THE WHATS

Dean and I were in London in 2004, the Screamfeeder tour was winding up; somehow Darek and Kellie were leaving the country before us – we had another week or so up our sleeves. We got offered a gig and decided to do it as a 2 piece, and it was one of the most fun gigs of the whole tour. We came back to Brisbane and started writing songs together, and it was really fun and liberating. Not to take anything away from our experiences in Screamfeeder, but when you’ve been in a band for 15 years things can start to get a bit repetitive.

We recorded the album and did a bit of touring. it was hard, no-one knew who we were and it didn’t exactly shoot us to superstardom. ha! We actually cleared the Pony one night in Melbourne, there were two people left by the time we’d finished, and one was Mirko, our mixer that night.

We went on tour to Japan in 2005 (with Screamfeeder, it was an obvious decision) and then we went over and played in England again. We’d been accepted at Manchester’s In The City music conference and we played a couple of weird little gigs in London too.

Next we came back and started writing songs with less guitar; both of us playing drums, or using backing tracks etc. These were great fun but a massive pain in the ass to set up for at gigs – it’d take us so long to set up all our shit, and we’d get all stressed out too!

Still, we managed to record the results, 4 songs, released 2010: A Bit Of Everything With THE WHATS.

All Mouth No Trousers was used as the opening track for the 2008 movie Crooked Business (and Screamfeeder’s I’ve Got The Knife closed the film)

As for the future, we’ll keep it open.

Here’s the original blurb we used to tote around:

From Brixton to Brisbane..
THE WHATS are Tim Steward [guitar / vocals] and Dean Shwereb [the drums].

Their other band Screamfeeder were on tour in the UK in 2004 when their friend Jane Gazzo (ex recovery / JJJ) called up and said “do you want another gig?”. They agreed to the show [at Ladbroke Grove's The Neighbourhood ] without even thinking that the other half of Screamfeeder were flying home to Australia that very morning.

However after you’ve been playing in foreign countries for a month anything goes, and it was agreed to do a Screamfeeder show as a 2 piece. Tim and Dean caught the tube from Brixton to Ladbroke Grove with all their gear and had the best gig of their whole tour.

When they got back to Brisbane they decided it had been too much fun not to do it again. The also realised they’d better write some new songs.

Unlike most two piece bands who feel the need to play more to make up for their lack of personnel THE WHATS keep the music minimal, tight, economical and punchy, veering sharply towards the “less is more” philosophy.

Over the following 12 months the duo wrote and recorded their debut 13 track album “All Mouth No Trousers”.

Simple repetitive rhythms and melodies dominate, two minute two chord songs, no drum fills, clean dry recordings. The lack of bass and / or any other instrumentation except for a very sparsely used keyboard may deter a few, but The Whats carry on with a minimalist principle and a punk rock foundation paying homage to bands like The Clash.

Tim, vocalist and guitarist, fails to reserve his honest and deliberate vocal approach. The melodies clearly stem from a lifetime of running home from school with worn-out Chuck Taylors and an unwashed Sex Pistols t-shirt to listen to old punk and indie music through oversized headphones. The lyrics spill out naturally and sometimes rushed, showing that Tim may have more to say than he has time to do so.

Dean’s drum approach mirrors the band’s general mindset – less is more. As the son of an eclectic drummer, he lets a variety of genres seep in during the songwriting process. The amalgamation of the two create a standard that is far too often overlooked in today’s music world – three-chord rock can still make for a sound deemed worthy of rock’n’roll.

The title of their debut album, All Mouth No Trousers, may be all too sarcastic. The band plays with less of a ‘no action’ mentality and instead substitutes it for a ‘shut up and play‘ attitude that can still reach out to a crowd of new teenagers, still wearing Chucks, still keeping music a secret in their bedroom, still walking, breathing, and rocking out to the music that might just save the world, one disgruntled teenager at a time.