Ahead of their album launch at Badlands Bar on Friday 14th July we caught up with Maverick to find out all about Australia’s newest and most authentic 70’s styled rockers…
The Rockpit: It’s been a while since our last catch up, what has Maverick been up to?
Maverick: Toiling away industriously! We have been working on our next album, negotiating contracts with labels and representation groups, making music videos and planning the launch of the ‘Firebird’ record. No rest for the wicked!
The Rockpit: Wow, busy band! While we are on the subject, for all of the fans reading along, what’s the plan of attack for the launch?
Maverick: It’s all happening at Badlands Bar in Perth on July 14th! We have hustled up some of Perth finest rockers in Datura4, Moonlighter and Yomi Ship to send this thing skyward … that’s one hell of a lineup for as little as a tenner! ($10) “for all you rocker’s ‘n’ rollers looking for a good time, follow the link and grab yourself an early-bird ticket, you wont be disappointed.
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE: http://badlandsbar.oztix.com.au/?Event=73779
The Rockpit: Definitely not, that is a scorching line-up! What are the plans after the launch then, having been so busy of late will the band be taking the foot off of the gas a bit so to speak?
Maverick: HAH! no chance! we already have dates booked our next run of shows after the launch, the next video is in planning and all the while we are working towards a European tour next year, there is no sign of slowing down yet.
Catch Maverick for their album launch at Badlands Bar, Perth on July 14th…
We also caught up with each of the band members to get a further insight into Perth’s newest Hard Rock sensations…
Nick Dudman – Drums/Vocals
The Rockpit: As a band, who would you say are your greatest musical influences?
Nick: My musical influences probably don’t match up with the band’s sound; I’m a massive Beatles nut and Ringo is KING… not sure if Maverick derive much influence from the fab four to be honest, but I’d say my drumming style is heavily influenced by people like Ringo, Bonham, Roger Taylor from Queen to name a few….
The Rockpit: You are on tour, you are on you way to the next show when your car hits 88MPH and suddenly vanishes in a blaze of fire, and you are transported back in time … who was driving the car?
Nick: If we are going back to the future it would have been me driving, or will it be me driving?
The Rockpit: Where would you like Maverick to be in 5 years and what obstacles do you foresee in getting there?
Nick: On a beach, drinking Pina Coladas and having a good time
The Rockpit: You are the biggest band in the world on a headlining tour throughout the USA, do you: A) Travel in a private jet and stay at 5 star hotels, OR, B) Travel and stay on a tour bus, and why?
Nick: Hmm I’d have to go all out and go for Option A – im here for a good time, not a long time. Be decadent…
The Rockpit: Who got you started? Was it with a different instrument?
Nick: I come from a pretty musical family – Piano lessons were mandatory by age 7.. I dropped Piano in favour of drums thinking it wasn’t cool enough – how wrong I was! My brothers had already picked up guitars so I had no intention of doing the same as them either. Watching videos Ringo Starr and the Beatles @ Shea Stadium and the Rooftop concert definitely got me hooked on drums. (I basically wanted to be Ringo – who IS the coolest drummer in the world. Period)
The Rockpit: What’s the most ‘rock star’ experience that you have ever had?
Nick: Oh Christ I don’t know! Walking down the street and being asked for an autograph and a photo?
The Rockpit: If you had to give up music – what would you do to be creative?
Nick: Candle Maker / Film Maker / Chef / Plastic Surgeon
The Rockpit: Strangest venue or gig you’ve ever played?
Nick: Austin, Texas. March 2012 – Played a show to a room full of homeless people at a Salvation Army Soup Kitchen. Got paid in… you guessed it – Soup.
The Rockpit: What do you like LEAST about how you play as a band?
Nick: Next question!
The Rockpit: What’s your take on the current state of the music business and how does Maverick fit in there?
Nick: Hmmm juicy!! I’d say the terrain has changed – correct me if wrong but I think the days of massive record deals, advances, Learjet’s and 5 star hotels are long gone – the internet has carved a completely new way that music is promoted, disseminated and sold. Piracy is now a bigger problem than before – but it has always been an issue. What the internet has taken away in terms of piracy, it’s also given new platforms for musicians to be their own entrepreneurs. It’s all running at breakneck speed though and everybody is still finding their feet, but it really is down to the entrepreneur to figure out new and inventive ways of using the internet to their advantage.
