INTERVIEW: SICK PUPPIES

A chance meeting due to double-booking a high school music room was the seed that lead to the creating of one of the best things to come out of Australia in years. You see, that’s how Shimon Moore and Emma Anzai met on that wonderfully fateful day and their fussing over the use of the room for practicing quickly changed to their mutual love for the band Silverchair. The band hooked up with drummer Mark Goodwin along their journey and the Sick Puppies were born.

The band has been working on the follow-up to their very successful 2009 album Tri-Polar which saw their song “You’re Going Down” dominate the airwaves. The WWE, used “You’re Going Down” for their pay-per-view theme song and one of their video game releases as well. All of those factors combined helped expose the band to a whole new audience who quickly learned what many of us already knew; this band is something pretty special and amazing.

I sat down with bassist Emma Anzai right before they kicked off their tour at the 2013 Carolina Rebellion, to talk about the Sick Puppies and their highly anticipated new album, Connect.

Johnny/Rock Revolt: Hi Emma! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. We are all anxiously anticipating the release of the new Sick Puppies album, Connect. It’s been a while since Tri-Polar came out. That album was four singles deep for the band. Did you feel any pressure going into the recording sessions for the new album? Did you feel as if the bar had been set high with that album?

Emma/Sick Puppies: Yeah, there is always a bit of anxiety between living up to expectations versus doing what you believe is you. So, we did what was “us” as a band and consciously wanting to evolve.

Johnny/Rock Revolt: I read on your Facebook page that the first single is called “There’s No Going Back” and that you recently shot a video for it. Can you give us any details on that or shall the cat remain in the bag for now?

Emma/Sick Puppies: The cat can be released, well somewhat. That is the first single and the video was directed by PR Brown and it was the first green screen video that we’ve done. It involves the desert and water and it will premiere on Vivo on June 6.

Watch a sneak peak for “There’s No Going Back”

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Johnny/Rock Revolt: Those green screens shoots are always interesting. I’m sure you can’t wait to see how it all comes out. Let’s talk a bit about the new album. What can the fans expect? Are there any surprises? Did you push yourself musically out of your comfort zone?

Emma/Sick Puppies: It’s more musical album and yes, we definitely pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone this time; we wanted to see what we would come up with. There’s a song on it that’s a cross between Pink Floyd and the Beatles just to give you an example.

Johnny/Rock Revolt: Do we know when it will be made available to the masses?

Emma/Sick Puppies: Yes! The single “There’s No Going Back” comes out on May 20 and people can pre-order the album starting then as well. It will be released on July 16.

Johnny/Rock Revolt: We will definitely mark our calendars for that one! Now, you are also about to get back out on the road. It looks as if the Carolina Rebellion on May 4 will be your first date back on the road. You’re sharing the stage that day with such big names as the Deftones, Halestorm and Alice in Chains. As a matter of fact you’ll be sharing the stages with a lot of huge bands at many festivals this year. When you play a big festival like that, do you ever go into fan mode and really want to see someone on the bill play?

Emma/Sick Puppies: Oh, for sure, one of the best things about festivals is being able to check out bands you like, as well as playing in front of a rabid crowd. The big festivals are so much fun because you can feed off the energy of so many people! That’s an awesome show to start the tour off with, and we’re looking forward to every date along the way.

Johnny/Rock Revolt: You will be at Pointfest, Rockfest and Rock on the Range (Sunday May 19th) after that. You’re playing the main stage at ROTR this time, which is a first for you. How awesome is that?

Emma/Sick Puppies: It really is an honor to be able to play these festivals in the first place and to see your band go from playing the side stage to this year the main stage is really cool. We soak it all in; it’s a nice feeling for sure.

Johnny/Rock Revolt: So, you have a bunch of summer dates lined up as you prepare to hit the road. What else do you have coming up that you can spill the beans on?

Emma/Sick Puppies: Other than the album coming out, we are pretty much just touring, touring and touring. We can’t wait to get out there and see everyone.

LIVE PICS: Opeth & Katatonia – Sauget, IL

Johnny/Rock Revolt: On a personal note, have you always played bass? What or who inspired you to want to play?

Emma/Sick Puppies: I started on guitar and moved to bass when I met Shim in high school. He played guitar so I moved to bass and it ended up being the best thing that I ever did. I love Flea from the (Red Hot) Chili Peppers and Chris from Silverchair; they are two of my favorites.

Johnny/Rock Revolt: If you could go back and give the younger version of yourself advice as you are starting out, what would you tell yourself?

Emma/Sick Puppies: That there’s no point stressing, just do what you love and love what you do.

Johnny/Rock Revolt: Time to tell on yourself as well as rat out your band mates. Do you have any printable guilty pleasures that would surprise your fans?

Emma/Sick Puppies: (laughs) Mark doesn’t mind a bit of Lady Gaga and I actually watched the entire series Private Practice! Everyone has their vices I suppose! (giggles)