Hideous Sun Demon returns with their thrashing brand of psych-punk music

Trying to get your band up and running can be a pretty tough gig, especially when you are trying to be a functioning human and still maintain a solid income…
But the odd few get lucky, like Jake Suriano, bassist from Hideous Sun Demon, who luckily scored one the most accommodating bosses in Melbourne.
“I work at a fabric store in Glenn Huntley,” he begins. “I actually got the job from our booker because Jake from Clowns also works here and so does Abbie from Würst Nürse; it’s kind of their parents’ business… so because Lauren, my boss, has two touring children, she is pretty chill with tours.”
And luckily so, because the Perth (now Melbourne-based) psych lords and currently gearing up for an absolutely mammoth regional tour in support of their third studio album, Fame, Erotic, Dream.
“Our live shows are pretty fun and rowdy and we kind of tried to do that for the album. We have always tried to track that live intensity and the last record was pretty noisy. It was recorded to tape and was recorded pretty hot and pretty raw; some people like it, some people don’t. Personally, I like a lot of low-fi music where as others want a lot more clarity,” Suriano says. “We are pretty damn happy with how this album sounds to be honest.”
Touching on the importance of the bands third album, Suriano highlighted the differences that fans may experience on Fame, Erotic, Dream.
“I think it’s a bit tighter and the songs are more to the point. Some of the other albums were a bit jammy with really long outros, really long sections with lead work and that sort of stuff. I think there was a bit more of a punk song-writing element in the sense that we kept things short and to the point. We have done a lot of different stuff, but when fans come to see us live they seem to really like the fast heavy songs,” he says. “It’s cool that we now have a few albums of different sounds because it’s nice to change up the set a bit.”
With a new album set for release tomorrow, Suriano has still managed to find the time to record some of his solo-work and on top of that has been in preparation for their huge 14-date regional tour.
“It should be interesting as we are now a three-piece but we recorded as a four-piece. We are going to meet in Adelaide and have a day and a half to practise it. I think at this point we have already been playing three to four of the new songs on our live sets so we just need to figure out what other ones to throw in,” he laughs before touching on his excitement for the bands first Geelong show.
“The last time we went to Geelong, we went to the Barwon Club and had a parma and it seemed like a really cool place. We are playing the Warped Small Town Disease and heaps of bands are on there; The Living Eyes are playing which is cool, BIN are playing, I don’t know what they are like but I know Cal from The Murlocs is in them so that should be good,” he smiles. “We are all really keen to get down there. We are going to be based out of Melbourne now so hopefully we will tour the East Coast a lot more.”
When & Where: The Barwon Club, Geelong – August 4 & The Eastern, Ballarat – August 25.
Written by Alex Callan