Shark Drive
Who are your band members and who plays what?
We’ve got Robert on guitar and vocals, Michael on bass guitar, Joseph on keyboards and vocals, and Matthew on the drums.
How would you describe your sound?
We usually describe the music we make as a mix of pop-punk, alternative rock and new wave. If you can imagine a hybrid of Regurgitator, Blink 182 and Devo, that’s what we sound like.
How long have you all been playing for?
We’ve been playing as a band for about four years, but individually we’ve been playing music for around eight years. We had gotten that video game Rock Band for Christmas one year, and through playing that, we got inspired to learn and play real instruments. We started going to a place called Stars and Idols, who did group music lessons to get their students used to playing as a band.
How did Shark Drive start?
Jim Dowling of Stars and Idols eventually convinced us to play together for once, and entered us in the Toowoomba Rock Eisteddfod. We came up with our original name Stark Drive, the name of the street that we grew up on, and then started practising some covers for the competition. We did pretty well in the Eisteddfod, achieving a second place in the open band division (out of two bands). Afterward, we kept on learning songs, and started writing songs of our own. The first time we played one of our own was at a trivia night fundraiser for Careflight, in front of about 300 people.
The origin of Shark Drive, as opposed our original name Stark Drive, was when we found that a Swedish electric bicycle company, also called Stark Drive, was taking the electric-bike world by storm. They quickly took over all of the internet search results, so we decided to change our name, because a) sharks are cool, and b) we couldn’t afford a trademark.
What has been the highlight for Shark Drive so far?
Easily the biggest highlight for us so far, is when we played a show last year alongside Aussie punk rock behemoths, Frenzal Rhomb. They are one of only a handful bands that we each unanimously agree are one of the best bands of all time. The fact that they personally picked us to open for them, that it was probably the biggest gig we’ve played, and that they were some of the most respectful musicians we’ve ever met, easily makes it the highlight of our band journey so far.
What are the future plans for Shark Drive?
2018 is going to be quite a busy year for us, recording new music, shooting a couple of videos and playing heaps of shows. Hopefully, in the near future we can actually do what we always say we will and release a single. We’ll hopefully do a show or two for that, and then get into a studio and get an album together ... and then play a whole bunch of shows for that.