The Early Hours - Interviews/Articles

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The Early Hours (1995- ) :- Interviews/Articles
Gray, Denis, 199?, 'The Early Hours - I'm Drained', Vicious Kitten Magazine.
Fresh from their recent, successful tour of Europe, The Early Hours have unleashed a truly awesome seven incher. Earlier this year, the guys took out the Kalgoolie-Boulder leg of Triple J's 'Unearthed' competition - where local bands from regions all over Australia sent in their demo's, with a winner chosen from each location. 'I'm Drained' is the winning song which The Early Hours submitted.
    In my opinion these garage punksters were the choice cut region nation-wide, not just from their local region - they deserved their rock'n'roll victory and it was very cool to hear 'em on radio. Released not long ago on Germany's Screaming Apple label, this here single really shows why the Early Hours are evolving into such a class act. Simple, fresh pop punk with catchy melodies - 'I'm Drained' is close to power pop perfection and could really rattle the charts. The flipside contains a deadly duo in the fuzzed-out 'Hard Feelings' and 'The girl I haven't met'. Sheer bliss.
    The Spanish, French and German punters really dig this bunch and it's high time the big players within the Australian industry checked out what all the fuss was about and got behind 'em.
    To quote David Hughes-Owen from Spinning Top Records "... they are bringing pop music back to the fans". Indeed they are.

Gray, Denis, 1997, 'The Early Hours - Evolution', Vicious Kitten Magazine, Issue 6, p 15.
Hands up anyone who remembers a time when rock'n'roll was fun? Y'know the stuff - hard edged, guitar driven, garage bred power pop awash with melody. Any takers?
    It would appear that The Early Hours do, if their just released second album 'Evolution' is anything to go by. The name should sound familiar to some, as this lot took out the Kalgoolie leg of Triple J's 'Unearthed' competition a while back. But unlike many winners that vanish back into obscurity, The Early Hours have been blitzing them over on the West Coast, and their future appears bright.
    Selecting a choice cut on 'Evolution' is like splitting hairs, but if pressed, the raucous and rowdy album opener 'She's Where it's at' would get the nod. No doubt a live favourite, there's lots of energy coming through here. The jangly guitars on "I wonder if you'll ever be Mine" won me over and it wouldn't surprise me if Lennon's ghost was hovering in the studio when this track was cut. The warm, mellow tones of "Lonely with You" with its simple chords and honey - vocals is a two minute vacation to pop heaven. "Hard Feelings" and "We ain't connected" are glorious garage punk from a time gone by to be played loud or not all.
    Comparisons have been many and varied from the Hoodoo Gurus and Stems, to the Easybeats and early Beatles. With over one hundred gigs (and a successful European tour) under their belts, The Early Hours have evolved into a tough live outfit and are one of WA's real crowd magnets.
    If you'v been lost in the often congested and overcrowded music scene, "Evolution" is the one album that can restore your faith in rock'n'roll.

Toovey, Kate, 1997, 'Phantom Records Showcase Gig - Swanbourne Hotel, Saturday, April 5, 1997', ???
It seems like years ago that The Early Hours won Triple J's 'Unearthed' Competition in Kalgoolie and indeed quite some time has passed since fate smiled upon these lads and gave them national recognition. So where jave they been hiding of late? Who knows, but they've emerged as a well refined act cutting a nice little niche for themselves with their slick mod styling and infectious rockabilly licks. The Early Hours outcooled the city folk cramming into the Swannie's intimate surrounds and had them eating out of the palm of their hands with Kirk Pohl's first cries of "Yeh, Yeh, Baby".
    Like stepping into a gap in the space time continuum hurtling us back to the swinging sixties when pop and rock worked as one to get you shaking your thang. The Early Hours set of smart, simple songs was unashamedly retro. If Tim Rogers gets word of these guys (he has! - Live ed) he may have doubts about his assured ascendancy into the Easybeats throne. Light, tinny gee-tar and carefree cheesy lyrics makde for aural bliss au-go-go.
    It may have been all be done before but it was a lot of fun reminiscing. The Early Hours' set topped off a night Phantom Records made worth throwing off the doona and switching off the VCR for.

