I N T E R V I E W

Can you please explain us how Green Dollar Colour started and how it became Koritni ?

Yeah :-))) Basically I answered to an advertisment in a music magazine in Australia, that's how I met Anthony De Lemos. Then we've heard a few guitar riffs and stuff that he'd written and then I went on to write arrangements and rock melodies for his songs. We came in France to record them because we meant to work with the producer over here and with the recording studio. All that turned to shit and we followed the producer but it didn't work at the studio at the moment. During the process of pre-production, Eddy Santacreu helped us a lot with the second guitar parts. Then there were some problems between Anthony and I because he basically didn't want to form a band. He was always reluctant to play live, I tried to find a bass player and a drum player but he never liked any of the musicians. Then we split because we didn't agree on the choice of musicians to use. That was one year after Green Dollar Colour album release and we still hadn't played one show live. And to me that's fuckin' stupid. We play rock n' roll, we should play live.
Then I chose Eddy on guitars and my friend from school Chris Brown on drums. Then we had for about 150 auditions for bass and guitar player. I was very happy to find Luke Cuerden and Matt Hunter.
One month after finding all the musicians, we came to tour to Europe. We played the first gig in April last year then we came back to Australia, we recorded an album in three months and here we are again !
Now, we are a band, things are easy, we're all together, we play rock n' roll as it should be !

Generally, you love the hard-rock of the 80s.
Can you please tell us all your main influences ? Aren't you sick of this systematic association between Australia and AC/DC, I can't read any article which doesn't compare Koritni to AC/DC.

Ah ah ah :-))) I'm not sick because AC/DC is a great band, so it's nice to be compared to a nice band. But I have the same influences than AC/DC has. I love Little Richard, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis... all who brought the real old rock n' roll. And as a child, I was also influenced by the australian rock industry : The Angels, Rose Tattoo... they're all friends of our family ! You know, it's not totally wrong to say that we're influenced by AC/DC but we are influenced by people who influenced them.

On stage, you look inspired by frontmen like David Lee Roth and Axel Rose. Press agrees to say you're a fantastic frontman on stage. What are your secrets : sport, drinking, women ... ?

Ah ah ah :-))) I must say that I see drinking as a sport. I enjoy the long hard training sessions :-)
The secret for me performing live is doing as when I was 5-6 years old. My dad used to play in a rock band. At the age of 6, my brother and I began up a stage for 5 or 6 songs with the crowd. I feel comfortable on stage and that's the secret, no fuckin' tricks of drinking or taking drugs.

How did you compose "Lady Luck" : all together jamming or each member on his own ?

Basically, all ideas were born from one person and were brought to the band. For example, for some songs, Eddy wrote the riffs, the arrangements and he brought it to me and asked "What do you think we should do with this ?".
Everyone plaid a part in the aspects of a song, it wasn't as if one person wrote everything. Everyone had a choice in what we'd gonna do.

What kinds of lyrics did you write in "Lady Luck" ?

Mmm.... my life basically. "Under The Underpass" is probably the funniest story. Luke Cuerden had just got the job after an audition, so I said "Let's go out tonight to celebrate !". We drank a lot, and at the end of the night Luke became unconscious in the bar, I picked him up, I put him in a taxi, I had to check his wallet for his address. Then I walked home, I realised I had lost my car keys, that I didn't have any money, and I had to sleep under the underpass. That was an introduction to Koritni's song.
But there's also some other stuff like "Heaven Again" that talks about a girlfriend of mine who overdosed and died. The lyrics for me are just anything in my life. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's serious, sometimes it's just bullshit you talk about. This is life in general.

Who decided of the CD cover ?

The cover of the CD comes from the song "Lady Luck" that come from a friend's gambling addiction. From that, we took the visual representation of Lady Luck who's obviously a bitch, she want to get your money. And a friend of Luke is a tattoo artist, so we thought we are rock n'roll, song deals with gambling... let's add tattoos ! We're quite happy with the cover !

How do you explain your great success in France ? Is it due to your label Bad Reputation that is french ?
Do you meet so much success in other countries ?

First of all, I've got to say that we're more important in France because of our label Bad Reputation and of Sam Prevot, our manager. He does a fuckin' great job, we couldn't function without him.
But we're starting to get well known in Australia : when we'll get back to Sidney, we'll give concerts in Sidney, in Melbourn ... I think it's a natural progression for a band, we've only been touring for a year and I think that we do well what we do.

Let's now talk about metal in 2007. It seems that there is a return to a traditional hard-rock : Rose Tattoo, Hydrogyn, Thunder.. of course Koritni.
Do you think that the glory period of neo-metal is over ?

Yes I think it's a change and people started learning their instruments again ! Neo-metal in my mind is fuckin' shit.
The grunge movement in my mind was : "I'm not gonna play my instrument properly, I'm gonna protest". It's good to say that 80s rock, or good rock n' roll is coming back, that's a logical evolution. But neo-metal is shit :-)))

Which albums are you listening these times ?

The last months, I was listening to Black Label Society, I've just had the new Crystal Pistol album, the latest Hardcore Superstar. But I never stopped listening to good stuffs like Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, and Guns N' Roses.

Hydrogyn will tour with you in Europe. Did you listen to their album ? What do you think about it ?

No, I haven't yet ! I've heard 2 songs the other night at a radio and I was impressed because she's a really cool voice. I'm happy of the return of good testosteron rock n' roll !

Do you already have an idea of your setlist for the tour ? Which covers do you plan to play next Tuesday in Paris ?

Depending on how we feel at the end of the gig, as it is the 20th anniversary of the release of "Appetite For Destruction", we'll play a few songs of that album.
Obviously, we'll play a lot of "Lady Luck" songs, maybe all, also some Green Dollar Colour songs. Definitively we'll do some Guns N' Roses covers at the end of the show because it's nice and easy to sing :-)))

How would you convince a reader of the webzine who doesn't know Koritni to buy "Lady Luck" ?

If you like music and enjoy your foot tapping, this is a great album for you. I like to describe the music we play as "music to drink and fuck to". Because that's basically the rock n' roll that we do. Otherwise, check up on myspace !