New Zealand's Bang! Bang! Eche! Brings New Release and Tour to the U.S.

With dance music reaching new heights of popularity and originality, Bang! Bang! Eche!, a New Zealand dance/punk band, is rapidly making themselves known in the U.S. as one of the up and coming musical acts to watch. Currently on tour with Har Mar Superstar, Bang! Bang! Eche! will make a pit stop in Chicago on November 3^rd at Dark Room

With dance music reaching new heights of popularity and originality, Bang! Bang! Eche!, a New Zealand dance/punk band, is rapidly making themselves known in the U.S. as one of the up and coming musical acts to watch. Currently on tour with Har Mar Superstar, Bang! Bang! Eche! will make a pit stop in Chicago on November 3^rd at Dark Room, where Chicagoans will get to see the band live for the first time. The band’s style is a uniquely high-energy fusion of dance and punk and is the design of guitar/bass player T’Nealle Worsley. Switching instruments often and using their ability to get everyone in the house moving, Tripwire describes their live show as “…super-hyper energy level, enthusiastic dance moves, and a gift for fitting melodies into the insanity”.   

Bang! Bang! Eche! is presently supporting their upcoming November EP release, Sonic Death Cuntttt, which contains a compilation of hard-edged, fast-moving tracks such as its opening song “Fistful of Dollars”. Other songs like “Be a Jerk” and “Beat Up the Children” nicely round out the release, making it a high-octane explosion of unbridled energy. Sonic Death Cuntttt was recorded over a period of three months in Christchurch New Zealand – the band’s hometown.  

I was able to catch up with vocalist/synth master Zach Doney to see what’s going on with the band.    

How’s it going so far today?

Zach – It’s going alright. I’m awake and I’m going to The Bagel House.

Yeah? What city are you in right now?

Zach – I’m in Jersey. Not Jersey City, but Jersey suburbs.

So how’s the tour going for you guys so far?

Zach – It’s great. We’ve just had the industry part of the tour, which doesn’t seem like that much of a tour because the shows aren’t like parties, they’re just showcases and things like that. But now, this is the first day of the tour where we’re like a real touring band. We’ve got a Brooklyn show tonight, another one tomorrow and then we just start driving, which I’m really excited about.

Then you’ll be here next week, November 3^rd in Chicago at Dark Room. Has Bang! Bang! Eche! Played in Chicago before?

Zach -  No. We’ve played in L.A., San Francisco out west and cities like New York and Pittsburgh in the east.

What is the music scene like in New Zealand?

Zach – Although is pretty vibrant and stuff, it’s pretty small. It’s very much the scene you get into – or you can get into – just by knowing the right people. There are some really great bands in New Zealand, but there aren’t very many venues to play at, especially where we’re at. There are like three bars to play at.

Well, I must ask you – since they are so successful in the U.S. – do you think the Flight of the Conchords opened any doors for New Zealand bands?

Zach – I think they put New Zealand on the map a little more, especially if you’re not the everyday person who knows about The Lord of the Rings. I guess they helped in getting the message out there. In terms for opening the door for New Zealand music, I don’t think that’s quite true. But I think they raised more awareness for the country.

How did you guys go from playing the few clubs in New Zealand to touring all over the world?

Zach – Well, when we started out, we just played as much as we could, wherever we could and whenever we could. We’d play three times a weekend. But in a place like Christchurch, where there’s only 300,000 people or something, that means you have to find three house parties to play in one weekend and there might not even be three house parties in all of Christchurch in the entire weekend. We played as much as we could for about a year and then we met our management and I guess they do what management does, getting you bigger shows, meeting people and the provide some of the means to go overseas and stuff. But we went to Germany on someone word on Myspace and very little else and that was awesome. We did that last year around this time.

Really? How did that work?

Zach – Yeah, we went over to Germany based basically by someone on Myspace saying, “Yeah, I’ll pay for you to come to Germany.” All the money stuff turned to shit, but we played a lot of shows. I guess we just did it. We’ve done it, like back in the day, and we kept doing it, now we’re still doing it but at different places, which is particularly what I want to do so I’m pretty happy. 

I’d like to ask you about your live show. What might somebody experience who has never seen Bang! Bang! Eche!?

Zach – I’d like to think that someone could expect a very erotically charged live show, but not so much eroticism directly, but just generally an erotic kind of frenzy. That’s what I’d like to think people could expect. Whether or not it’s true – well, I guess that ball’s still up in the air. I want people to come to a show and, if not knowing anything, leave and just feel like they have to take someone home and screw them.

Are you finding that you are picking up a lot of new fans while touring?

Zach – Yeah, I think so. We’ve seen a lot of people who saw us last year throughout, which is good because it concerns what people have been saying to us, which is, “Once you play a place, you’re going to come back and play it again.” You sort of have to sow the seeds the first time, they grow and then you pick them up on the way back. We’ll also get a lot of people who are like, “We’ve never heard of you before. Do you have t-shirts and CD’s?” and we’re like, “YES, WE DO.” It’s been great.

Find out more about Bang! Bang! Eche! by visiting www.myspace.com/bangbangeche.  

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