Californian surf-skate punks FIDLAR play Lion Arts Factory
Zac Carper, frontman of Californian surf-skate punks FIDLAR, speaks to Nathan Davies about Hawaii, touring with Dune Rats and getting clean from heroin.
Your Adelaide show has sold out – that must be a nice feeling.
Yeah! Hey, fellas (yells to bandmates in car), we sold out! It’s a lot better than playing to nobody, that’s for sure.
You’ve been to Australia quite a bit – is there a similarity between the Australian and Californian lifestyles?
I think so, I think they’re very similar. Especially Los Angeles and southern California, and that surf-skate culture and the way it crosses over with rock ’n’ roll music. It feels very much like home.
What about the fact that we can drink at 18 – does that change the dynamic of a show?
Well, that’s just dangerous for you guys! Nah, it’s good. It makes sense. The drinking age should be 18, I don’t understand why we don’t do that in America (where the drinking age is 21).
Well, you’re trusted to vote at 18…
Perhaps they’re scared of people drunkenly voting!
You grew up on Oahu’s famous North Shore in Hawaii – is that as gnarly a place as Australians think it is?
The first song (on Get Of My Rock) is about Hawaii, and specifically about the North Shore. I mean, it is pretty gnarly. I had a friend come over and he looked at Pipeline and he was like, ‘Oh, these waves don’t look crazy at all!’ Then he caught a wave and instantly broke his eardrum.
Slapped! And you have to worry about actual slaps too don’t you?
Yeah, we call them false cracks. You don’t want to get false cracked. But we did grow up with a lot of Australians; that was a big part of the culture on the North Shore. There’s definitely a love-hate relationship there. Hawaiian people don’t really like the Australians sometimes because you guys are pushy in the water. You guys surf very aggressively, and Hawaiian people surf very chilled.
So how was it moving from the country vibe of Hawaii to LA?
It was definitely a culture shock. Like my dad said, ‘You’re the hole (Hawaiian word for tourist) there’. I got used to it quickly and now it feels just like home.
Speaking of dads, Elvis and Max’s dad was famously in (Californian punk legends) TSOL. Were they a band you were aware of growing up?
No. My introduction to So-Cal punk music was through Elvis and Max. My punk was Offspring and Green Day, you know what I mean?
You’ve worked with various Aussie bands, most notably the Dune Rats – is there something of a shared spirit there?
Oh yeah, for sure. Dune Rats were like the first people we toured with in Australia and we just got along so well that we took them out on tour in America and that was so much fun. We’re very similar – similar crowd and we party very similarly.
It’s great that kids are listening to rock ’n’ roll again…
Well, it’s happening in Australia.
Not in America?
Not really. It’s more hip hop and pop music in America. In Australia though, you guys still love rock ’n’ roll music. It’s probably all the white people.
Now, speaking of partying with the Dune Rats, you took your partying to a pretty extreme place didn’t you?
I had addiction issues before the band, but being in a band is the only job in the world where the person who hires you gives you a bunch of alcohol and drugs and then says, ‘All right, now go do your job’. It’s such a weird thing. It eventually led to heroin, and it got really dark for a while. Somehow I pulled it together, and I couldn’t have done it without my band members.
After you cleaned up, did you find it difficult to then make music sober?
Totally. It became a different thing. I would have to actually think about what I wanted to say, where before it was just … word vomit. But we’re all getting older, and being in your 30s and singing about doing drugs is just not that cool.
So where are you at on your journey now? Do you have a beer?
Oh yeah, I crack one open with the boys every now and then. But I stay off the hard s--t.
For all the kids going to their first FIDLAR show this weekend, what should they prepare themselves for?
They should expect exactly what my dad says about my band – we’ll be loud and obnoxious. But parents are supposed to hate your band.
SEE: FIDLAR, Lion Arts Factory, Sunday
TICKETS: SOLD OUT
HEAR: Almost Free, out now