Interview with Avalanche!

Steven Campbell (lead vocals/bass): We formed in early 2018, we used to jam in Ryan, our drummer’s dad’s steel factory late at night after work, writing and working on original material. He and Veronica ‘V’ Taleski, our lead guitarist have been jamming together for a few years, she went to school with his sister and that’s how they met, they had another rhythm guitarist and bass player at the time and eventually reached out to me on a musicians forum as they needed a singer. Soon enough, the rhythm guitarist gave up, the bass player stopped showing up so I thought I’d take up bass too, and we continued as a 3 piece for a while and started playing all over Sydney before we eventually found Arthur Divis to take up rhythm guitar.

What artists and bands are your biggest influences? 

Steven Campbell: As a band, our influences are definitely 70s/80s Aussie hard rock bands, namely AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, the Angels, Stevie Wright, the Easybeats, and my dad’s band Avalanche. We’re also inspired by all the big rock and metal bands like Guns n Roses, Led Zep, Metallica, Sabbath, Motörhead, and also earlier bands like the Rolling Stones, The Who, the Yardbirds, Chuck Berry, and we also have a lot of blues influences as well.

How would you describe your writing process, when it comes to music and lyrics? 

Steven Campbell: It’s pretty collaborative. Usually one of us will come up with a riff or a title or some kind of idea and bring it in to rehearsal and then we’ll work on it with the rest of the band. Sometimes its very spontaneous and we can work out a whole song together on the spot, other times, one of us will go home and work on it by ourselves and structure it in our own time and then bring it back to the band to complete and throw they’re ideas in, and were constantly trying to get it as close to perfect as possible. We just think if you go through the trouble of writing a song, why not try to make it the best song it can be? Why write filler material?

When did your band originate?

Steven Campbell: We’ve been together since about March/April last year and have been gigging since last October.

Who are some bands/artists you play/tour with? 

Steven Campbell: There’s heaps of awesome bands here in Sydney, and once you get to know one band, you eventually get to know all of them! There’s quite a few bands we’ve played multiple shows with, including Simon Chainsaw, Shit Tinnies, Black Knuckles, Speedball and Molly & the Krells.

What does your band name mean? How did it come about? 

Steven Campbell: My dad, Adrian Campbell was actually in a band called Avalanche in the 70s and the 80s, they used to belong to the same management company as AC/DC, they have even played with them before and some other major bands at that time, we thought it was an awesome sounding name and wanted to keep the rock and roll family tradition going so after going through a lot of other names, we decided to name our band Avalanche.

What were some other potentially band names? 

Steven Campbell: There were a few, including Live Rails, after a sign in the factory that we used to rehearse in. I think we also played around with Satans Sons for a bit.

What album inspired you to pick up an Instrument? 

Steven Campbell: Probably the Tenacious D album The Pick of Destiny, was one of the first albums that I really listened to more times then I could count and I watched that movie so many times.

Veronica ‘V’ Taleski (lead guitar): Probably the live Let There Be Rock album in Paris by AC/DC. Listening to that and watching the movie and seeing Angus for the first time just made me think ‘wow that’s all I want do for the rest of my life’, I thought if I could learn to play guitar as half as good as he and Malcolm then I would have accomplished something with my life.

Ryan Roma (drums): probably AC/DC Live, it was just so raw and right from the gut, had a huge impact on me early on.

Arthur Divis (rhythm guitar): Appetite for Destruction has always been a huge influence to me, there literally isn’t a bad song on the album, every song pumps you up.

Who are some artists and bands you are currently digging? 

Steven: I’ve been listening to a lot of thrash metal at the moment actually, preparing myself for the Metlallica/Slipknot concert this year, so bands like Slayer, and Exodus.

Ryan: Same, I been listening to Arch Enemy and Lamb of God.

Veronica: Its always the same old for me, AC/DC, Airbourne, Hendrix, the Stones, Johnny Winter, John Lee Hooker, The Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, GnR.

Arthur: Molly and the Krells, Hockey Dad, heaps of Aussie bands haha.

Where can people go, to check out your music? social media etc. 

Our Facebook page has all our info on it and our upcoming gigs: https://www.facebook.com/Avalanche2018Official/

We also have an Instagram: https://instagram.com/avalanchebandrock

And you can find our music on pretty much any streaming platform:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0wF07k0n3MbeOnbLVMXG6X?si=o8DA2pv0R-2UZQSqG_TwtA

Bandcamp: https://avalanche2018.bandcamp.com/album/sent-from-hell

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/avalanche2018official

iTunes/Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/avalanche/1440045697

YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=quSC9-bHNwY

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Avalanche_Sent_From_Hell?id=Bur5c77z2kuqbxhe4cv4y23pikq

Amazon Music: https://www.amazon.com/Sent-Hell-Explicit-Avalanche/dp/B07QBGS98X

What is your ultimate goal, as it pertains to your band? Fame, or for the art? 

Steven Campbell: I guess the ultimate goal is to make people feel the same way listening to our music as we do making that music really. Its more about sharing a feeling or emotion to a crowd of strangers to me then it is about fame or anything.

Veronica: To be able to tour the world playing the music you love with the people you love.

Ryan: To get laid.

What is your favorite song you have ever written? Do you have a favorite? 

Steven: I don’t really have a favourite song, I usually like what I’m doing at the time the most until the next time when I write something I like better.

Veronica: I think, Head First In Hell, which is the first single we released of our debut EP, Sent From Hell, it was one of the first songs that I wrote for the band. I had the lead riff and built this whole song around it, I wanted to write something as epic and dynamic as AC/DC’s Riff Raff or Number or the Beast or Whole Lotta Love so you might be able to hear some of those influences in there and I’m pretty proud of the end product. I also really like Down in the Gutter because it’s just such a fast, high energy song.

Ryan: Get Back (to Fuckwit City) also on the EP, because it’s a very nice way to tell somebody to fuck off.

Arthur: I only just joined this band haha, can’t really answer that yet!

What is the one thing you want people to take away from your band??

Steven: I think for the most part we just want people to have a good time and to release any frustrations they may have when they listen us.

Veronica: We just want to write music you can fuck your partner too.