They may have started with the modest aims of playing only one show, but Grey Daturas’ firesome live reputation has seen them circumnavigate the globe. RENÉ SCHAEFER talks to guitarist and founding member Robbie McManus ahead of the band’s final show.

American musician and producer Steve Albini once commented on the demise of his band Big Black that “breaking up is an idea that has occurred to far too few groups; sometimes the wrong ones”. It’s a sentiment that could equally apply to Melbourne’s Grey Daturas.

Over the nine years of their existence, the experimental rock trio has cemented an international reputation for its fierce work ethic and consistently mind-blowing live performances. Fuelled by a shared love of excessive volume, concrete-heavy guitar riffs and free noise improvisation, Robbie McManus, Bonnie Mercer and Rob Mayson have circled the globe several times in their quest to spread their brand of mayhem to as many diverse audiences as possible.

Grey Daturas have played all over Australia, Europe, America, Japan, New Zealand, and even Alaska, on a seemingly never-ending tour. In the process they released a string of recordings on local and international labels such as Emperor Jones and Crashing Jets, as well as their own Heathen Skulls imprint.

Their second full-length album Dead In The Woods (2004) was feted by fans and critics alike, while their most recent release, the equally accomplished Return To Disruption (2008) stands as a fitting epitaph for a band unfamiliar with the concepts of compromise or moderation.

Tours and split releases with international acts such as Yellow Swans, Bardo Pond, Wolf Eyes and Monarch proved that Grey Daturas could easily equal (or surpass) the power and innovation of their overseas contemporaries, yet they remained a cult band in their homeland. The reasons for this are manifold, as Grey Daturas’ founding member Robbie McManus explained over a beer in the lead-up to their farewell show at Melbourne’s Tote Hotel this week.

You formed Grey Daturas in 2001. How did you hook up with Bonnie Mercer and Rob Mayson?
Before Grey Daturas I was in a band called A Slow Loris. It was essentially a two-piece, but Bonnie occasionally jammed with us. Bonnie and I always talked about how great it would be to start a band together. We did some short-lived projects before Grey Daturas, one of which was La Brats, with Monika Fikerle [Love of Diagrams, ex-Sea Scouts] on drums. Everyone was starting new projects at the time. La Brats lasted about six months, but when Monika became involved in Love Of Diagrams more intensively, the band folded.

Rob Mayson had just come back from Germany. We had known each other for years, and I knew he was really into found sound and sound art, so I suggested he have a jam with Bonnie and I. We did a live-to-air recording at 3CR, which worked really well. I had a solo show booked at the Town Hall Hotel in North Melbourne, but at the last minute I invited Rob and Bonnie to play.

Was it always Grey Daturas’ intention to play improvised music?
Around the time, the whole post-rock thing was massive. Bands wanted to emulate Tortoise and Slint. I liked those bands, but I just got so bored with the whole procession of slow music, and keeping it minimal and safe. The three of us were more inspired by Merzbow and Einstürzende Neubauten. We began as a sound art project. We didn’t even have drums; there were no riffs – just straight-up free noise. Bonnie and I were playing guitars and Rob was using a six-track tape recorder, which he ran effects pedals and a mini-disc player through. His instrument was actually the mixing desk. About a year later he started using bass and eventually we brought in drums. It was a slow progression. It wasn’t until our album Dead In The Woods [in 2004], that we started to become more of a rock band.

We had done some live CD-Rs, but we had never done a studio record. Dead In The Woods was a departure point for us. We were leaning in that direction before we did the record, but when we went into the studio, we had no idea what we were going to do. We brought in a few CDs, which we were listening to at the time, and we played them to each other as inspiration. It wasn’t until we were mixing down that we realised what we had. From that point onward, we were definitely a different band. The music became heavier and more rocking. When you listen to the album it sounds like songs, but it’s all improvised.

Why did this transition happen?
When we recorded Dead In The Woods we were on the verge of breaking up. No one wanted to book us to play and people hated us. At that time, playing in a noise band was probably the un-coolest thing you could do. All our friends were in hardcore bands and they used to laugh at us. Ironically, as soon as Wolf Eyes and Sunn O))) came along, there was a huge shift – the kids that laughed at us all started getting into noise.

Is that because the majority of people still look overseas for validation of unfamiliar music?
That definitely happened with Grey Daturas. It wasn’t until we went to America and toured with Sunn O))) and Wolf Eyes, that people started taking us seriously. Word started spreading from there. [British music magazine] The Wire picked up on the record and gave it a good review.

