Those of us who were in bands as teenagers know that there are only two ways to reflect back on it. The first one is utter embarrassment. The hair cuts, the immature lyrics and the in-jokes that your 16-year old self thought were funny in an album artwork or song suddenly aren’t as funny to anyone except your 16-year old self. The other is with pride. Remembering those days as among the best you’ve ever had. When you used to do nothing but party with friends, tour, drink yourself silly, sleep on couches that looked more like fallen rubble and laugh as you injured yourself constantly.
Melbournites and long-time good friends, Northeast Party House, don’t shy away from their past shenanigans as they look to drop their very first album, Any Given Weekend, in May. The lead single from the album, The Haunted slotted nicely into the Triple J rotation recently and as tour dates were announced last week, we heard from front man Zach Hamilton-Reeves who talked a little past, present, future and all things NPH (not to be confused with Neil Patrick Harris).
Where did the name Northeast Party House come from?
Back in 2008, our good friend Sam Northeast was left in charge of his parents house for two weeks after his Mum went on a holiday to Canada. After a big night out, Sam invited everyone back to the house and the party ended up going on for 2 weeks straight. Technically we should have been called Northeast’s Party House. The name Northeast Party House was an ode to the silliness that went on in that house.
I don’t know about you guys, but I personally have been stinging for this album to come out for a long while. What do you think you’ll do to celebrate when it’s finally out?
Hmm, well other than playing shows around the place, I think we’re going to enjoy some down time. There was some talk of Karaoke. We’ve all got other little project interests that we’d like to check out, so we’ll see where they get to and maybe slowly get started on [album] number two.
The two singles to be released off the upcoming album, Youth Allowance and The Haunted seem to follow a party focused theme. Is this setting a trend for the rest of the album to come?
The whole album is really about our lives, our friends, loves and the experiences we’ve all had over the past few years. I think the two songs you’ve heard are a pretty solid representation of what’s to come. We’re pretty excited to show everyone what we’ve been doing!
The Haunted is an exciting peek at Any Given Weekend. Why did you choose it to be the lead single?
For the first single we felt it was really important to show everyone the diversity of the band. The Haunted was one of the songs on the album that came together in the short space of a day or two. It’s a track that we’ve all really jelled on. It’s bouncy, with some serious undertones. The track manages to remain restrained and still deliver a bit of kick to your teeth. You know? I like that stuff.
A lot of Aussie bands have shot straight overseas around the time of a release to try spruik their sound. Gold Fields, San Cisco & The Griswolds to name a few. Have you got any plans to follow suit?
There aren’t any concrete plans for overseas just yet, but we are all super keen to get there eventually. For us it’s really about where to go first. I know some of us have our eyes set on New York. We’ll just have to see where we end up, I think.
On your Facebook page, I’ve seen guys in neck braces, guys with bloody noses, people passed out and most recently, Zach sporting crutches. What is it that makes your shows so dangerous?
To be fair, the crutches had nothing to do with our show, but all of our bruzzis get pretty wild. We’ve seen our fair share of obscene behavior whilst playing. Maybe the bouncers?
Speaking of the live shows, they seem to be getting bigger and better all the time. Is it only big time from here or do you still play the odd mates house party?
Yeah, lately they’ve been getting really full on. We still like trying to make the house parties happen but it’s getting pretty hard. There are a lot of us playing live and a lot of stuff to set up. Lately we’ve been having a lot of fun playing DJs at the small parties and clubs, lots of techno stuff. It’s pretty fun.
What’s with you guys and laser pugs/cats at the moment? (Apart from them just being epic)
Truthfully? When I was about 8 I had a little kitten called ‘Mittens’ and my older brother had a little pug-cross called ‘Dex’. They became quite close. We used to play a game called strap the laser to your pet and make them do battle. We’d put them in a box with those little lasers strapped on the head with the button pressed down, fill the box up with smoke and shake it all around. R.I.P. Mittens, I loved you. I’ll never forgive Dex.
Any Given Weekend is set for release on the 16th of May through StopStart Records.
Northeast Party House will be touring Australia to support it over June and July. Tickets went on sale today – you can buy them here.