'The Early Hours, Pyramidiacs, Hoolahan - Sandringham Hotel, 5/9/97', 1997, Beat Magazine (Sydney).
Perth's latest exports, The Early Hours, owe a lot to their influences. The territory these boys pound is similar stomping ground that bands like The Sunnyboys, The Hoodoo Gurus and especially The Stems, pounded over more than a decade and a half ago.
    The Early Hours have admitted that they're not doing anything new. What they didn't say is they do it very well. While not politically correct [the song about wanting to have two chicks at the same time, being the perfect example]. The Early Hours seem to revel in the same things that made "Alone with You" of "Like Wow, Wipeout" such classics. Themes about girls, cars and all things in between permeated the bands set.
    The tight, two guitar attack, combinned with the solid rhythm section and gum-chewing, swaggering, almost snarly vocals had the Sando crowd reacting very appreciatively, with my favourites being "EK Special", "Two Girls" and "25".
    The Early Hours will be back this way soon. Check 'em out.

Gordon, Bob, 199?, 'The Early Hours - Evolutionary Vibes',
The Early Hours launch their second CD, Evolution, this Saturday, August 16, at the Grosvenor Hotel with special guests The Frantics. Bob Gordon reports.
The Early Hours are walking/talking proof that sometimes modest ambition is a pretty powerful thing.
"We started as a pure garage band just to make one record and we thought that was it," says guitarist Kirk Pohl, "then we thought we'd play a gig, then a few more. Then we thought we'd do another album. It's a bit of an obsessive hobby now."
    Obsessive hobbies, however are the ones that leave standing by traintracks with notebooks in your hand. Obsessive hobbies generally don't allow you to tour through Europe, release two albums, play 100 gigs and support your idols, if you idols are You Am I and The Stems.
    This had been The Early Hours' lot since they changed their name from The Cellar Dweller's and emerged out of the garage in 1995 as a bunch of mates with a neat idea to record a self-titled album.
    Not long after they entered Triple J's Unearthed excursion to Kalgoolie - Pohl and brother Chet worked there - and, what do you know, they won it with the song I'm Drained. It was invaluable promotion for a young band, but one gets the feeling that Pohl thinks it happened too soon.
    "The whole thing with the Triple J Unearthed was that we were totally unprepared for it," he says, "We weren't a band, we weren't playing live regularly. Two of us were living in Kal, two of us were living in Perth. We didn't have a booking agent, we weren't in a position to capitalise on what was happening."
    "Which was good in a way. We wouldn't have wanted to go out and play, we would have put a bad impression in everyone's mind. We'd only played 20 gigs. We had no offers to play over east but I'm glad we didn't do it, because we would gone down badly."
    Despite the trepidation at that time, the band were soon off to Europe at the invitation of the Berlin label Twang!, who'd picked up their debut CD for a vinyl album release, cheekily retitled The Early Hours Greatest Hits Volume 1. It was a deep end situation, but there could be only one answer.
    "We saw the opportunity and thought 'we've got to take it,' Pohl recalls. "It's good that we did because when we came back from Europe having played that many gigs on the trot the band was a lot tighter. I noticed and a few people mentioned it when we got back, that the band actually sounded like a band as opposed to a bunch of guys playing tunes, it sounded more like a unit."
    Well, 31 gigs in seven weeks across Germany, France and Spain will do that really. The dividends of the trip, however, were to be found in other areas.
    "It was a good to get the music out over there so it's not just fully based in Perth," Pohl says. "We've had quite a bit of feedback, even now we're getting letters from the people there saying, 'what's happening with the new album? are you coming back?' It's generated a bit of interest and this album will be coming out over there again. It's made it a lot easier going over there and playing to people so they can see the band and be able to visualize by listening to the record what the actual band looks and sounds like."
    There's a better than average chance the band will return to Europe but with a local release through Phantom Records for their new album Evolution, The Early Hours are set to keep their focus, at home in order to promote it. This includes a Sydney/Melbourne visit at the end of the month.
    Evolution was recorded in different circumstances to the debut which was, essentially a 'hey kids let's put on a show right here' affair. Essentially, The Early Hours went into this one as a live, performing and, if you will, real band.
    "I think the difference was that we had actually played songs on the album live," Pohl says "We knew the songs pretty well. We recorded at the same place and it's still pretty much a budget recording. It's what we could afford without sinking the band."
    Pohl's still modest, but there's no denying that The Early Hours, both on this album and in the live format, have developed "The thing is with the band is that none of us had played in bands before," Pohl explains. "Pretty well most bands coming up in Perth that are playing regularly have either been from an offshoot of another band or they've had some past history of playing in another band somewhere along the line.
    "It's not offen that you get four guys in a band who've played in no bands before at all. There definitely would have been a shyness thing at the start, it was totally new for us."
    According to Pohl, The Early Hours sing about the fun things in life - girls, cars, alcohol, whatever. The party theme of course, is only part of the strong 60's flavour, from the packaging of their album, the band's attire - suits at some gigs but mostly sharp trousers, black jeans and collared shirts. You know, sharpish but not The Sharp. And, of course, the music.
    As such Pohl sees The Early Hours in a vein similar to Redd Kross, essentially, a 60's influence with a 90's sound.
    "We're just trying to get a pop sound with a rawer edge. I think our live sound's a lot more harmonies and lighter guitars."
    "I think the look or the fashion is almost half of it really," Pohl says before reconsidering slightly. "Well it's not really, the music is the most important. But to look like a band... a unit like the early Beatles, they just looked like a band. I mean our sound is '60's-ish, but it's a '90's' recording modern equipment, so it's not a '60's sound, it's influence in it.
    "We really dont want to be a Joe Average band in a pair of basketball boots, blue jeans and a Rip Curl surf t-shirt, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not what we want to do."

