By JO HARRISON
HARDCORE, post punk band Fresh Nelson have become household names among Armidale’s music loving youth.
Their raw, high energy gigs have become legendary and through word of mouth and social media the Armidale boys are fast becoming sought after for gigs across Australia.
Their determination and hard work is starting to pay off. Last month the band released their-self funded EP Waver and are now shipping CDs and selling at gigs, along with all new merchandise.
Dan Carr on vocals, Jono Young – guitar, Joe Lea – guitar, Dave Parker – bass and Mackenzie Hague on drums formed Fresh Nelson in 2010 at school while Dave Parker on bass joined last year.
For all the band members’ music has been a huge influence from a young age. The guitar was the instrument of choice for all but Jono, who began his musical journey on the piano.
Their sound has evolved to what the boys can only describe in their live performances as a musical wave of noise with the heavy use of guitar effects.
“We find it hard to define our style,” Dan Carr said.
“There was always hardcore bands passing through Armidale so I guess that is where we developed a love of this type of music.”
Front man Dan has evolved his sound the most from singing to a form of yelling which has put tremendous strain on his vocal cords.
“I used to play bass and sing but we decided that we would rather have a front man so I took over mostly singing; or yelling more than singing,” he said.
“Warming up can be pretty awkward before a gig, sometimes I have to go out to the car and yell in front of a whole lot of people.”
This is the band’s first professionally produced recording. They spent around two week at TommiRock Recording Studios in Newcastle.
This was a stressful time for the boys who were forced to take a break from recording after Dan’s injured his vocal chords in the first week.
“We had to give Dan’s voice a break so we came back to Newcastle a month later to finish the vocals,” Joe Lea said.
“The recordings were then professionally mastered in Germany and the CDs printed. We had a lot of input into the layout and design with the help of a friend Sorcha, Dan and Jono.”
Fresh Nelson has had steady gigs touring with bands and individual shows.
“There is a whole community for this type of music and we have had a lot of help getting our name out there which has led to gigs all over,” Joe said.
“We are all just working at the moment and putting all of our energy into our music.”
Catch Fresh Nelson at the Armidale Club on 10 October with Royal Chant. To order their EP Waver, visit the band’s Facebook page.
