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Give us your name and your roles in the band?
Hey, I’m Steven Campbell, lead vocalist and bass player of Avalanche, we also have Veronica ‘V’ Taleski on lead guitar, Ryan Roma on drums, and only recently, had Arthur Divis join on rhythm guitar.
Take us behind the formation of the group and how you all met?
We formed in early 2018, we used to jam in Ryan’s dad's steel factory late at night after work, writing and working on original material. He and Veronica have been jamming together for a few years, she went to school with his sister and that's how they met, they had another rhythm guitarist and bass player at the time and eventually reached out to me on a musicians forum as they needed a singer. Soon enough, the rhythm guitarist gave up, the bass player stopped showing up so I thought I'd take up bass too, and after a whole string of rhythm guitarists we eventually found Arthur through the same forum months later. I think what brought us all together was a love of heavy rock music, particularly stuff from the 60s, 70s and 80s, were all young but we're all into that kind of music and we were lucky enough to find others to share that interest with.
Describe your early musical influences and how they have helped shape and inspire you to this day?
As a band, our influences are definitely 70s/80s Aussie rock bands, namely AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, the Angels, Stevie Wright, the Easybeats, and my dad's band Avalanche. We're also inspired by all the big rock and metal bands like Guns n Roses, Led Zep, Metallica, Sabbath, Motörhead, and also earlier bands like the Rolling Stones, The Who, the Yardbirds, Chuck Berry, and we also have a lot of blues influences as well. We’re really inspired by all the early rock and blues pioneers from the 50s/60s because that's where all the heavier music came from, so that's really helped shape and inspire our music; when you can go to the beginning of the rock/metal genre and see where all the riffs and attitude came from.
How would you describe your band's sound to those who aren't familiar with you?
Our sound is like a punch in the face. Were a guitar band, and play a very fast, mean and high energy type of Rock 'N Roll, similar to late 70’s early 80’s when rock bands were starting to get faster and harder but remain a rock n roll band, so there’s lots of blues elements and turnarounds but its heavy and loud, and it’s really bare bones rock which you don't find a lot of these days.
What is the energy and joy you get out of playing and recording music, how big of a rush do you feel?
I think we all get a pretty big rush from both recording and performing music, if you’re not having the time of your life then whats the point? And we find the more you enjoy it, the more your crowd and the listeners seem to get into it and enjoy it too, you gotta have conviction in what you do. We all get nervous sometimes or have our bad days, but there’s always those moments both on stage and in the studio where you just get so lost in what you're doing and you turn around and you realise you're playing the music you want to play with your best friends in the world, and there's nothing quite like it.
Talk about the recording of your latest release, and what it was like to put it all together?
We just released our debut Double EP, Sent From Hell, it's a wild and raw rock n' rock record about sin, sex and good times. It's a mix of 4 studio recordings, including our 2 single releases, and 4 live recordings. It's fast and it's heavy and it's LOUD! We had a whole set list of original material which we narrowed down to a select number of songs that we included on the EP, but it wasn’t until after we recorded the bulk of it and put all the songs together that we realised there was a bit of a theme to it all. All the songs centred around hell, damnation, sex and rock n' roll itself, and there was a real rawness and energy to it, and we thought Avalanche: Sent From Hell would be the perfect title to describe it. Then we came up with the postcard cover art idea of us as skeletons and demons playing a gig in hell in front of the Devil himself, and got a really talented graphic artist to design it, so it all came together quite well.
Besides music, what do you like to do in your spare time?
Well I’m a roofer actually by trade, Veronica works as a roadie, Ryan’s still in school and Arthur does architecture, but I guess anything else we do is always gonna be music related, were boring people haha, don’t have much else going on, but being in a band does take up most of your free time, not that any of us are complaining!
What's coming up next for you, any future shows or new music you'd like to promote?
We'll be gigging non-stop all over Sydney over the next few months to promote the EP, we're already booked out until the end of July and are constantly booking more shows and working as hard as possible to make em our best shows yet. Sent From Hell is now available on all streaming platforms as well, and we’ll soon be selling physical CD’s online as well. Also planning a tour for the end of the year!
How can fans find out more info about you online?
Our Facebook page has all our info on it and our upcoming gigs: https://www.facebook.com/Avalanche2018Official/
We also have an Instagram: https://instagram.com/avalanchebandrock
And you can find our music on pretty much any streaming platform:
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/avalanche2018official
iTunes/Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/avalanche/1440045697
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Avalanche_Sent_From_Hell?id=Bur5c77z2kuqbxhe4cv4y23pikq
Lastly, what is the one thing you enjoy the most about being in a band together?
Playing the music you love with the people you love most in the world. Cheers for having us!