Young + Restless have been on the run since 2005, when their music broke too many molds and was deemed an enemy of the people by the Ministry of Peace.
Though hunted they managed to win the 2006 Triple J Unearthed competition and play the 2006 Homebake Festival.
Founding members Mark Falkland and Ash Pegram were taken down by corporate security forces in August 2007 and the band were at a loss until Josh Weller reached them through the underground railroad in 2008.
We managed to reach Josh in Sing-Song, the ultra-security music prison, which we infiltrated with a Weyland-Yutani Insectodrone Mk IV. Here are some of the bytes we managed to smuggle out.
Given your imprisonment, have you managed to keep yourselves busy?
“Well we haven’t seen a stage for about six months but we’ve been keeping things ticking over in the rehearsal room (shared virtual reality). We had a very busy ’08 which was good for me, it allowed me to settle in to my role in the band.”
“We’ve taken the last six months to write some new songs, pick and choose the best so we should have some new stuff coming very soon.”
Was it hard to fit in with this renegade bunch?
“Well I was living in Melbourne and knew the guys already so it was a very smooth transition. Soon after I joined we did a run of shows in four weeks so I quickly became acquainted with the band. This is my first guitar role in a band though, I used to play bass.”
Has your presence turned the band in a new direction?
“No my presence coincided with the whole band’s desire to do something different. We still want to stay that aggressive, fun, high-energy live act but we want our music to go the distance on CD as well – all while staying true to the sound of the band. We’re a punk band, we’re not going to start rapping or anything. Because there’s only one guitar now it’s a bit stripped back. We can put the focus on the vocals and the music will complement that.”
Have you managed to sneak any demos out of your cell?
“Yeah we’ve demoed about half of the tracks on the new album. We’ll be releasing a single soon, just to let people know we aren’t dead. That’s also why we’ve got to get out and play again.”
Any plans for a prison-break?
“We’ve got the Essential festival in Sydney and a show in Brisbane the night before, then a week or so later we’ll be doing shows in Canberra and Wollongong.”
Any plans to make musical resistance your full-time roles?
“We all have day jobs (secret identities) and lives of our own besides the band. Nugie is still studying architecture and we’re all supportive of that. If it was possible to live off the band I don’t think anyone would complain but until then we’re just doing the work and fighting the good fight.”
At this point a harsh electronic voice broke into the transmission. Our bug was destroyed by a Seeker-Destroyer Probe and nothing but harsh static reached our ears. We can only hope that Josh and the band will survive the harsh electro-beatings to bring us more of their apostatic static.