Is that what prompted you to spend a lot of time overseas?
We just came to the conclusion that there wasn’t enough of a scene for the kind of stuff we wanted to do in Australia. There are small pockets of enthusiasts in every city here, but overseas it’s massive. So many people embrace noise and experimental music there. You can tour Europe and kids will turn up totally psyched about the fact that you’re there. We’ve done shows in Berlin or Spain which were completely packed. That never happens here.

Do you have any idea why that is?
I think that people are more accepting overseas. I’m not saying that Australians are narrow minded, but we don’t get exposed to as much culture here. We are very pigeon-holed with our opinions and ideas, whereas overseas, people are constantly exposed to new music and touring acts.

Do you think that there is less of a delineation between rock’n’roll and the avant garde overseas?
Yeah, it’s all the same thing there. There are a lot of crossovers between scenes and there is a much bigger population to support experimental music. Cities in Europe are a lot closer, so it’s possible to drive two hours from Madrid to Barcelona and play to a whole different audience. I just love touring. It’s my calling in life, so slogging it out in Australia didn’t make any sense, compared to the rewards of going overseas.

“We didn’t want to do what everybody else was doing. We didn’t want song structures or vocals. Live, we wanted it to be a physical experience, so we used high volume. All the things other bands were afraid to do were the things that drove us.”

When you go overseas, do you get to take in much of the culture of other countries, or do you have to focus exclusively on the mechanics of touring?
When we’re on the road, I treat it like a business – we have a job to do. That’s the reason I don’t really drink or do drugs either. At the end of the day, people have paid money to see our band. With every show you’re hoping to make enough money to get to the next city. If you fuck around and aren’t careful, you can lose money and shit can happen. I try to be as professional and responsible as I can be, but we do try to have a bit of a holiday as well, by taking a few days off at the end of the tour. That’s the only way we can really justify losing money. On every tour we’ve always written off our airfares, but we’ve managed to cover our on-road costs.

So, despite the fact that music is pretty much a full-time occupation for you, it’s not a career as such?
No. I love doing it, but touring overseas is not profitable as such. It’s just an amazing holiday, where I get to play music and hang out with friends and see amazing bands.

Over the nine years of Grey Daturas’ existence, do you think you’ve achieved what you set out to do?
It went far beyond what we set out to do, really. We only meant to play one show, but then it was, “It would be cool to go to Adelaide and Sydney. Imagine going to America! Wouldn’t it be great to get an international release?” Every goal we ever dreamt of was realised, just through perseverance. We would spend three or four months booking tours, writing to bands and labels. It was hard work, but we got to play in Alaska and Japan as a result. We got to open up for so many of my favourite bands. One of them, Neurosis, put out our record on their label (Neurot Recordings). That’s the reason why ending the band now feels like a good idea. We all agree with it now. We’ve done everything we hoped to do and there’s nothing more we can achieve.

Rob and Bonnie don’t like to tour as much anymore. That’s no discredit to them, because it happens to everyone. They have partners, they want to be more settled and buy houses. They want stability, whereas I’m a single loser. I don’t have anything in my life other than the road. That might sound pathetic, but it’s true. Maybe if I had a steady girlfriend, I wouldn’t tour as much as I do. It’s my only release in life.

What are you going to do post-Grey Daturas?
I’ll keep going on the road. That’s the reason I tour manage bands now. I like it so much and I have nothing better to do. Bringing out bands like Pig Destroyer and Lightning Bolt, I manage to make a little bit of money – enough to pay my rent and invest in the next tour.

Is it financially viable for those kinds of bands to tour Australia?
I have to sell them the dream, but in the end they all think it’s amazing and they love it. The only thing all the bands hate is driving the long distances between cities. Unfortunately, those bands aren’t big enough here that we can afford to fly, or hire a back-line in every city. Overseas bands find that really hard here, whereas I’ve done it many times. You just have to do it if you want to play gigs in Australia. Even Wolf Eyes, who tour a lot, were struggling.

Are you planning to start a new band?
I’m going to play drums with Monarch in France and I have a project with Ben [Andrews] from Agents Of Abhorrence and My Disco. I also do a bit off solo stuff, but eventually I would love to start a functional touring band where I play more guitar. It’s not a major priority at the moment, as I’ll be pretty busy playing overseas with Monarch and bringing out more bands. There are people I would like to jam with, but as soon as I start a band, I want to get overseas as quickly as I can. Trying to find people who have the same kind of drive is going to be really hard.

Will you miss playing in Grey Daturas?
Grey Daturas is definitely the best band I’ve ever played in. There will be a void in my life without it. There aren’t a lot of bands in Australia that do what we do. That was one of our main motivations – we didn’t want to do what everybody else was doing. We didn’t want song structures or vocals. Live, we wanted it to be a physical experience, so we used high volume. All the things other bands were afraid to do were the things that drove us.

