Fat (12)

FAT originally started in Melbourne,1989 as a 3 piece with Glenn Brady on vocals/guitar Matt Meehan on bass and Ian Cranfield on drums. Within months they relocated back to Brisbane and started playing as much as possible in the burgeoning Brissy scene. After a few changes to the line up (drummer Cam Ricketts, percussionist Craig Williams and lead guitarist David Thompson), we released our Debut Album 'My Parents Like Me Now' (Emily Records1993). Three songs from that album scored places in that year's 4ZZZ Hot 100, one track, 'Queen Owns My Head' even landing a place in the top ten. After another quick personnel change (Joe Seymour replacing Matty on bass), we quickly went back into the studio to record 6 Track EP 'Call it What You Will'. It was mixed by Jeff Lovejoy and Joe Panetta at the old Red Zeds Studios. The band worked hard, playing a shitload of gigs, and gradually built a modest but loyal following, touring the east coast regularly, gained national airplay, played some great international supports and local festivals (including Big Day Out '95), and appeared on a bunch of compilations alongside a number of iconic bands including Powder Monkeys, Cosmic Psychos, The Meanies, Viscous Circle, Christbait, Damaged, Blood Duster, Spiderbait to name a few.. One of our tunes, 'Man In The Iron Helmet' even got an ARIA nomination for Australian song of the year! We were riding high like that for a couple of years until personality clashes came to a head, and yet another lineup change. A big one this time, with 3 of 5 members quitting abruptly, leaving only Glenn and Joe who were eventually joined by Rudi Weber on drums. Once again a three piece, we stripped back the multi-layered, 'jammy' sound, to a decidedly rawer, faster sounding FAT, but without losing our sound completely. We recorded an EP 'Good Side of Town' in 1996 with Magoo at West End Studios and toured the southern states once again to promote it. But things started to wind down soon after. (Oddly enough the title track from this EP made the 2013 hot 100..16 years after it was recorded!). Emily records folded not long after that, and without that backing and distribution the wheels kind of fell off. Overall interest and morale began to wane so the band went on indefinite hiatus, but for occasionally getting together just to jam for a laugh, doing the odd one-off gig here and there, for the next decade or so. After our good friend, Laz (Misery/Greensteam) heard one of those jams in 2012, he offered to record us in his newly built home studio, so we put together a collection of the stuff we'd come up with over our long 'hiatus' period along with a handful of new songs and released our second full length album since 1993... 'Blue Meets Black' on Turkeyneck Records. With Laz now a permanent fixture on lead guitar, we've since scored some great shows, so far supporting MDC, The Hard Ons, Fireballs,... made some new friends and reconnected with some old ones.. it's almost like nothing has changed in 2 decades! Perhaps things are just easier now because of the internet/social networking... being older and (marginally) wiser? Could care less? Things are certainly more fun and productive this time around anyway, so we'll likely keep doing our thing until the fun stops!.. We also have a backlog of about two albums worth to work on, so we'll be around for a while yet I reckon. New 5 Track EP 'Off The Cuff out May 2014 Greasy Records.