It’s always great when a band hits the scene that brings something vibrant, new and refreshing. Describing themselves Neo-Fusion Rock, KING PROTEUS bring together a wide variety of genres which enables them to appeal to music lovers of all kinds and which also means they are suited to playing on a larger spectrum of live music line-ups. The band are ready to launch their debut single & video, with ‘Lion’ dropping on Saturday 9 October at one of Perth’s newest live music venues, Royale Theatre in Northbridge. The Rockpit took full advantage of the long weekend by meeting up with two of King Proteus’ band members Clayton Brown (Lead Guitar) and Travis Brinnand (Vocals) to find out just what has brought this diverse line-up of musicians together to create something so refreshing, as well as what more we can expect from them in the forthcoming months.
Sean: Thanks for your time, guys. Before we talk about the debut single, let’s talk about King Proteus because you’ve both been in various bands across a very diverse musical spectrum and all I’m guessing with very eclectic tastes in what you are all influenced by. How has King Proteus come together and what does this bring to the scene that’s different to everything else that’s already out there?
Travis: Its very much that eclectic taste you mentioned. I met Clayton when we played together in The Silent Deeds, so the idea was that we wanted to find a way to challenge ourselves a little bit more. I also come from a jazz background and a couple of other mates Dave (Rajendram – Drums) & Dario (Jiritano – Bass) I had met at WAAPA in 2011 and the idea behind Proteus was to do something which was almost genre less in a way. I mean people will always try to put you in a genre.
Sean: Pigeon-holing seems to be a natural human trait.
Travis: Yes, exactly. Collecting all of our eclectic tastes and our musical capabilities and putting them all into an outfit that either reggae or soul, pop or blues or rock… that’s kind of the idea behind it.
Sean: Clayton, you’ve moved in very differing musical circles of late with the wonderful Filth Wizard being quite grungy and The Limbs having that more indie feel, but I’ve already heard great things about King Proteus on the live scene, which is wonderful for you guys to get such positive feedback so early on.
Clayton: It is great to hear. We were kind of worried that we would get stuck trying to find who to play with but in fact we’ve found we can play with anyone.
Travis: We were talking to Steven Helhammer recently on his podcast and he asked us who would be our ideal person to play with and we told him we felt we could play with anyone, but we’ve also been compared to Mr Bungle, Red Hot Chili Peppers…
Clayton: …Frank Zappa…
Travis: Yes, Frank Zappa. It’s that weird eclectic mix. I mean I rap, I do spoken word poetry and I sing in different songs, so it really is just trying different things and seeing what fits and most importantly having fun with it, having fun with the thematic storytelling of it. So, I would say we are definitely quite thematic.
Clayton: Harmonies are something we have really worked on too, especially three-part harmonies for a lot of the songs.
Travis: Yes, we have some really nice three-part harmonies between Clayton, Dario & me.
Sean: Clayton, your well known for the number of pedals you have crammed onto your pedal board. Any new additions? [laughs]
Clayton: [laughs] No, actually I’ve only got a baby one for this band. I wanted to keep it simple because there is so much going on already with guitar textures and the harmonies that I don’t think it needed to many crazy effects.
Sean: So that’s something very different for you where you have stripped it back.
Clayton: Yes, even simpler I think even with the amps. Smaller amps to also try to keep it simpler.
Sean: Why King Proteus? How did the name come about?
Travis: Well, it kind of ties into the release of ‘Lion’, which is the single we are about to release. The song ‘Lion’ was inspired by a particular woman, and she inadvertently inspired the name. When we spent a weekend together, she told me that her favourite flower was a King Protea and when she left, I was trying to remember the name of that flower. So, I went online to look for King Proteus which then led me to the idea of Proteus, son of Neptune, this changeling sea-God and I loved that as an idea. We had just started up the band, were just jamming together and didn’t have a name yet and I came into the room and just said, “Guys, King Proteus! That’s our name.” I liked it because of the fact we can change into anything we want. In fact, even with the single ‘Lion’, we have the version you will hear with the film clip which will be the main version but then we have a remix which is actually another rerecorded version of it which is the Tarantino Tuxedo mix…
Clayton: …Yes, its actually us playing the track completely differently…
Travis: Yes, re-harmonised and everything. You can pre-order the tracks on Bandcamp right now and if you do pre-order, it you can get the Tarantino Tuxedo version now.
Sean: The launch of ‘Lion’ is being held at a quite spectacular venue – Royale Theatre in Northbridge. I’m yet to check it out but the photos I’ve seen online just look spectacular. What made you select there for the launch night?
