The Deep End Interview

The Deep End Interview

Melbourne rock band The Deep End started out the same way as so many other great bands: a couple of mates discussing rock and roll dreams while drinking a few beers. In 2006 guitarists Scotty Anderson and Jazz Morrice decided to follow their dreams and began jamming to Aussie rock classics in Scotty's garage. Over the coming months the boys went on a mission searching for the ideal front man and eventually came across Dale Schober at a local house party. Dale was entertaining a small crowd by doing his best Brian Johnson impersonation, and loving every minute of it. He was invited to join the garage jam sessions, the boys instantly clicked, and The Deep End was born.

The line up was soon rounded out with Scotty's younger brother Adam on bass guitar and mate Steno taking on the drums. The band began writing their own tunes and played their first shows at all ages events in the local town halls. They quickly gained a loyal following from young rock fans who were energized and enthralled by an exciting new band in the Bayside suburbs. Over the coming two years The Deep End went about further developing their musical talents, moving from the garage to a rehearsal room and upgrading from local parties, to gigs in and around Melbourne City and other parts of Victoria. "It all started as a bit of fun," says lead vocalist Dale Schober. "Heading around to Scotty's to play covers, swim in his pool and get drunk whilst annoying the neighbours. I still don't think they've forgiven us for the amount of noise we would make on Sundays."

In September 2008, The Deep End experienced their first major setback when Adam decided to leave the band, however they pushed on and continued making a serious impact on the Melbourne music scene. In 2008 the band really started to be rewarded for their hard work, dedication and raw musical talent. Notable achievements include being invited to play on the Push Stage at the St Kilda Festival, winning multiple battle of the band prizes, gaining airplay on Geelong commercial radio station K-Rock and sharing the stage with some of Australia's biggest and most successful rock bands including The Screaming Jets, Hoodoo Gurus and Mental as Anything.

With no plans to slow down in 2009 the band released their debut EP, "Lights Out" and continued their string of success by embarking on a gruelling but rewarding promotional tour which involved two shows in support of the Angels Face To Face comeback tour. Unfortunately, it soon appeared that all good things must come to an end. It seemed The Deep End's run of good luck had expired with Dale announcing that despite his love for the band, he was departing the country for an indefinite working holiday in Canada. To make matters worse, a booking agent absconded overseas with some of the band's cash as well as breaking an agreement to book several large shows for the band. The Deep End was left without a singer, limited gig prospects and an EP that was now all but redundant. "The easiest thing to do would've been to throw in the towel, but we were on a run and we were nowhere near finished yet, there was no way we were going to give in."

Not ready to quit, the band soldiered on and enlisted their good friend Mickey to fill in on vocals. The Deep End continued gigging around Melbourne, as well as venturing to Bendigo and Ballarat for the first time. Despite an improvement in the band's performances and Mickey's obvious talent, everyone could sense something was missing. After almost a year, Dale announced to the band that he was returning to Australia and wanted to reclaim his spot as front man, citing that missing a show with Rose Tattoo was the lowest point of his trip. The boys jumped at the opportunity to have their resident showman back out front, and once again The Deep End was back on the right path.

The departure of the bands fourth bass player in as many years led to Matt 'Trixxxy' Berg joining the band in April 2010, bringing with him his own unique playing style and adding a whole new element to the bands song writing. With Dale back where he belonged fronting the band and Trixxxy now slapping the bass, The Deep End recorded their comeback EP "Can't Say No" in mid 2010. They embarked on another ambitious promotional tour playing massive shows and receiving overwhelming feedback from fans and media alike. Highlights of the year included having a single featured in Blunt Magazine, securing a spot on Freeza Central's Escape to Oz tour as well as performing to a sold out crowd at the EP launch at Revolver Upstairs in Melbourne.

After losing founding member Steno, The Deep End did exactly as they had done after previous setbacks and powered on through 2010 and into 2011 bringing in Jarrod 'JD' Medwin on the drums. The band achieved more notable success making the top 5 in Triple M's national competition to support Bon Jovi, playing their first shows in Hobart, Launceston and Adelaide as well as sharing the stage with long time supporters and significant band influence, Airbourne.