The Rockpit: Describe Maverick in one word without using a musical reference.
Nick: Pizza…
Craig Jovanovic – Vocals/Guitar
The Rockpit: As a band, who would you say are your greatest musical influences?
Craig: Id say our greatest musical influence is music itself, we all love many genres and an assortment of bands with contrasting hair styles but its the music that pull us together and drives us.
The Rockpit: You are on tour, you are on you way to the next show when your car hits 88MPH and suddenly vanishes in a blaze of fire, you are transported back in time … who was driving the car?
Craig: If anyone could manage to conjor a most unlikely sequence of events such as this, it would be Nick for sure! … aka .. ‘The Dude’ – he ties the room together man!
The Rockpit: Where would you like maverick to be in 5 yearsand what obstacles do you foresee in getting there?
Craig: We would love to be playing to Arena, Club and Festival crowds across the world, not necessarily making a million dollars, just performing and inciting electric good time vibes with the rockers, the rollers and the right out of controllers of the world … people like us. The only obstacle for us, as with any other persuit for the regular Joe, is money! Unfortunately it is the all mighty dollar that determines what will and will not be in this life! … you have to be wealthy to be in a successful band these days.
The Rockpit: You are the biggest band in the world on a headlining tour throughout the USA, do you: A) Travel in a private jet and stay at 5 star hotels, OR, B) Travel and stay on a tour bus, and why?
Craig: Tour bus all the way! Why? because everyone needs a story and sitting in a leather recliner drinking champagne followed by laying in a king size bed drinking champagne doesn’t make for a good story … unless you are Kanye West … need i say more?
The Rockpit: Who got you started? Was it with a different instrument?
Craig: You can put the blame for this one squarely on Angus Young!, initially anyway, then Bon, Malcolm, Phil and Dave. It was Angus who grabbed my attention but the band showed me what a rock’n’roll machine was meant to be at the fundamental level. … I picked up the guitar because of ACDC, its all their fault!
The Rockpit: What’s the most ‘rock star’ experience that you have ever had?
Craig: By far and away, my biggest rock’n’roll moment was playing to a few hundred lids at a primary school as part of a ‘Hero’ day … follow your dreams and all that jazz. Playing rock’n’roll to kids in 2017 is like giving a caveman a jet lighter! … They went ballistic! Loved it! … but when you are force fed all of that crap that they play on the radio all of your life, its no wonder that they responded how they did. Hopefully some of them went home and googled ‘rock’n’roll’ … oh what a journey!
The Rockpit: If you had to give up music – what would you do to be creative?
Craig: I dont think that i could stop making music … unless i lost all of my limbs somehow. If for some reason i couldnt perform, i would still write and offer the music to someone who deserves it and can do it justice. .. And if i couldnt even write music then i would have more pressing issues to concern myself with than wondering how i should express my creativity.
The Rockpit: Strangest venue or gig you’ve ever played?
Craig: A small bar at a renowned holiday destination in Perth that operates as a restaurant until the late evening … Rule1) rock shows and family dinners are not compatible… longest set of my life!
The Rockpit: What do you like LEAST about how you play as a band?
Craig: There is nothing that i dislike about Maverick, or how i go about my part in it, I just do what i can do to the best of my ability. Period.
The Rockpit: Whats your take on the current state of the music business and how does Maverick fit in there?
Craig: How much time do we have? … Hunter S Thompson said it, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” You see, the term ‘Music Business’ is a misnomer… there is no such thing anymore. The ‘Music Business’ is a business that’s for certain and like all business, they must find ways to cuts costs and increase revenue and the best way to do that is to get rid of people in favour of automated machines, which is why we hear all of these solo ‘artists’ auto-tuned to the hill with the same repetitive, mind numbing drum and bass loops behind them! … its a cheap nasty nasty throw-away product that turns over dollars! That is all! … art imitating life? On the other hand we have music, a costly exercise that requires talent and perseverance for little to no gain apart from bringing pleasure to those who create it and those who enjoy listening to it. Maverick falls into the latter …
The Rockpit: Describe Maverick in one word without using a musical reference.
Maverick: Satisfying
Mark De Vattimo – Guitar/Vocals
The Rockpit: As a band, who would you say are your greatest musical influences?