Travis: Before the venue opened, I was fortunate enough to be walking past it with a friend who knew the venue manager and were invited to check the place out, so we got to walk through, and we went up and saw the theatre and I just knew right then that I wanted to play there. We are a theatrical band so we should be playing in a big-arse theatre. It is definitely a bit of a risk for us. It would be easy to get a smaller venue and pack it out, but I like the idea of “if you shoot for the stars and hit the moon then you’re doing ok”. Also bringing the royalty into it with the King playing the Royale Theatre felt just right. So, I hunted down the booking agent, wrote an email and we were just lucky enough to get the night and it hadn’t even opened yet. We will probably be the first original line-up that this venue is going to put on. So far, they have been putting on movies, burlesque shows, and some tribute shows too but we will be the first original line-up.
Sean: No pressure on you guys but if it goes well then hopefully this will become another option as a venue for other original acts to play.
Travis: I really hope so. We’re going really hard with getting people in and really pushing the show not just for our sake but for every other band on the Perth scene. It’s a massive stage and a beautiful venue so to see more original bands play there would be awesome.
Sean: I’ve got to ask you about the stunning artwork that goes with ‘Lion’ which was created by Liam Dee after a chance encounter in one of Perth’s newest live venues, Convenients I believe.
Clayton: Yeah, I put together a show for my birthday back in May and Liam was right up the front dancing… I don’t even think he had heard of us and after the set he messaged the band’s Facebook page saying he loved what we did and wanted to work with us, and we’ve been conversing after that. He’s a lovely guy.
Travis: Everything that has been happening around the band; the artwork, the film clip, our producer who has started the record label, these have all been fortuitous meetings that we’ve had with people. I genuinely believe it’s so much more positive when you collectively meet people who have as much of a passion as you do. It would be so easy to hire an artist and be like, “do it this way!” So when the opportunity arises that you meet people and they want to work with you and you give them the idea you have, you get them to listen to the song and whatever comes out in that is what we want and then we can cross promote each other – He’s actually going to do the artwork for the entire EP. He will also be doing his own exhibition with the artwork too as a collection and we will have it as the story of our EP.
Sean: There is also a video clip to go with the single which will be shown on the launch night. I’ve seen the teaser clip which looks really sharp. Who shot it for you and where was it filmed?
Travis: So, it was shot by a couple who own Smooth Edge Studio and they have worked in Hollywood with Christopher Nolan, created visual effects on Harry Potter films, on some of the Marvel films as well… so Bronwyn Edwards, who’s the director, she’s the wife of Marlon who I had met years before at a company I worked for and it turned out they wanted to make a film clip and years later we bumped into each other and we had the chance to do this clip, now that they run this production company. So, they brought together a make-up crew, a set designing crew and a bunch of film extras who all put in one massive day.
Clayton: It was shot in Hell Hole which is a massive warehouse in Leederville.
Travis: We put in a massive day. Marlon, Bronwyn and I got there at seven o’clock in the morning and we left at something like 2am. It was insane. I have so much respect for Bronwyn who was the one person who was going all day long.
Clayton: Yes, while she was shooting one section there was something else going on somewhere else as well. Its was really well planned. Marlon was having to be quite demanding as he was the producer making sure everything was running smoothly.
Sean: So, premiering the clip on the night too?
Travis: Yes, we will be premiering it on the cinema screen there. We’ve already seen it and its so good. It’s very exciting.
Sean: You mentioned the EP, just how much music have you written so far as a band?
Clayton: So, the EP is five tracks, and we already have some B sides and remixes as well. Since then, we have already written four or five new songs, most of which seem a little bit longer than what we have previously written. We’ve started playing them live already so we will probably slot a couple of them into the set list.
Sean: What else can we expect in the set on the night?
Clayton: We will be playing the whole of the EP.
Travis: Yes, we will of course be playing ‘Lion’ and possibly the Tarantino Tuxedo version too.
Clayton: We’ll be playing one or two interesting covers as well.
Travis: Yes, there will be some interesting mash-up covers in there.
Sean: Well, it’s a superb line-up of bands with Triangle Fight, Satisfaction Guaranteed and the wonderful Here Comes the Rooster all on the bill so there really is something for everyone. It’s always exciting when something like this comes together and all of us at The Rockpit wish you all the best for the launch night and thank you for catching up today.
Travis: We really appreciate it so thank you.
Clayton: Thanks Sean.