Q and A: Elliot Hitchcock (Battlesnake)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

THE last year has been a huge one for Sydney metal warriors Battlesnake. Gaining attention with their Warhammer-inspired look and cheesy musical histrionics, the band has opened for KISS in Sydney, toured nationally with the World is a Vampire extravaganza and headlined shows of their own.

Now they’ve released an album of their own, a conceptual piece foretelling the coming of the entity with which they share their name. Despite the other things they’ve achieved, the release of the album is, according to bass player Elliot Hitchcock, the biggest step Battlesnake has taken so far, and they’re even starting to take the whole thing a bit more seriously now. And they probably won’t be in a hurry to get into a ring with professional wrestlers again.

Hot Metal: Getting into that wrestling ring the probably wasn’t the smartest idea.

Elliot Hitchcock: “Billy, our guitarist, might agree with  you. He’s still recovering.” 

HM: Oh really?

EH: “It takes some actual… they take some BIG hits, those guys – and girls.”

HM: It was fun to see you guys doing that, because you started so early I didn’t get to see you play.

EH: “So you were at the Sydney show? Lucky you! That was the only show we did it at!”

HM: You did those shows, and you also did a huge show with KISS. I know you have the music, but I really need to ask this because it would be remiss of me if I didn’t, but do you think the gimmicks help?

EH: “Oh, in the biggest way. I’m not going to be shy about it. Since the beginning of time, every great band has had a gimmick.  Whether it’s been really obvious like… Angus Young. There’s a gimmick. So many great bands have the best kind of gimmicks, but it’s so hard to stand out these days. There’s just so much music. So much great music, as well. If that’s what it takes for people to hear our music, and then they stick around because they love the music, then I’m fine with that.”

HM: You do have that visual aspect, but if that’s all it was, people would leave after the first song. 

EH: “Exactly right!”

HM: But they don’t, because you’re a great band, as well. It’s opened a few doors for you but you’re still pretty grounded – releasing this album has been a huge step for you.

EH: “Big time. Mate, we’re still literally seven idiots playing music. We’re just seven mates who happened to end up in a band together, did these amazing shows together and ended up releasing an album. And, by now we’re all really serious about the band, so that’s really lovely. But the album was a big step, for sure, and it was a total learning process. To try and fit seven people’s ideas into one cohesive body of work is almost impossible, and it almost broke us, but we did it.”

HM: Having seven people in a band is an unusual number for a start, but what was that process like? There must have been an awful amount of coming and going and ideas that got canned. Did anyone threaten to walk out, or anything like that?

EH: “One day there may be a documentary about the making of it, but we have this rule in the band – and we stick to it – and there’s no getting around it. The rule is: there is no such thing as a bad idea until we’ve tried it to death, and if it still sucks – it sucks! Until that point, there’s no such thing as a bad idea, and I think it’s really healthy because unless you can hear what’s inside somebody’s head, which is impossible, then how can you know what they’re trying to say? Especially with musicians, especially with this particular bunch of musicians, who are quite inarticulate. But it’s a really important rule for us and it makes it more coherent and a friendlier writing environment. We all have egos… everyone has an ego. To describe the writing process to you: it generally starts with three of us, which makes things easier and more manageable, like a skeleton crew of writers, and then we bring it to the broader band and they flesh it out, and we get a Battlesnake song out of it. I’m under no illusions that, without everybody in this band, we couldn’t do it without every single person in this band. We split everything evenly seven ways, and I think that’s really lovely.”

HM: It sounds like you’ve got a really good ethic. Now, you mentioned before that you’re all now really serious about it. Was there a time when you were just a bunch of guys knocking around saying, “Let’s just do something stupid?” I get the impression that it was like that.

EH: “Yeah, definitely. We all love music, so there is always this element of, where there is passion, there is seriousness, but there’s also the notion that where there is passion, there is playfulness. So we started off definitely not thinking we could do this in any kind of full time capacity, and we’re still so far from that. But it’s almost as if we’ve had a glimpse of it, particularly after doing this big tour and supporting KISS and supporting the Pumpkins… it’s like we’ve had this big peek behind the curtains for an instant, and now we have the bug. Now we don’t want to stop.”

