Interview by KAREN MURPHY
“We got some dirty looks to be quite frank,” said Pouyan Afkary from SCARY KIDS SCARING KIDS about their live shows. Starting the band in 2002 as youthful high-school students Afkary reflects on the early years of the band in Gilbert, Arizona, USA as they face their final obstacle together: the Farewell tour. “People were like, why the hell is this band going out there, just having this really aggressive music,” he says, “some guy’s busting out a song, this guy’s flipping out on the drums, and the keyboardist, he’s just breathed fire on two acoustic guitars and is smashing them with shreds of fire on stage.”
When they decided to call the band quits at the end of last year, Afkary says the group wanted to go out “with a bang,” ending their time together on the same positive note that first brought the six boys together. “We were starting to get some more variety in our community and our audience,” he explains, “so we were invited to play our homecoming show in senior year. So we went, and we played the homecoming show, and I breathed fire on the ground, and I breathed fire in the air. The ground was on fire and the administrators were like, ‘cut it,’ but unfortunately for them, the kids that were voted into office were the ones that were running the sound, and they were like; ‘we’re not cutting this, this is fantastic!’ So they kept it going, but it was the school that invited us, so I couldn’t get reprimanded for any of it; even though I was breathing fire with Bacardi One-Fifty-One. I was like ‘I’m sorry, but you booked us, and by the way, thanks for cutting us off on the talent show, enjoy your payback.’ It was really childish really, but it was fun.”
Sounding like any teenager’s dream, Afkary explains that they didn’t really have many problems and were just enjoying the ride. “Obviously there was the lack of experience,” he says, “but we were excited and willing to learn. Every single piece of knowledge was the best advice ever because we were very young and eager, we were willing to take on anything as it came. The disadvantages were that we were still in high-school, we had to schedule our recording sessions around class. It was also hard because none of us really had any money. I dropped money from a coffee shop job I had, and a couple of parents threw in two hundred dollars. I guess the disadvantage was the fact that it was entirely self-funded; but it was fantastic. We were very excited to see something that we created—our record. That being said though, self-funding gave us more passion for our music in a way. Making the record was something that no one else our age was doing, and a lot of the bands that we played with were a lot older than us. It was really inspiring to be working with musicians at that level when we were so young. We definitely got a huge response from the community because of our age, so we really had no problem dropping money to fund it.”
Fortunate enough to start off as friends, the band grew together to develop their music and their strengths in the industry. “We’ve been together since high-school,” Afkary says, “and now we are completely alone, but as long as you stay positive you can do anything. And the band did help us; it gave us a lot of strengths that will take us to the next chapters in our own lives. I guess, on a professional level, you don’t really understand the full concept of being in a band when you start out so young. You think of a band as what you see on stage and you don’t think of all the hard work and planning that goes on in the background, you think of it is as being glamorous, but it isn’t always like that. That being said, I don’t think we would have had such a positive experience with music if we hadn’t started out as friends first. I think that we were very grateful to have grown together and we were fortunate enough to meet on creative grounds which made that easier.”
The band performed their final show of their US farewell tour in San Diego, California on the 6th of March earlier this year. “We finished the US tour and we honestly thought the band was over,” Afkary says. “We tried, very cautiously, to move on, one step at a time, and then we got an email from our manager. She said, ‘I know you guys love Australia, and I’ve just received word that we might be able to do a farewell tour there around August.’ I was thinking, wow, this is awesome, I mean, as long as everyone else is down, I’m down. Luckily no one had anything that couldn’t absolutely be cancelled, and it was a collective decision from everybody to go ahead with the tour. We are meeting in Arizona this week to start rehearsing, and then we’ll get our asses down to Australia. I can’t wait to play again, honestly. I got my keyboard set up today and I’ve been playing while I wait for everyone else to get here, I was like, this is so natural. I think it is important to remember that everything you’ve read in the children books is always true, you just have to find a new way to tell the stories.”
Tickets are on sale now.
Tuesday 17th August
YMCA HQ, LEEDERVILLE
w/ WE ARE THE EMERGENCY & COLOUR THE SKY
Doors open 6pm – 9pm. Buy your tickets from: MOSHTIX
Wednesday 18th August
ROSEMOUNT HOTEL, NORTH PERTH
w/ WE ARE THE EMERGENCY & COLOUR THE SKY
Doors open 8pm. Buy your tickets from: MOSHTIX
MORE INTERVIEWS >>
Comments
