Amyl and the Sniffers: “We Might Never Play Again Until We’re at the John Farnham Point”

Amyl and the Sniffers will tie a bow on their Comfort to Me album cycle with a bunch of regional Victorian shows in late November and early December. The Melbourne-based band will head to Meeniyan, Frankston, Ballarat, Torquay, Warrnambool and Wodonga, before wrapping up with an under-18s show at Thornbury Theatre in Melbourne. They’ll also swing by Castlemaine to help Cosmic Psychos celebrate their 40th anniversary.

The regional tour brings an end to a mammoth couple of years for Amyl and the Sniffers, whose ARIA-winning second album came out in September 2021. Since that time, they’ve comprehensively covered the UK, Europe and the USA, and played their first shows in Mexico and Japan.

They’ve sold out increasingly larger venues across Australia, headlined the Off the Rails festival and supported the likes of Foo Fighters and The Smashing Pumpkins. We spoke to guitarist Declan Martens and drummer Bryce Wilson ahead of the regional tour, which is presented by ALWAYS LIVE.

Amyl and the Sniffers – ‘Comfort to Me’ (live)

Music Feeds: Are you all still living in Melbourne?

Declan Martens: Yep.

MF: Did any of you grow up in Melbourne?

Declan: Nope.

MF: In Victoria?

Bryce Wilson: No one’s even from Victoria.

MF: Where are you all from?

Bryce: Me and Amy are from New South Wales, north coast, and then Dec’s from Perth and Gus is from Hobart.

MF: Have you done many regional shows on this album cycle?

Bryce: Nah, like fuck all really. Nothing comes to mind.

Declan: We did Frankston last year on the album tour and that’s it.

MF: This regional tour is a send-off to this phase of your career. And then we don’t when you’ll be playing in Australia again.

Declan: Onto bigger and better things. Yeah, probably never again. I don’t know – that’s what our managers are telling us.

MF: Never again in Australia, or just never play again?

Declan: Never again until we’re at the John Farnham point.

MF: Right. So then what?

Declan: I’m sure we’ll be back at it again one day but we haven’t got anything booked.

MF: Does that mean you’re focusing elsewhere in the world? Or making an album and then seeing what happens?

Declan: Just making an album, yeah.

MF: Have you been writing?

Declan: We haven’t written in a while. We started writing earlier this year, but that’s been put on pause because we’ve been so busy.

MF: Do either of you have any big ideas?

Declan: Not really.

Bryce: We’re getting there. We’re formulating something. We don’t know what yet, but something’s gonna happen – are you drinking milk [Declan]?

MF: Yeah, what’s that?

Declan: I made a smoothie.

MF: What’s in the smoothie?

Declan: I’ve got banana, peanut butter, milk, chocolate-flavoured protein powder, oats – and I forgot to put the chia seeds in.

MF: Is the protein for overall nutritional balance or because you’re working out?

Declan: I’m working out, and overall nutritional balance.

MF: Do you work out as well Bryce?

Bryce: I haven’t for a while. We’ve all got gym memberships except for Gus now. They’ve been calling me.

MF: In between tours, do you try to correct your bodies and get fit?

Bryce: Yeah. We try and get back to some kind of normality.

Declan: My body’s breaking apart after these tours so I’ve been working on the back.

MF: Are you getting better at staying healthy on tour?

Declan: Slowly. I was really good before the last Europe run that we did. I had a routine and shit and I was eating so many veggies and so much fruit. And then tour starts and I can’t even look a veggie in the eye.

MF: Does anyone in the band have restrictive dietary requirements?

Declan: I’m pescatarian, so there’s no pig, cow or chicken on my plate.

MF: And yet, you still can’t look a vegetable in the eye.

Declan: Yeah. That just goes to show how weird it gets on tour. I’ll eat the veggie but I just don’t look it in the eye before I eat it.

MF: Oh because of the shame – because the vegetable knows you.

Declan: They taste so bad when you’re hungover. I’ll only eat like a few veggies for the day – like, one meal a day – and then come home [after the gig] and eat lots of pizzas.

MF: Ah yes, the million-o’clock pizza stop. What about you Bryce, are you struggling to stay healthy on tour?

Bryce: I don’t know, I go all right usually. I try to eat a banana once a day maybe, if I can. But yeah, it kind of just depends on what the catering is.

MF: It can be tempting to eat it all, right?

Bryce: Oh yeah, I usually do.

Declan: He does.

MF: There’s always a risk there’ll never be food again.

Bryce: Exactly. I don’t know when I’m going to eat next.

Amyl and the Sniffers 2023 Regional Tour

w/ Dumb Punts

• Friday, 24th November – Meeniyan Town Hall, Meeniyan VIC

• Saturday, 25th November – Pier Hotel, Frankston VIC

• Sunday, 26th November – Volta, Ballarat VIC

• Friday, 1st December – Torquay Hotel, Torquay VIC

• Saturday, 2nd December – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, VIC

• Sunday, 3rd December – Dart & Marlin, Warrnambool VIC)

• Tuesday, 5th December – The Cube, Wodonga VIC

• Friday, 8th December – Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne VIC (U18s)

Tickets via the band’s website

Further Reading

The Complete ALWAYS LIVE 2023 Program: Christina Aguilera, Jessie Ware, Amyl and the Sniffers + More

Cosmic Psychos Announce 40th Anniversary Australian Tour

Angie McMahon: “You Have to Experience All of the Things That the Chapters Hold for You”

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