Osaka Punch are one of those rare bands that refuse to accept if you’ve had a bad day or you’re tired and want to go home. When you are at a show and they are on stage you had better suck it up and leave your worries behind because resistance is futile.
With a high energy output and an entertaining presence, Osaka Punch are destined to succeed in whatever they try their hand at and if they aren’t a global phenomenon by the time the next overseas pandemic threatens to shut down our live arenas then justice could quite rightfully be seen to have failed dismally.
Their songs are quirky, catchy and almost criminally infectious and their lack of presence the last 12 months or so has been one of the major disappointments for at least me personally.
In that period the band lost and gained a drummer, so perhaps the layoff was more beneficial than harmful in some respects, but when they were announced as one of the headliners to the recent The Other Festival it seemed as though things were finally back on track in the musical world we have all been denied.
Bass player Reggie caught up with HEAVY during the week to fill us in on what Osaka Punch have been up to, and more importantly plan to get up to in the foreseeable future.
We start by welcoming himself and the band back into our lives.
“Thank you,” he replied. “That was our first show since November 1, 2019. We didn’t play at all last year and we had a show lined up for January at The Mansfield Tavern which ended up getting postponed to the 26th of March because of a little COVID outbreak we had in Brisbane so it left The Other Festival. I personally didn’t want that to be our very first show back because I knew it was going to be a big show and Cog was on the bill and a bunch of other great bands and on top of all of that we’ve had a drummer change so it was our drummers very first show as well so it was, like, oooh, okay and when the show got postponed in January it was like, well, birds in flames pretty much. Let’s do it. We had that half-hour slot which was cool for our first show back but by the first song I came out and was kinda like oh, this is a big venue – because we had never played at the Fortitude Music Hall before and it’s an amazing venue but halfway through the first song it was like we remember how to do this and then it was muscle memory from there and having a good time.”
No matter how many hours you spend in the rehearsal studio, nothing can replicate the feel of actually being on stage, a point backed up by Reggie.
“I can only answer from my personal opinion,” he measured, “but you can jam as much as you want and you’ll eventually get to a stage where you’re rehearsal tight. You won’t get any better, it doesn’t matter how many more times you jam, but playing live is a completely different ball game because it’s adrenalin and everything else added into it which you can’t emulate except for actually doing it. The only way you ever really kind of get comfortable on stage is when you’re touring because you’re playing night after night or close consecutively and after that, it feels fine but having a year off definitely there was a bit of go out there and chill at first because as soon as you get out there there’s a huge adrenalin rush and you’ve gotta kind of slow everything down and take it all in pretty much.”
In the full interview, Reggie talks more about The Other Festival and their upcoming show at the Mansfield Tavern on March 26, introduces us to the band’s new drummer and what he brings to Osaka Punch’s music, finding a novelty toy for the new kid on the block, new music and more.