Gray, Denis, 1998, 'The Early Hours - She''s where It's At ', Vicious Kitten Magazine, Issue 9, p 21.
The Early Hours are one of the hottest sounding garage pop outfits anywhere today and in an ideal world, they would've picked up the odd ARIA for their 'Evolution' album. But whilst shit like Regurgitator and Jebediah were enjoying pats on the back from industry no-names, Perth's finest were cranking it out on a tiny stage somewhere in France.
    The Early Hours write great songs, have an enormous amount of talent and they blend attitude with hard work ethics. I have no doubt that their time will come.
    'She's where it's at' is the first single lifted off aforementioned second album and is the obvious choice in the battle to bust the scene wide open. It's a short sharp sweaty pop masterpiece - showcasing vocalist Kirk Pohl's knack for strong melodies and punchy choruses. This is pure rock n roll and lemme tell ya cuts, it don't get much better than this. Why the fuck Australian radio hasn't picked up on this song remains a mystery, but it's pleasing to know that parts of Europe are giving it high rotation.
    Other tracks 'Baby' and 'This is no Good' were cut live in the studio and are both loud and raw - the latter originally appearing on the band's debut album from three years back.
    Rock n roll with a capital R which you chuck into your kid sister's Christmas stocking. A knock -out!!

Iain, 1997, 'The Early Hours - Evolution', Form Guide Magazine, Issue 47, p11.
Western Australian garage pop that's more firmly rooted in '87 (Stems, Marigolds) rather than '67. As a purely generic releaase you've got to rate it on how it compares to what its aspiring to be as well as what it is.
    In this case The Early Hours don't really come up on par. The pop stuff simply isn't catchy enough and the garage numbers just aren't snotty enough. Nice enough "Steppin' Stone" cadge in "Step Back in Time" though.