It's hard to believe that five guys all under the age of 24 have been through so much stress and turmoil and achieved so much success in the space of only five years. After years of developing their sound, false starts, countless member changes, being lied to and ripped off as well as sharing the stage numerous times with Aussie Rock Royalty, The Deep End are hungrier than ever and charging at full speed in their quest to the top of the mountain that is Australian Rock n' Roll. "We're really pumped about the new release and upcoming tour, it's going to prove to everyone that we're not here to stuff around. The release itself shows how we have evolved musically over the years and hopefully the future holds some big things for us.

"The Deep End are full of hard rocking riffs with catchy sing along lyrics, and they're more than capable of a blistering live show to back it up, making for the perfect hard rock recipe," said Shayne Bishop from The Hard Rock Show after hearing "Your Shout" for the first time. "The only complaint I have with "Your Shout" is that it's only 4 tracks long. I have been left wanting more, but I guess that's a good thing!"

Interview with Scotty Anderson, Lead Guitarist

Question: How would you describe your music?

Scotty Anderson: Good, solid hard rock. Perfect beer drinking music really, something you can just dig into.


Question: How did it feel to hear your song played all over the airwaves?

Scotty Anderson: It's really a massive thrill! All the hard work goes in over the years and when you hear it on the radio it almost sounds better!


Question: Did you have any pre-conceived ideas about the music industry?

Scotty Anderson: When we first started we were planning how we were going to spend our millions. But when we began to play our first shows we soon saw that it isn't that easy. Now we look at all the shit we have been through and see that it's a real tough business and it's really no wonder bands fall by the waste side.


Question: Do you write your own songs? What's your inspiration?

Scotty Anderson: We write our songs as a band, everyone adds their own flavour to it. It usually starts with an idea for a guitar riff or bass line and it just grows from there. We all have different inspirations but also share a lot in common, which I guess is a good thing. But for our music it's the real hard rock styling's of the 70's and 80's that reflects in our music the most.


Question: What music/artists do you listen to when you are not playing your own?

Scotty Anderson: Personally I listen to a lot of stuff ranging from Alice Cooper to Amy Winehouse. It's fair to say I have a well varied CD collection to say the least


Question: What's next? Tour/Album/Single?

Scotty Anderson: We just released our latest recording "Your Shout" and we will be touring it this summer. The tour takes us to NSW, ACT, QLD, SA and regional Victoria, so make sure you check out when we are in town and come and party with us!


Question: Was there a moment you contemplated throwing in the towel?

Scotty Anderson: Nah, not really. You have some hard times and some down times but that's just the nature of the beast. The high moments far outweigh those bad times. We play the music we love on stage to crowds of people and we are playing with our best mates, in our eyes it doesn't get much better than that.


Question: Do you prefer performing live or recording?

Scotty Anderson: I think we all prefer playing live. It's a massive thrill and we all get such a buzz from it. Recording can be both frustrating and rewarding and it's an awesome sense of achievement when the finished product is fresh and rocks hard. But nothing beats playing a sweaty live show to a great crowd.


Question: What/who was your inspiration to go into the music industry?

Scotty Anderson: We all played music and we thought it just sounded like a rad idea. Even just watching lots of live DVD's and listening to our favourite band's and wanting to be like them was inspiring enough to get it started.


Question: What is the biggest challenge you have faced along the way to your musical success?

Scotty Anderson: Money has always been the biggest issue we have faced. If you want any shot at being successful you need to put a lot of your own hard earned cash into the band. Having been ripped off a couple times, that hasn't really helped the cause either. But with anything, we push on!


Question: What's a typical day like?

Scotty Anderson: It's getting up at the crack of dawn and doing your day job. After that I'll usually have band rehearsal, jam at home, get tattooed or have some quiet beers with the boys.


Question: What has been your favourite part of becoming a music artist?

Scotty Anderson: My favourite thing is easily playing gigs. Playing rock n' roll with my mates and putting on an awesome show! Nothing beats the feeling of getting off the stage knowing that we nailed it.


Question: If you could collaborate with another artist, who would it be?

Scotty Anderson: Well I wanted to collaborate with the late Amy Winehouse but now that can't happen. I would love to work with Billy Gibbons and Lemmy though! How cool would that be?!


Question: Do you have a website fans can visit?

Scotty Anderson: Yeah for sure! It's www.thedeependrock.com and all our tour dates/photos/fan page/merch page is all there so get amongst it! Make sure you find us on Facebook too!


Question: What is the story behind the bands name?

Scotty Anderson: Long story short, it's just from the term "thrown in the deep end". When we started we had no idea what we were doing so we just attacked the world basically blind folded.