HM: A lot of bands will never get to open for KISS, and bands that have been around for a long, long time have only just done that now – and you guys did it on your first try!

EH: “I know! It’s like that classic thing of overnight success. And I appreciate the fact that we’re still a very young band, but we have been working fucking hard for a number of years – maybe five years by now, I guess. Right time, right place. Success is where opportunity meets preparation – that’s what THEY say.” 

HM: In some way you’re like two sides of a coin KISS dress up as much as possible and you undress as much as you can.

EH: “Haha! I’m so inspired by them. Honestly, I know so much KISS music, and I’ve known about them my entire life and I’ve listened to them, but I’d never seen them live before, and I think that’s where our bands have a common thread – apart from rock music, or whatever. Where our music really comes alive is the live show, and that’s where the common thread is. I was so inspired by watching KISS’ show. It was just absurd. The fact that they’ve been doing this for so long, and keep levelling up, and levelling up. It’s something that I want to do. I’d take half of [their success level]. In fact, I think I’d be happy with 10% of it! “

HM: Billy Corgan is a huge Judas Priest fan. Was he a fan of Battlesnake?

EH: “Yeah. We had a chat to him and he was really generous with what he had to say about the band. He watched us every day because he was there – mainly for the Pumpkins – but also because of this wrestling thing he’s got going on. We’d play and then the wrestling would be on and then Amyl and the Sniffers would play and then the wrestling would be on, and so by chance he would be watching us every single day. He was really generous in what he had to say. All the guys in that band were really lovely. The whole crew. It was like a dream tour.”

HM: Did they pass on any nuggets of wisdom? Those guys have been around a very long time and they’ve seen pretty much everything. Coming to see you is one thing, but talking to you and passing on some advice is another. Did they get the opportunity to do that?

EH: “I guess what I learned from KISS and the Pumpkins, and Jane’s Addiction, is that the key to their longevity is professionalism. They’ve been putting on the toppest tier shows for the longest time… for decades! They’ve never dropped, they’ve never waned, they’ve just maintained that quality or made it better and better. That’s what I’ve learned from those guys.”

HM: What’s the next step, now the album is out?

EH: “The album’s out, so we tour the album in July and August. And then, honestly, get back on the writing wagon and start writing the next. I don’t know how a band like King Gizzard releases so much music! It blows my mind. I’m struggling to get one album out a year, let alone seven.” 

HM: Yeah they are pretty prolific, and I can’t say I’m into everything they do because sometimes it just feels like they just put anything out because they can, which makes sense, but also doesn’t. But when they hit a vein… it’s almost like Stephen King when it comes to books. When they finish one they start another right away, and not everyone is able to do that.

EH: “That’s exactly right. It does feel like every single idea that have gets released, which is kinda cool because then at the end of your life you can look back and see all these ideas you had, whereas most people’s ideas end up as memories, or whatever. So that’s cool.”

HM: They tour all the time and they have their own label and everything, so they can basically do that, but you’re not close to being ready to do another album yet, are you?

EH: “Oh no. As I’m sure you know, it’s so expensive. It’s so incredibly expensive! But, hey! Hopefully, at some point in the future, we can be self-sustaining. I’m totally stoked. After the KISS show, I was like… You know, at first I was like, If that’s all that happens, that will be great. And then after the KISS show, I was like, Actually, fuck that! I want more! Then a few months later the call came through, Do you want to do a show with the Pumpkins? And we were like, If This is all that happens with the band, I’m good. And then we played the last show and I was like, Fuck that, I want more! I don’t know what’s coming up next, but it better be big!”

GET BATTLESNAKE’s SELF-TITLED ALBUM HERE.

BATTLESNAKE NATIONAL TOUR 2023:

7/7: The Big Weekend, The Zoo, Brisbane

8/7: The Big Weekend, Solbar, Sunshine Coast

28/7: Stag and the Hunter, Newcastle

29/7: Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

3/8: Volta, Ballarat

4/8: Pelly Bar, Frankston

5/8: Workers Club, Melbourne