Some bands have that indefinable ‘something’ – an attitude and a belief that both transcends the music they make and also helps define it. Adelaide’s The Babes are just such a band -playing a dirty brand of biker Rock that is both timeless and very real. It’s the sort of music that can only be played by a band that love that volcanic feel, love the sound of the bass ripping through you, the pound of the drums, the sacred wail of the guitar and the scream of the voice that shouts it out to the night.
Has that got you intrigued? If it has then check out their EP in the safe knowledge that their first full-length debut is on the way. But it’s already been an unforgettable ride.We caught up with drummer and spokesperson Moni Lashes to find out what’s already happened to and what’s next for The Babes.
Mark: Hi Moni thanks so much for talking to us at The Rockpit today.
Moni: No problem.
Mark: I think the first time I ever became aware of the Babes was when a local band here in Perth said that we should check you out.
Moni: (laughs) Oh man.
Mark: It’s interesting when I looked on your Facebook page there were so many of the bands from over here in Perth that were following you.
Moni: That’s always good to hear.
Mark: I was impressed by what I saw, but I guess the real kicker for me was seeing you support The Bulletboys the last time I was over I Adelaide.
Moni: Oh yeah that would have been May last year.
Mark: And when we had a chat at the show, I remember you telling me about this huge trip you had planned to the States.
Moni: That’s right it was before that trip wasn’t it.
Mark: It was, and we always said that we’d catch up after and find out all about it and what went down, so sorry it took so long! It must have been the trip of a lifetime, an Adelaide band taking on the US and getting to see some of those places and play some of those stages.
Moni: It was a complete dream. It doesn’t even feel like it was real, that’s why I’m glad we’ve got that video clip because it reminds us that it did happen!
Mark: Well talking of that ‘Always Riding’ is the new song, the one that we’re going to feature on the podcast and it’s a great way to celebrate that tour.
Moni: Yeah initially I was going to just make a fun little video for our band members but when I showed it to them they said well it does actually fit ‘Always Riding’ and my phone actually died whilst in in America so I lost a lot of footage, but we managed to scrape a few other things together and I think it came out well. It serves the purpose.
Mark: It looks great and it looks like all kinds of stuff was happening for you – you had some TV appearances there, you got to see some of the sights.
Moni: (laughs) It was crazy. It was beyond our wildest dreams. We spoke in May to you about it but there was definitely no way we could have anticipated what was coming for us!
Mark: And you got to see some of my favourite haunts while you were over there – you played Vamp’d in Vegas which is a place I absolutely love back to the days when it was Vince Neil’s bar Dr. Feelgoods.
Moni: That was probably the best venue I’ve ever been to, to be honest.
Mark: Was that one of your highlights?
Moni: For me it was personally, just the set up there, I wish there was something like that here in Australia. Great gear, great people, all round Rock and Roll memorabilia everywhere, I didn’t want to leave! They had a great custom chopper above the bar – everything there as the stuff that I love so that was one of my highlights, but the rest of the band – pretty much every show we played was a game-changer for us you know, The Whisky (a Go-Go) is a renowned venue for the bands that we love, so just to be there, let alone play on that stage a couple of times was pretty incredible
Mark: And what was Sturgis like? Australian audiences probably won’t appreciate how huge and awesome that event is, I saw Aerosmith headline there a few years ago and the whole experience blew me away!
Moni: As a band we’ve agreed that was the complete highlight of our trip because that was our demographic, you know 500,000 people there, it’s a party 24 hours a day for the whole time you’re there, it was amazing! I try and describe it to people who have ever heard of it before and there’s nothing like it! There’s a reason it’s called the best party on earth! Everyone’s there to have a good time and no one’s causing trouble, everyone just wants to hear live music and ride bikes and that’s what our band’s about!
Mark: And that is one of the things that attracted me to your music, you do have that dirty biker rock image and some of my favourite bands I guess fall into that category – bands like The Almighty, Motörhead, Circus of Power – a band from New York from the end of the 80’s that give me that same vibe.
Moni: I’ll have to check them out, I always love listening to bands people tell us sound like us!
Mark: You’ll love them: I’d be interested to see what you think. Now one thing I have to clear up and I guess depending on your take on drum solos some people are going to love you for this and some people just might run out of the room, but you hold the world record for 24 hours of drumming non-stop?
Moni: (laughs)
Mark: Now to some that might be wonderful but to others that might be their worst nightmare, but it was all for a great cause.
Moni: (laughs) I know! Well that was a couple of years ago. Our band is very much a family band, with my sister on guitar and my brother on bass and my brother from another mother who sings. It’s a heavily family involved band, and our Mum and Dad are involved with every facet pretty much behind the scenes helping us out. My Dad had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but he had one of the rarer forms, that was a very progressive and which saw him degenerate very quickly. There was treatment available in pretty much every country apart from Australia, and we really didn’t want to give up, and Dad was too young to be in a nursing home so we wanted to fundraise to get him his medical treatment. They had it available in the US but it was 160 grand and there was no way we could raise that sort of money, but Russia was 50,000 dollars. My sister Donna is a dance teacher as well as a guitarist so she had a good network of students who were so kind who helped with fundraising activities, but I had nothing like that really so I thought well what would I want to see? And I came up with the idea, and so I thought if people wanted my busking money they’d have to earn it so I thought about testing myself to beat this record. But really no one had ever done that record before because Guinness World Records allowed people who attempted it to have a five minute break every hour, but I thought that was pretty soft so I kept going. I was 12 hours in and my parents thought I was going to have a break then but after 12 hours had gone, I kept going, it was freezing and I was in Rundle Mall our big shopping precinct here, and there were crazy people around the city round that time of the morning, but next thing I knew it was 2 O’clock in the afternoon and I’d had enough of drumming by that point (laughs) and the 24 hours were up!
