The Chats

The Chats are a straightforward band. They combine raucous live shows with the knowledge that ‘punk’ isn’t something you can take too seriously in 2018. But beneath it all is a plan: a plan to have as much fun as they possibly can before life starts to interfere. Their greatest strength is their self-awareness. A quality fully-displayed on ‘Smoko’ a song about being young and pissed-off on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The song’s video currently has 4.8 million views on YouTube, and it’s popularity has single-handedly revitalised the mullet. Not bad for a track with liberal use of ‘Australianisms’. They’ve self-released two records thus far and there’s plenty more to come from the Aussie trio. Fresh from their first UK tour, we sat down with the mullet-sporting Eamonn, bassist and vocalist of The Chats to discuss punk, jetlag and internet celebrity.

Q: Hailing from Australia, you guys must do a lot of travelling. Do you get on each other’s nerves during long journeys and do you have any tips for jet lag?

A: The UK tour was our first time overseas actually. We all get on each other’s nerves but at the end of the day we’re like brothers and we love each other (and hate each other too). Jet lag is fine as long as you stay awake the whole day when you land, and keep powering on until the night.

Q: Over here people definitely have a preconceived idea of what Australians are like. Do you see yourself as alternative ambassadors for Australia?

A: Not really. I don’t think anyone really thinks of themselves as ambassadors per se. The term “Aussie icons” gets thrown around a lot, but we’re just normal blokes. We’re no different to any other Australians really.

Q: Being honest, how much forethought went into the ‘Smoko’ Video and were you in any way prepared for its overnight success?

A: We kinda just went into it with a vague idea of what we wanted it to look like and what we wanted to wear. We had a few ideas about the drowning scene and the Centrelink office scene, but overall it was a really messy day of filming. We had to rush it into about three hours because it was gonna start raining and we didn’t want our drum kit and guitars to get wet. Matt [The Chats’ drummer] wasn’t even around for half of the day, we just ran into him near the beach because he’d just knocked off work and his phone was flat. Pretty lucky we found him. We weren’t at all prepared for the attention it got, it was insane to us. It’s still pretty hard for us to wrap our heads around it, even a year later.

Q: Most people would feel pretty stupid acting the way you do in the ‘Smoko’ video but you seem pretty nonplussed. What was the last properly stupid thing The Chats did on or off stage?

A: Mate, we’ve done sooo many stupid things on and off stage. There was this one show where me and Pricey [Josh Price, guitarist] were crowdsurfing during Smoko but still trying to play our guitars. And there were about ten people on stage just dancing, while our guitars kept cutting out. That rendition of Smoko went for about seven minutes.

Q: Are you ever concerned that you’ll never be taken seriously because many of your fans came to you through something humorous?

A: Nah we don’t really care. We love to take the piss and just have a good time. We never wanted to be taken seriously to be honest, but it’s cool when people do.

Words by Alex Mistlin | Illustration by REN