Mark: ZZ Top, Mountain, Humble Pie
The Rockpit: You are on tour, you are on you way to the next show when your car hits 88MPH and suddenly vanishes in a blaze of fire, you are transported back in time … who was driving the car?
Mark: Hah, Vince Neil
The Rockpit: Where would you like Maverick to be in 5 years and what obstacles do you foresee in getting there?
Mark: Bank accounts full of cash and driving classic old British cars. The only obstacles are our minds!
The Rockpit: You are the biggest band in the world on a headlining tour throughout the USA, do you: A) Travel in a private jet and stay at 5 star hotels, OR, B) Travel and stay on a tour bus, and why?
Mark: If it’s a separate tour bus each…then B). Hotel rooms have too much…
The Rockpit: Who got you started? Was it with a different instrument?
Mark: My older sisters were huge KISS fans in the late 70s and always played their albums non-stop. Guess my apprenticeship was prancing around in front of a dirty mirror to Love Gun.
The Rockpit: What’s the most ‘rock star’ experience that you have ever had?
Mark: Hmm, a poke in a tour mini-van in front of a church somewhere in Copenhagen that was holding a funeral (I didn’t know this until later).
The Rockpit: If you had to give up music – what would you do to be creative?
Mark; Film director or career criminal.
The Rockpit: Strangest venue or gig you’ve ever played?
Mark: Playing with Maverick at primary school recently as part of a charity event. The kids were unbelievably damn loud!
The Rockpit: What do you like LEAST about how you play as a band?
Mark: Deciding on what date to rehearse.
The Rockpit: Whats your take on the current state of the music business and how does Maverick fit in there?
Mark: The modern radio pop seems to be at it’s most inane and moronic. Just walk in to any supermarket and hear/see the liquid crud leaking from the PA speakers. The ‘rock scene’ seems to have gone underground slightly and splintered back into sub-genres. I think Maverick will find it’s niche soon enough. The band’s music is broad enough to appeal to the A to Z rock music fan.
The Rockpit: Describe Maverick in one word without using a musical reference.
Mark: Brothers.
Simon Hallett- Bass/Vocals
The Rockpit: As a band, who would you say are your greatest musical influences?
Simon: Led Zeppelin probably the only band we all like.
The Rockpit: You are on tour, you are on you way to the next show when your car hits 88MPH and suddenly vanishes in a blaze of fire, you are transported back in time … who was driving the car?
Simon: The Doc from Back to the future.
The Rockpit: Where would you like Maverick to be in 5 years and what obstacles do you foresee in getting there?
Simon: I would like to be making a living from music and touring internationally. The obstacles I foresee is this is a business heavily routed in luck and what is “current” at the time. However at this stage old rock n roll ain’t current.
The Rockpit: You are the biggest band in the world on a headlining tour throughout the USA, do you: A) Travel in a private jet and stay at 5 star hotels, OR, B) Travel and stay on a tour bus, and why?
Simon: 5 star and private jet because of the air conditioning in planes you wont smell everyone’s boozy skin pores from the night before.
The Rockpit: Who got you started? Was it with a different instrument?
Simon: Angus young, yes he plays guitar I slappa da bass.
The Rockpit: What’s the most ‘rock star’ experience that you have ever had?
Simon: Sharing a beer with Doc McGee.
The Rockpit: If you had to give up music – what would you do to be creative?
Simon: spread political lies in a magazine.
The Rockpit: Strangest venue or gig you’ve ever played?
Simon: A little pub in Arkansas with a 60 year old lady in the crowd with a filthy mind.
The Rockpit: What do you like LEAST about how you play as a band?
Simon: That I have to sing sometimes.
The Rockpit: What’s your take on the current state of the music business and how does Maverick fit in there?
Simon: The music business is a terrible industry at the moment. Regular people want music for free and with the internet that is possible. Internet music marketing is now telling kids nowadays what is cool and what they should listen to and kids have fallen for this so they don’t look for music they might actually enjoy. The only way Maverick will fit in to this business is if people actually want to hear real instruments getting played again rather than a computer bleeping at them.
The Rockpit: Describe Maverick in one word without using a musical reference.
Simon: rambunctious
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE: http://badlandsbar.oztix.com.au/?Event=73779