Mark: That’s a great story and a great achievement, I didn’t realise you’d done it in the middle of Rundle Mall either! Readers should imagine a Guinness record in the middle of their City Centre – full of people for hours then fading out into the night before the morning commuters come in again, go to work, grab lunch and you’re still playing!
Moni: I don’t know what I was thinking because it was really cold! (laughs) But it was worth it, I look back on it now and I laugh!
Mark: So you have the great new video and you’ve played with some great bands too over the last few years, I think you just played with Faster Pussycat?
Moni: Yeah last week we got to warm up for them, that was a different vibe but it was really cool.
Mark: Yeah I just talked to Taime, they have a bit of a different sound from back in the day, that old Sunset Strip sound has a bit more of an industrial edge these days.
Moni: Definitely. They were actually playing at Sturgis the same time we were last year, just at different venues, it was funny because Ace Von Johnson their guitarist was talking to us and we were saying we were there at the same time, they asked what venue we were playing at and we said Full Throttle Saloon and he said ‘Damn you guys played better venues than we did!’ and that made my night, because that’s hilarious, because we’re a nothing band really, just a little old band from Australia, He was really cool, a lovely guy!
Mark: I think you do yourself a little short there, those Americans have pretty good taste, and seem to like those little old bands from Australia!
Moni: They definitely did, they were so welcoming.
Mark: Loads of my friend in the US love bands like The Angels, AC/DC, Rose Tattoo.
Moni: Yeah definitely Rose Tattoo. We love those guys, we play a Rose Tattoo cover, and we’re heavily influenced by Rose Tattoo in a couple of our newer songs and they went down really well over there.
Mark: So you have the EP out, and I have a copy of that here and the new video ‘Always Riding’ is a song on there – what about new music – what’s coming up?
Moni: Yes we’ve got the rest of the album ready to record and we’re aiming to have an album release party by April here in Adelaide at the latest but I’d love it to be by the end of March.
Mark: So it’s all in the can?
Moni: It’s all getting done as we speak in two and a half weeks we’re aiming to have everything how we want it. But then we need enough time to have a lead in for promotion because Adelaide’s a very finicky ton, you need to have just enough time to promote something. Too long and no one buys the presale tickets, it’s hard.
Mark: Very similar to here in the West.
Moni: We’ve never been over there so I’ve always been very curious what it’s like.
Mark: It’s a funny market, if football’s on, or it’s raining, or it’s too hot it’s a lottery. Then people complain when bands don’t come thinking any promoter can afford to take a punt on 100 on the door when they’ve sold ten tickets before the show!
Moni: Any excuse (laughs) that’s why Adelaide is always the next place to get dropped by promoters.
Mark: At least Adelaide is still getting those Silverback tour, we’ve not had any of those yet out west and don’t suppose we will. Promoters need to pay the bills too. It’s interesting to see that you have a couple of dates with Chris Holmes (Ex-W.A.S.P.) too later in the year?
Moni: Yeah, we’re super excited for that one in August.
Mark: So are you guys big W.A.S.P. fans?
Moni: Yeah I am. All of our band members have a huge range in music tastes, our singer is a huge Pantera fan, then Donna loves has a ridiculously wide love of all different styles of music from 60’s girl groups to all kid of rock, but for me W.A.S.P. is just in its own element. And we got this offer of a show in Sydney, and we haven’t played in Sydney for years, so we can’t wait for August.
Mark: It should be a great show.
Moni: I think this tour he’s playing the best of W.A.S.P. he’s done some of the biggest festivals in Europe playing all of the classics, so I really hope he does that Downunder. Everyone wants to hear that as well as some of his new stuff, but the classics are what we’re waiting for.
Mark: It’s hard when you’re best known for the music you played 30 or more years ago to get people to listen to the new stuff, but I’m sure he’ll pull it off.
Moni: Definitely!
Mark: it’s that point in the interview now when we get to ask you the two burning questions we’re asked everyone we’ve ever talked to at the Rockpit. The first is, if you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any great album of the past, just to see how the magic happened. What would be that album?
Moni: Do you know what? … (pauses)
Mark: Was it The Babes first album? (laughs)
Moni: No one wants to be a fly on that wall (laughs)! I’m not going to say an album, I would have been happy just to have seen when John Bonham recorded ‘Good Times Bad Times’ (The opening track on their debut Led Zeppelin I) I would have just liked to have seen him play that in the studio. That’s a song I just have a huge connection with. The album was great as well but I just want to be there for that!
Mark: Great choice! And the last question is the easiest of all- what is the meaning of life?
Moni: Oh Gosh! Well I’m Italian, all my family is Italian, so it comes back to food, so if in doubt – more is best! I’m going to regret that!
Mark: (laughs) sounds good to me!
Moni: (laughs)
Mark: One day we’ll put the book out and you’ll be in there with David Coverdale and co!
Moni: I bet he had a better answer?
Mark: I think he just said ‘Wine, women and song’! (laughs)
Moni: That’s the best answer!
Mark: Thank you so much for talking to us today Moni, can’t wait to hear the new album!
Moni: Thank you so much! We appreciate it!
The Babes and their new single ‘Always Riding’ appear on out third Heaven and Hell Podcast out March 3rd!
Check out The Babes at www.thebabesrock.com
