While most high school students are posting their grievances on social media and calling out their adversaries via proxy, New Zealand punk rock upstarts Sit Down In Front have settled on a much more viable and effective way to get their point across, without hiding behind anything or anyone.
All still at school, the boys have recently released the EP Fuelling The Fire, a scathing indictment of all that is wrong in the world wrapped neatly into five songs bursting at the seams with energy and taking no umbridge with calling things as they see them.
The fact that vocalist and frontman Cory Newman has Cerebral Palsy and is confined to a wheelchair matters little in the overall scheme of things. Sit Down In Front are just an exciting new and upcoming band and possibly one of the best things to come out of the Land of the Long White Cloud in forever.
Newman sat down with HEAVY earlier this week to chat about the EP and the music on it.
“It’s just old school punk rock rage,” he offered. “It’s catchy and heavy to rock out to. There’s amazing guitar solos that you can headbang and lose your shit to but also there’s politically charged anthems like Don’t Drink Bleach and Taking Out The Trash. Taking Out The Trash is probably one of my favourite moments musically with its hard hitting drums and screeching guitar as well as a footstomping chorus. There are also some sneaky hints of rap/rock scattered throughout the album, most noticeably Pixie Caramel with a Tiki Taana appearance, but there’s also some rap things in Taking Out The Trash’s bridge. Think Linkin Park, Chilli Peppers in terms of that influence, but there’s also Rage Against The Machine and some heavy, almost AC/DC hooks in there and some Living End melodics. It has something for everyone. Rock, hard party anthems, telling stage invaders to get the f$%k out, politically charged rage anthems, calling out bullying and social injustice and complaining because you can’t get your favourtite chocolate bar”.
In the full interview, Cory talks more about the lyrics to the songs, their fun yet serious nature, working with Tiki Taane, how he got into music, the value of EP’s over full albums and more.”
