Zeke from Full Scale Revolution has a Political chat with Jen

I love to have a really good Political chat with a punk rock band and talking to Zeke from Full Scale Revolution was no exception. Full Scale Revolution have reformed to do four shows in Australia in Feb much to the delight of their fans.

Hi Zeke,  thanks for your time today, keen as to see you live at your Melbourne show coming up you are known as a highly political band and as you live in Australia, I thought that I would ask,

Your lyrics

These are simple changes we’re asking
Just kick out all the liars and then 
re-open the parliament

I feel are even more so relevant today than when they were written, can you express how you feel about the pathetic state of our government?

Well it brings me a lot of sadness and that makes me very angry to see people, grown-up people, educated people, people that took all the benefits from a free healthcare system, free education when it was on offer, argue for the closure of aboriginal communities, argue for single parents to have money taken out of their pockets and argue for $100,000 degrees. I find it despicable and if they think that they are getting away with it with average working-class people and people around the country, they are not. The opinion of politicians in general is at an all time low and that is justifiable because they are racists and they are sexist and homophobic. I can give you three examples that. Kicking Aboriginal people off their land in the Kimberley with the forced closures, taking aboriginal children off their parents at higher rates than apartheid in South Africa at the moment in W.A. They just cut a single parent pension and the family tax benefit which will influence mostly and predominantly single mothers, (but all single parents) but most are women so it is a sexist policy which means it is harder for women to raise kids. They have refused point-blank to use their powers to give us civil rights for marriage. They act like they are so moral, they call themselves the “honorable member” but that is such bullshit when you would look at they way they behave. There is nothing honorable about being racist, sexist and homophobic. I think that when I wrote those lyrics, I was a bit more optimistic about maybe being able to kick out the liars and reopen Parliament. I think systematically we are now seeing, the ALP and the Liberal party and in some cases The Greens,  they are just there to water stuff down, they take grassroots actions and water them down and that is why we need to stay out on the streets for gay marriage, we need to stay out on the streets for Aboriginal social justice and Aboriginal rights and Aboriginal power in this country and we have to start on the streets to stop rape culture, we are still marching down the streets for Reclaim The Night. These issues are still here after 10 years. I tell you it saddens me Jen, it is also a great reason to bring Full Scale back because as sad as it makes me,  these songs are still relevant today. The main issue today is about refugees and it’s more relevant now than ever, we are back and we are pissed off and angry  and I think we should be.

Absolutely!

Your strong political views and your desire to put those thoughts into songs, were you influenced at an early age by your parents? 

 Yes indeed, my mum was active in things like the People for Nuclear  Disarmament when we were living in regional Victoria, and I marched in large rallies against the government in Victoria and as I said I was marching the Reclaim The Night rallies as a child and I guess things that were called more “radical” politics. When men march up the back and women in the front. I don’t think they should be called radical groups in today’s society, but they are still seen as radical but they should be more mainstream. When you’re living in a country where one woman a week is dying of domestic violence and we still have people arguing “what about men” they are obviously a fair bit behind the eight ball. My mum was very instrumental, I am actually at her house right now she can hear me (both laughing) talking about her. She was very instrumental as all parents are in developing a major part of your ideology and the way you view the world but then on top of that, part of that is the way you see the world and the way that you put things into action and there was always a strong feeling as a child that you could engage in communities and you could change your life, you don’t have a lack of agency, well we didn’t in our house, were encouraged to discuss the ideas and we were encouraged to get out and shout about it.

 That was the way I was bought up too and I have bought my teenagers the same way to debate the issues.

Your track 1945, was found because someone unknown uploaded it. Can you tell us the story of you finding it? Great song BTW.

Thanks, I just got it through a Facebook message which read, “hey I just got this song from someone at a party from an old member of the band. ” I had lost these songs, there were four recorded and I’ve managed to find one of them so with that in mind we thought we would throw it out there and it’s been really successful, people have been enjoying and its been getting some spins, its one of the last things we did with the Full Scale lineup before we broke up for a few years and came back as Full Scale Revolution.

A question about this song, I have the media version but when I of on Facebook and click on the sound cloud link the file is not found. Can I share the link?

You can share the link but it’s not working because,  that is why the tour is called the Fuck Sony Tour. We shared the song for free and we didn’t ask any compensation, we did not ask that any money for we just want to get it out there so our fans could hear it and apparently Sony has pulled it over copyright infringement. So Sony would rather people didn’t hear the song as opposed to looking at it then going, “Oh wow maybe we should offer Full Scale money to make money off the song. “It is funny how these corporations work, they see someone sharing music and people buying tickets to their shows and how successful this Full Scale Tour is going to be, they don’t see an opportunity they see it rather as an opportunity to deny people music.

So Fuck that attitude and I’m sort of a bit cynical about what their actual goals are. No one stands to make anything from the way they set it up so we put it out there for nothing to get fans listening to our music and they take it away from the fans so I mean it is pretty clear what is going on. It is not a very good model for more music or art and so I think that’s what’s happened, Sony has come in and waved their cheque-book around and waved their lawyers around and is always so annoying for the artists. It means that there is less art and music out there. That is Sony for you, that is a major corporation.

I did try and post it but Sony won’t let me!

We will be playing it live, so people come to our shows they can hear it then, but yeah share the link,  and out this answer in your interview and let people talk about it because Fuck ‘em!  One of my favorite sayings is that whatever is worth having does not come easy.

I see black arrows what do you see?

I see both as we had a black and white album release. Depending on the day I see both as I remember designing the logo with Jimmy, I remember being really happy with it and it has been a long time since we came up with that logo. We have been working together since 1998. Which is quite strange because I am 35 but I feel like a young man. We have been at it as so long. It depends on the day, whether or not I want the four members of the group to be pushing away from each other or whether I want to be bringing them back together. Four of them point in to each other and 4 of them away.

Ah interesting so I see them pointing in to each other?

Yes.

Sweet, I like that. Tomorrow I shall have a look and it might be different. I really like the logo, it is cool.

Thanks

So after the four shows (you just added Canberra) that you are playing what are your plans or is it a matter of wait and see?

  I think Jimmy and I are pretty happy to be back together, Jimmy lives in Los Angeles, our bass player has been living in Europe and our drummer lives in Perth.  Logistically, this is a chance to get our lineup together and see how we work musically. We have already proven that it’s relevant, as people have bought tickets to the shows. Logistically it was a little complicated to get the lineup all together but it has worked out. After that there is a good chance that you will here some more music from us eventually.  I have other stuff that is coming, I have an Over-Reactor album coming out and I have my first solo single coming out for that as well and that is called Propaganda. Then I have my sound system show, my DJ Marze show that I tour around, I recently just came down the East Coast with that. Whatever we are going to do we will take our time doing and That is the way we have always done it, we make sure that we do it right. I know that Jimmy has a lot of riffs and I am looking forward to seeing how this tour going I think the punters will have some new music soon in the future.

Awesome!

Thanks so much for your time Zeke and I hope that the tour goes really well. I shall see you in Melbourne.

Come and have a beer!

Sure will do! Always happy to meet for a beer!

Thursday 11th February

BALD FACED STAG, SYDNEY

with special guests Red Bee & The Archaic Revival

Tickets from MOSHTIX.COM.AU | 18+

Saturday 13th February

DING DONG LOUNGE, MELBOURNE

with special guests Sydonia & DevilMonkey

Tickets from OZTIX.COM.AU | 18+

Sunday 14th February

ROSEMOUNT HOTEL, PERTH

with special guests Chaos Divine, Vdelli and Gombo

Tickets from OZTIX.COM.AU | 18+