The future which Melbourne group Crash Palace is facing is one every band |dreams about. After slogging around the traps for several years, a demo they |recorded caught the ear of their now-manager, who summoned them to America, |secured an international record contract, sent them into the studio and laid |plans to launch them internationally. That’s about to happen, but before it |happens Crash Palace are enjoying dusting off the cobwebs playing low-key |gigs around Australia, their first in a year, their first under their new |name. It all sounds like a dream come true, and is, but the year Crash Palace have |spent making that dream come true has meant hard work, and a lot of |commitment, to their music and each other. Being in a rock band, dreaming of |an international career is one thing. When that potential manager comes out |of the blue and tells you it’s yours to have, but you have to leave your |comfort zone, your friends, your fans, everything and put it all on the |line, it’s a huge leap of faith to take. Most people take it step by step. |Sometimes not all the band members survive the journey. The decision was |harder for some members of Crash Palace than others. But they all made it. They used to be called. Paradime. One by one they’d taken up their place |around singer/guitarist Marcus Maloeney - bass player John Kelly, drummer |peter Constantinou, lead guitarist Jeremy “Jezza” Taylor. When keyboard |player Dean Thomas arrived to become the last piece in the jigsaw something |clicked into place. It didn’t take a man with a big cigar to come along to |tell them they had ‘something’. When that man came along he came in the |shape of Geoffrey Schuhkraft, who like the Crash Palace-to-be, had cut his |teeth in the backroom of the Australian music industry, but in more recent |years has worked in America, developing the contacts that now come into |place on Crash Palace’s behalf. Schuhkraft heard Paradime’s demo, recognized|that ‘something’, offered to become their manager, and arranged for the |group to go to America. In the studio, recording their album for Trauma Records (home of Bush and No |Doubt) the group was presented with a huge challenge. Their producer also |heard that ‘something’. He felt there was ‘something more’. He challenged |the band to put aside the songs they’d been playing for several years, the |songs which had won them their manager and contract and their American |adventure. Their producer encouraged the group to make a new beginning. They|took the challenge. The songs they’ve recorded, the songs they’re playing |now, are the songs they then sat down and wrote. When they were finished |Paradime was completely gone. They had became Crash Palace. What isn’t gone is the apprenticeship they served as Paradime. Over and over |Australian groups have shown that the thing they have over their |international contemporaries is that they can really really play on stage. |Australian bands have to cut it on stage. Crash Palace come from that |Australian music tradition. When the whole world discovers this group most |Australians haven’t even heard of they will straight away hear and know that |Crash Palace are Australian. What do they play? If you wanted to find a group that summed up the |post-grunge era of rock, you’ll find it in Crash Palace. They play with that |energy and sincerity which won rock back its heart in the grudge era. Tucked |inside that energy are the kind of melodies commercial radio will fall over |themselves when they eventually hear them. In front is a Michael Stipe-frail |lead singer, with considerable presence. It’s no accident that this dream |come true has fallen in their lap. |
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