I guess you introduced elements of improvised and experimental music to rock audiences who may not have been exposed to that kind of thing before.
That was definitely something we embraced. A lot of experimental artists rarely play live. I didn’t want to be like that. I love bands like Black Flag – I wanted to get in the van, dude! I wanted to tour just like Minor Threat, like a motherfucker, but within the context of experimental music. I wanted to play night after night. The punk rock ethic of playing all the time was hugely influential on Grey Daturas. At the same time, we wanted to keep it completely improvised and challenge the audience, rather than give them shitty renditions of our last record.

Also, it saves you having to sit around in a rehearsal room for months on end, hammering out songs.
We tried rehearsing in the beginning. I think we had three rehearsals in eight-and-a-half years. It just didn’t work for us, it was boring. We preferred the adrenalin of playing in front of people. If the only time we got together was at shows, it kept the music raw and edgy. That said, there were some nights on tour where I’d wish we had songs. When we were jet-lagged, or really tired from driving, or drunk, the last thing I wanted to do was intellectualise the music.

Did it create confusion for people that what Grey Daturas did live wasn’t exactly the same as your recorded output?
A few people have approached us at shows and asked us to play specific songs. We might use a couple of recognisable riffs from the recordings, but they’re not structured songs. On our first European tour, in Geneva, a guy came up to us angrily after the show and said, “Man, you played that song differently tonight!” He started complaining that it wasn’t as good as the album version. All I could say to him was, “Dude, we don’t even know those songs. I’m sorry man, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He was quite upset. I don’t even remember the titles of our songs. Song titles to me are meaningless. They’re just a label for a piece of music.

How did you gauge whether you played a good show?
Playing through good gear at maximum volume always made for good shows. If we were into it, that translated to the audience. A good sound engineer helped too. That was often a problem in Europe, because of the language barrier. It was tricky trying to describe the genre of Grey Daturas’ music and explain that we swap instruments throughout the set. Many mixers didn’t get it. Some nights, the engineer would just give up, turn everything up, and walk out.

Other times we would have to use really shitty gear, but we’d just have to make the best of it. A couple of times, in North America, we had no gear at all. There was one show, at the Mercury Lounge in New York, where all the other bands were total cunts and wouldn’t lend us gear. We got lumped on this bill with these pompous Strokes type bands. We plugged straight into the PA and they were just shaking their heads. They were obviously there to get signed to Warner Brothers or something.

How did you hook up with bands like that?
When I booked shows, sometimes I’d have to do it through the venue’s agent. In certain towns I wouldn’t know the local scene, so I would ask the agent to book us with some interesting rock bands. I would say “rock bands” because chances are a rock band will have good gear. Well, these rich kids had good gear alright, but they wouldn’t lend it to us.

Did you ever experience negative reactions from audiences who didn’t get what you were on about?
We played with Magic Dirt once, and a guy came up to the front of the stage as we were playing and yelled, “What the fuck is this shit?” Then he threw a lighter at us. That was funny. We’ve definitely had shows where there were hostilities.

On our last tour we played a metal festival in Portugal. There were black metal, death metal and grindcore bands like Sodom. We played at the end of a day of full-on aggressive music, headlining one of the side stages at 1am. There were about 1500 people there and everyone was wasted after listening to metal all day. As we were about to go on, we looked at each other and thought we were fucked – as soon as we’d start with our artsy-fartsy rock we were going to get showered with bottles.

We decided to just get it over with and play as hard and as loud as we could. Within two minutes we had 1500 metal dudes pumping their fists in the air. After all that extreme metal, all they wanted was some slow psychedelic rock. It was one of our greatest shows ever. All the other bands were watching from the side of the stage. We were totally amazed.

Are you surprised at the variety of people who appreciate Grey Daturas?

I’ll tell you a funny story. We are friends with [techno musician] Kid 606, who is a big fan of Grey Daturas. When he last toured Australia, he specifically requested that we open for him, but the promoters and venues were very hesitant about this idea. Gavin Purdy from the Prince Bandroom rang us up and said, “I like you guys, but to be honest, I don’t want you to play because you are going to bum everyone out.” Rob and I just went, “Oh, that’s fine. We wouldn’t want to bring people down.” It was the best reasoning for dumping us off a bill that I’ve ever heard. It would have been horrible to play to a bunch of stoned ravers anyway.

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Grey Daturas play their farewell show at The Tote Hotel in Melbourne this Friday (January 15) with support from Agents of Abhorrence, New War, Embers and Piss Bolt. Entry: $15.