With their mix of vintage guitar pop and indie-esque sounds, The Bowers hailing from Melbourne, Australia who have a tight sublime sound whilst still retaining an impressive rawness which adds great depth to their music.

I asked guitarist Phil Gionfriddo for the down low on The Bowers and his thoughts on the live Melbourne music scene:

The Bowers (formerly The Bowerbirds), came together when in 2004, Phil went searching for a singer to start a new band as the band he was currently in didn’t quite share the same work goals as he did. He wanted to find a frontman who couldn’t hide behind his instrument on stage and found that in Liam who he discovered singing at a Wednesday night rock disco in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. Together they spent the next two years writing songs until then lead guitarist of Rocket science, Paul Maybury heard the demo and decided he wanted to play bass and dragged along Rocket Science drummer Kit Warhurst along for the ride.

“These guys were my heroes and they wanted to play with me, I was and still am incredibly chuffed.”

Since playing their first gig in 2006, there was a change of bass players (Spencer Dyson joined in 2009), they’ve been playing around the traps and have done quite a lot of recording.  Now with three 7” inches & their  album ‘Her Night’ under their belt they are well on their way to becoming a formative force in music.

When asked about what to expect from their live show Phil described it as “Mostly pop songs, people dance; which we love but I guess what band doesn’t dig that. Sometimes I wonder what we look like to the audience, probably kinda pompous because we like to dress well, but we’re not fuckwits.”

When it comes to live music in Australia, Melbourne has always been the live music capital. With thousands of gigs going on each with covering every genre, music lovers here have never been without. Although recently there has been much talk regarding the health within the Melbourne live music scene due the closure of prominent venues. In accordance to the new liquor licensing laws which make it increasingly difficult for venues to make a profit.  Phil had a positive take on the whole situation.

“The live scene in Melbourne right now is beserk, there are so many bands – good ones and heaps of venues. For those people reading this that have never been to Melbourne we have 3 amazing community radio stations that play almost exclusively independent or small label artists: PBS FM, RRR FM and 3CR and they have a massive listenership. Consequently loads of people go to shows to hear different kinds of music, 7 nights a week.

‘The Tote’, our most loved and probably most famous venue closed a few weeks ago, due to debts surrounding the fighting strict Liquor Licensing laws that make it impossible for small venues to run profitably. It has caused a huge stir within the music community in Melbourne. There is a Victorian State election later this year and the Tote like most other live venues are situated in marginal seats held by the government, so now it’s a legitimate political issue. There will be a rally to Parliament House on Feb 23rd. Hopefully 10,000 people will march. I should add that Sydney is starting to take off again too.”

The are many things in the horizon for The Bowers Having finished the demos for the second LP, they’re set to start recording in May with producer, Robbie Adams. They also have a European tour set for September/October. If you’re wondering what their live show is like, guitarist Phil Gionfriddo describes it as really loud, for better or worse.

The Bowers have a streaming of their full album on their Myspace page.

Published on SoundProof Magazine – 26/02/2010