Kicking off in May 2015, two of the country’s favourite rock bands, led by two of our favourite rock chicks, will be hitting the road together in what promises to be one hell of a rock ‘n’ roll tour! Baby Animals and The Superjesus unite for a run of shows dubbed the ‘She Who Rocks Tour’.
So what was the catalyst for these two powerhouse bands to join forces and take the show on the road? We caught up with Baby Animals’ lead singer, Suze DeMarchi, to find out more.
“Well, it sort of came about when originally both of us were booked to do this Day on the Green run,” explains Suze in a recent interview with Rock Club 40. “And they ended up getting rid of us and putting Billy Idol on the bill. Sarah wasn’t too thrilled with this and she ended up posting something on her Facebook page and it turned into a big kerfuffle and I got a lot of people contacting me saying ‘You guys should tour together .’ We’d thought about it I guess, over the years, but this was sort of the perfect opportunity so due to popular demand on Facebook, we’ve decided to go ahead and do it.”
And you can’t ignore Facebook. “No,” she laughs. “You can’t.”
Suze acknowledges that something that, at first seemed like a slap in the face, actually turned out to be a great opportunity for both bands. “Hopefully, if it works, it could be something we could do every year with different bands and we could get some local bands in each state to come along for the ride. It would be really nice if it was something we could do as a yearly event.”
She admits that she has never seen The Superjesus perform but became a fan when she heard their album, ‘Sumo’. “We were away pretty much the whole time they were working here. I did hear their record though when I was in America and thought it was a really great record so I became a fan at that point and I’ve met Sarah several times since. It will be really fun. It will be an interesting night.”
“It’s funny,” she muses. “Even though we’ve got a history, somehow it’s harder in that way. People have expectations I guess but, well, they’ve sort of given us a second chance. People don’t get that often when you’ve been away for a long time, especially in Australia. It’s a little bit ‘Oh whatever. Take a chance.’ But we’ve got such a great, loyal fan base that we were allowed to come back and we just did shows for a while and that was really great. We got such a nice response from people so we were buoyed by that a little bit but really, at the end of the day, it’s whether you want to do it or not. We really like playing shows. The big payoff at the end of the day is to perform. It’s my job. It’s all I know how to do really. I think what I really want now, at my age, is just to prove to people that there should be no age limit to any career – for men or women. You should be able to continue doing what you love to do. It’s really all I know and to be able to continue doing something that you love doing and not letting age stand in the way… There should be a message in that for a lot of people. There should be no age limits. If you can do it, do it! If people stop coming, then I’ll stop playing. But until then, I think it’s a really great honour to be able to do that. To do what we do is pretty brave so we’ll keep doing it while people keep coming.”
After the She Who Rocks Tour, Baby Animals will be heading into the studio to work on a new album. “We’ve got the beginnings of a lot of stuff,” Suze tells me. “But I got side-tracked for a couple of months at the end of last year doing other stuff. It’s crazy. I’ve never been busier. I’ve done a lot of work that I’m very proud of and it’s sort of a whole different world. I’m a single mum and that’s a different world too and I’m just trying to juggle all those balls, as you do. It’s better to be busy. I’m really very grateful that we still can work.”
Their last release, ‘This Is Not the End’ has been a great success and Suze is justifiably proud. “We did it all independently, without the big machinery of a label behind us. We basically just did it through social media and some of our fan base which is incredible.”
So, given the success of that venture, would they choose to record independently again?
“I think that maybe we would,” she says, upon reflection. “Having had that experience now and seeing what we’re capable of, in that sense and with this team that we’ve got, it worked pretty well. It was harder. It was definitely different but you’re much more aware. I learned a lot; a lot more about funding records. We were careful about what we were spending and l’earned the whole process and to become more aware of what the outcomes were going to be so if you put more into it, you’re going to get more out of it so it’s not just somebody from the label saying ‘Here’s your press sheet and we want you to do this and we want you to put this much into that and we want you to do it this way.’ This way, you have a lot more control over it. It was a good learning curve. There’s something nice about having a label’s support, I have to be honest. The infrastructure is there but you’re only what their priority is that week.”
The singer insists says that the title of their last album ‘This is Not the End’ is a promise that they intend to keep. “We’ve named it that,” she laughs. “Now, we have to live up to it! So come hell or high water, we’re doing another record.”
by Sharyn Hamey
Copyright © Sharyn Hamey 2015. All rights reserved
For full details of the ‘She Who Rocks Tour’ and information on how to purchase tickets, please click here