Tauschke, Steve, 1998, 'The Early Hours', Beat Magazine.
In Perth's long and esteemed tradiltion of 60s pop revivalists, The Early Hours stand proud. Frontman Kirk speaks with Steve Tauschke on the eve of the band's debut Melbourne tour.
Beat: It's always a buzz to receive some vinyl. Obviously you love the format?
Kirk: "Yeah, pretty much. I still collect vinyl. I still a record player but I'm starting to play more CDs now just cos it's a bit more convenient. But I still pull out the old records now and then."
Beat: I believe the bamd actually began in Kalgoolie where you were working in a mine at the time?j
Kirk: "How it actually was was that my brother Chet, who plays bass in the band, he and I were up there working on the mines and the other two guys Sean (guitar) and Matt (drums) are from Perth. So we used to travel back and forth, play some gigs in Kal and then in Perth.
    Now we all live in Perth which is a bit easier as far as rehearsals go... we all had jobs in Kalgoolie but we decided to give them away and pursue the music a little bit more."
Beat: I read that you mailed a tape to a small Perth label who contacted a German label Twang and everything began from there.
Kirk: "What we did was, we'd never played live as a band, ever, we were just like a garage band - we still kind of are I guess. And we went and recorded an album cos we just wanted an album for our own benefit. We weren't really worried about putting it in the shops or anything like that. We sent it away and it ended up getting put out overseas through Twang."
Beat: What other acts are on Twang?
Kirk: "Do you know the Popnauts or the Gripweeds from America? They've had a couple of releases on Twang. It's a very samml label that I would compare to say, Au-Go-Go."
Beat: You've had other releases in Europe, too haven't you?
Kirk: "There were a couple of other little releases, like singles and stuff like that... we had a 7 inch out on Screaming Apple in Cologne in Germany. I guess you could say they're a world renown label as far as power pop music goes. They're a small label but they put out about 50 or 60 releases a year. Our "Evolution" album has also come out on a French label called Hellfire Club."
Beat: We have one of those in Melbourne?
Kirk: "What is it?"
Beat: It's an S & M club where you can get yourself spanked or whipped or whatever you desire.
Kirk: "Oh right. That's why he has all these lewd-looking girls on the front cover of every release."
Beat: It's great that you've managed to find outlets in Europe which I suppose is where the real scene for this style of music exists."
Kirk: "There's a pretty big scene over there. We were surprised. I think it's all to do with population, it's just such a massive population. There's a scene for just about everything."
Beat: Do you feel as though the band is carrying the torch to some extent for Perth's 60s flavoured power pop heritage?
Kirk: "I suppose we probably could be cos there's not really that much of a scene for bands doing this sort of stuff in Perth at the moment. It's mainly just indie stuff."
Beat: How did you enjoy playing alongside a reformed Stems last summer?
Kirk: "Oh classic! It was really good. They were sort of just before my time, when the stems were really happening (circa 1986-87) I was about 15 or 16, just under the pub age. So that time we played with them was the first time I'd them live... Dom's a really cool guy. He's just done a little bit of producing for us. He's going to be doing our next EP which we're recording in January.."
Beat: Tell us about a little about your European tour?
Kirk: "It's two years since we were over there but we played 31 shows around Germany, France and Spain, just playing small clubs. We hired a small rental van and because we were doing a bit of holidaying as well we travelled around for about three months... we're actually going back in about three weeks with another 30 to 35 gigs lined up. I think we're playing some of the same cities but I don't think we're playing the same clubs. We've got a gig in Denmark this time and a couple of gigs in Netherlands and a couple in Italy. We've got a really good response from promoters who've heard about the band one way or another and they're keen to give us a show. It's going to be pretty exciting."
Beat: On your last tour I read that you played at a strange, lounge room-size venue in Spain called Kristall that has just one power point. Sounds kind of wacky.
Kirk: "It was kind of wacky. It was just this little cesspit of a club, I don't even know if it was a club. It was pretty grimy and a pretty bad gig, probably our worst gig ever."
Beat: And you had a run in with the Spanish police too, right?
Kirk: "Yeah, we were in Spain having our VISAs checked, this was just after we got back from Amsterdam and we still had some smoke onus and we were sweating a bit, thinking "Oh fuck, this is it!" Then they saw all the instruments in the back of the van but they couldn't speak English. So we got some posters out which we signed for them. It was a bizarre situation to be in out on the highway."

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