dunno.
How’d the band form? Just talkin’ shit one day?
Nah, I showed Mickey and H Ruiner and they were all over it, but we were still in King Brown so they didn’t want to do anything with all the same dudes, but Mickey told me once that he was gonna start doin’ it and I go ‘ya know I have to sing in this band’ and he goes ‘yeah, alright, come down’ and that was it. Then we just got dudes to just start playing bass and the other guitar and that was it.
Has it been harder since Mickey has been playing with 50 Lions?
Yeah, that’s when we were actually active as a band I guess, but now we’re just like… like I told you before, we haven’t practiced since September, that’s nearly a year now. We’ve played a few shows but nothin’, I think last time we practice we had 4 new songs, but I’m pretty sure we’ve forgotten them now.
What do you wanna do next? Like, you’ve done the 7”, you’ve done the demo…
I wouldn’t mind doing a 7” with just us. I dunno. Nigel wants to put something out again from us.
Really?
Yeah, he really likes us but we just don’t have enough time to write for a full length and he doesn’t like putting out EP’s, but I think if we put out a record he’d be interested in it. I dunno. I wanna put out another record with just us, like I don’t really like records, but it’s cool to have your own band on a record.
Is it kind of intentional to have the stuff hard to find like that?
Is it hard to find?
Nah, when it’s on 7”, tonnes of kids haven’t got record players so it kind of limits the audience a bit.
Yeah, well I dunno. Like, with the demo I put that up for download and I always intended to put our songs from the split up but I sorta forgot. That’s sorta when we started getting lazy, like just after the split came out, that’s when we got lazy. Like I put up the songs on myspace but that’s about it.
Do you ever think of just breaking up? Throwing in the towel?
Yeah, well I said that. Like we played a show, I think we played the FC Five show, with Miles Away and stuff at the Arthouse and I said to the dudes like a couple of days before that, I go ‘wadda ya reckon, last show?’ and they’re like ‘urhhh whatever’ and then I said it on stage, I go ‘this is our last show’ and then after the show, all the other dudes that I’d already asked and they were like ‘yeah whatever’, were like ‘ ohhh wadda ya mean? wadda ya mean last show?’. I go like, ‘I fuckin’ asked ya like 2 days ago and you said ‘yeah sweet’’. That was when we sorta just decided that we’ll just play whatever shows we get asked to play and that’ll be it.
I guess, last question, what’s one reason why you wake up everyday?
Me personally?
Yeah, personally.
Fuck, I dunno. That’s hard.
I was reading a Blacklisted interview online a few weeks ago and I saw that question and I was like ‘that’s a fuckin killer one’
Yeah, I was expecting all the other ones, but I dunno. Dunno these days. I’ve got a lot of shit coming together I guess, working, school, I dunno. I don’t really know. That’s hard.
Too hard to answer?
Nah, I dunno. Other than just getting up and doing shit and getting my life in order, nothing really. I think doing something study wise probably gets me up, because I haven’t done anything like that since I finished high school, but yeah, I dunno. That’s a fucking hard question. I’m just gonna stick with what I said.
Are you excited to finally get to uni soon?
Yeah. Yeah, I am now. I never used to be. I was doing a trade but now it’s better, I’m doing something more academic. Yeah, I dunno.
