Interview – Gary “Youngy” Young, Destroy She Said – February 2013

By Shane Pinnegar

Destroy She Said released one of the albums of the year in October 2012 – a raw, dirty, sleazy masterpiece of heavy rock action called Down To Dirty that owes as much to the Aussie rifferama of AC/DC and Rose Tattoo as it does to the sheer relentlessness and power of Motorhead.  I caught up with guitarist Youngy to find out what makes the band tick, and learnt a few extra things along the way…

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: Destroy She Said released Down To Dirty in October last year, how was it received by your fans?

Yeah pretty good I guess we probably tortured our fans a bit by releasing the Music For Muscle Cars EP first which contained 4 songs that we always knew would wind up on the album, but you have to do what you see fit at the time.  We copped a bit of stick for doing that but the songs were that strong it sort of introduced the band to the world in a way, it got us on a French compilation called Rock Des Antipodes 2 featuring only Aussie rock with the likes of Jet, Airbourne, The Vines, and got a review in Classic Rock Magazine etc so we will always stand by that decision.

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: After two earlier EPs, did you have the album’s songs ready to go, or were they written specially for this release in the lead up to recording?

That’s a fair question and as I mentioned about the Music For Muscle
Cars EP containing 4 songs from the album, we really saw this record as a chance to introduce the band to the world so we thought fuck it let’s include 2 songs from the very first low budget EP… those songs – Hookers Don’t Kiss and She Fanged It – deserved a second go especially when you’re recording at Hothouse Audio St Kilda!  They have the old desk from Alberts Studio B – enough said!

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: You know my opinion of the album – one of the best of 2012.  How do you and the rest of the band feel about it personally – is it all you hoped it would become?

We knew we had the songs going into Hothouse and the first song we recorded was Game Over, when we heard it mixed we were like kids that had just found their Dad’s porn collection! Once the album came out and the reviews started rolling in there was a sense of release for me and overall we all find it quite humbling, you can be a wanker and think you’ve done a great job but when people outside the band start telling you it makes all the bullshit worth while.

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: Are you planning on touring the album outside of Melbourne?

Sydney and Adelaide are on the radar at this stage, but it comes down to being smarter these days, with no support from major labels you really have to make everything count.

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: There’s a definite AC/DC meets Rose Tattoo Aussie pub rock edge to your music, but it’s also heavy as fuck, and there’s a bottom end that’s almost stoner grunge-like.  Who brings what influences into the band’s sound?

Good question – I wish it was that easy, when you have 5 very different people who all like heavy rock (with a bit of crossover)  sometimes you can be lucky… in our case [it’s] the perfect storm. If it was a pizza, I guess I make the base, Dave adds the topping, Scampers cooks it in his stoner influenced heavy as fuck oven while Greg beats it all into shape, then it’s ready for Simon to sing to!

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: One thing I particularly liked about the album is that it has wall to wall sleazy characters living in your songs.  Are these all based on real people?

Not all but yeah some are, we can’t tell you which songs, others are
characters formed from observations [laughs] – we like to watch!

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: One bio I read about the band had you guys ‘celebrating the sleazy underbelly of Melbourne’ – so is a night out on the tiles research for a new song rather than self indulgent rabble rousing?

It’s a bit of both I reckon – I always find when you’re not looking for ideas they seem to come naturally…

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: What does a night out on the tiles involve, Destroy She Said style?

Every band wanks on when presented this question but we are pretty
transparent here, so it would go like this: beer – confusion – arguments – beer – confusion – arguments – pot pot pot – beer – confusion – arguments x 5 – missing people – more missing people – pot pot pot – beer – confusion – arguments – then Dave will turn into the Battle Wookie and get us all home safely in the Millenium Falcon!

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: DSS took the rather rad and unusual step of packaging the album in a limited edition Rock Box with all sorts of extra goodies.  In this age of barely recouping costs for an album, what made you spend MORE on the packaging?

Maybe we were insane, maybe we were just more proud than Johnny Lowpantsband to have our debut album out – but we only issued 50 of them and they sold out in 24 hours so that’s ok!

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: ‘Destroy, She Said’ was a mid Nineties French minimalist novel by Marguerite Duras, which explores themes of eroticism and madness, societal norms and emptiness… that seems particularly heady stuff to name such a bludgeoningly in-your-face band after… how did the band come to be called Destroy She Said, exactly?

Eroticism and madness? Sounds pretty fitting doesn’t it?!? In actual fact I didn’t know about the book until after the band was named.  I got the name from an 80’s movie called Polyester… there’s a scene where you see the billboard out the front of a drive in and right down the bottom is “Destroy She Said”

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: When you started the band, besides having a few beers and playing some loud tunes with your mates, what bigger ambitions did you all discuss?

Well to be honest by the time this line-up played it was obvious there was something cool going on.  We talked about maybe getting some form of record deal and maybe playing overseas in Europe.  I can report we are about to sign an overseas deal and who knows, they might take us overseas!

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: How do you think the grand plan is going?

Pretty good I reckon: we have already achieved more than I thought we ever would and even though the album came out in October, I feel we have all year to work it, everyday there is someone from somewhere in the world who wants to play it or review it etc, so we keep building…

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: So what’s next for Destroy She Said?

Well we have been trying to get a live album out.  We recorded our album launch and the rough mix sounded killer but the engineer had his laptop stolen and that was that.  We recorded the show again at The Espy front bar last week with the view of releasing a proper live album.

This year we want launch what we call Gorilla Gigs which is a concept
where we roll up and play on a flat bed truck to every festival that has either a, ignored us or b, should have rock n’ roll bands and we want to film all of it for a documentary! You heard it here first!!

We are also starting to think about recording the next album!

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: Already?

Yep, we pretty much have all the songs ready to go, we don’t fuck around – we’re not 20!!  So we punch them out pretty quick which is cool and I’m pretty sure the new stuff is just as good if not better than what we’ve just released, so a ‘difficult second album’?  Nah!!! [laughs]

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the making of any one album throughout history, which would you choose?

Well there are thousands of albums I could choose and favorites will change daily, but I’m gonna say The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Framed album, only ‘cos I’ve somehow only discovered them thanks to Bob Spencer and if I was there I’d say “look out for a band called AC/DC one day – I reckon you’ll hear yourself!”

100% ROCK MAGAZINE: Finally mate – what does MUSIC mean to you?

Dude you have no idea… I have been possessed since I was 5 years old and buying records since I was 9 or 10 years old.  It’s a passion that has ruled ever since and it’s even cooler when your play your own music, even funnier when people love it!

Thanks for your time Youngy and good luck with the album!  (Read Shane’s review HERE)

The album Down to Dirty is available on iTunes at this link:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/down-to-dirty/id562583678

www.destroyshesaid.com.au

www.thornburyrecords.com

www.fist2face.com.au

www.purepop.com.au

Category: Interviews