Sick Puppies: Making It in L.A.

By Jeannette Madden
Staff Writer
Australian band Sick Puppies will bring their angry brand of alternative heavy metal to the Fargodome May 27, when they open for Shinedown, Breaking Benjaming and Nickelback on Nickelback’s Dark Horse Tour. I caught up with Shimon Moore, Sick Puppies’ lead vocalist and guitarist, for an interview that began rather formally. By the end of it, we knew each other better than I had expected.

High Plains Reader: Tell me about your transition to L.A. from Australia. How long you have you been there now?
Shimm: We moved to L.A. about five years ago so it’s been long enough. The transition was fairly…I wouldn’t say it was natural but we were pretty much prepared for anything and it’s not as much of a cultural divide as like going over to Europe or something like that. Australia is fairly Americanized in a lot of ways. The only difference mainly was the food and we came over prepared to be alone in a house, in a rehearsal room, shopping for a record deal for at least six months, so when you’re prepared it makes it easier.
HPR:  Is that what happened then?
S: Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.
HPR: Who was the photographer I read about, the one that gave you your start in L.A.? Is that truly who encouraged you guys to come over here?
S: Robert M. Knight? I mean, we already had aspirations and plans. He was kind of our golden ticket, if you will, like we were waiting for an opportunity to meet someone who was going to give a shit. Our manager was at a party with him and he said come over on Tuesday, so he went over and made like dozens and dozens of connections so that we’d have people to talk to when we arrived. The funny part is we had people to talk to but it still took us the best part of a year to get a record deal.
HPR: Actually, a year isn’t a long compared to a lot of bands.
S:  No, a year isn’t that long but it took us probably over two years to get our album released. But yeah, we had a limit of about six months. We’d done probably six years of work being in the band up until that point and we didn’t want to get day jobs. We just wanted to focus on showing everyone what we had, saying, “Look, are you interested?” And, if they were, great, and if they weren’t, alright, we’ll go home and I guess it didn’t work. We just gave it everything we had.
HPR: Tell me about the title of your latest release, “Tri-Polar.” Who came up with that?
S: One of our friends came up with that. One of those things where you think of a name and everyone’s got an opinion and everyone’s got an idea. That one came up and it was the same as “Dressed Up As Life.” We went through the lyrics of the record and as soon as that one was said we all went “oh, that sounded great” and we all went “Yep, that’s it.”
HPR: The way you play and the way you channel your energy, good and bad, into the songs you write, sounds very similar to bands like Slipknot. Can you tell me about that?
S: It is pretty much what you said. I mean, the fans tell you what works and what doesn’t. They’re probably the best gauge of quality because they’re just going off the emotional reaction, which is what you’re trying to hit when you write. When we sat down and wrote, we just wrote songs and we’d get to the chorus or whatever part of the song, we’d get to the structure of it, the building blocks and we’d say does this hit where those other songs hit. Does it feel like it gets that response, does it feel like it’s that sort of song?  If it didn’t really hit it properly we’d move on and we’d wait until it really, really hit that spot. I think we hit it most of the time on this record. I’m not a perfect judge because, well, we think we’re great, but I think we did okay.
HPR: When you write are you trying to get your message across to the fans, or do you want them to have their own interpretation of your lyrics?
S: Both, because it works that way anyway. With a song like “You’re Going Down,” it’s a little more straightforward, but with certain songs there can be more layers. Once you get to those different layers, people are going to look around and see different things. We just said our piece and did our thing. Some of it’s a megalomation and some songs are about three different things that aren’t actually related, but the song just took us there because it sounded good. Other people are like “oh man, this is about that one thing and it all makes sense” and we’re like “Really?” It works for them and it doesn’t mean it’s any less true. Two truths can occupy the same space. It just depends on who’s perceiving it.
HPR: Can you tell me how you came up with the name of your band?
S:  Sick Puppies?
HPR: Yeah, I read a couple of different things about it…or not, whatever makes you happy.
S: Or not? Well, if you read a couple of different things, why don’t you put down those things and then we’ll say that neither are confirmed, how about that?
HPR: That sounds good, that works. Are you big in Australia?
S: No, actually…I can’t believe you’re f*cking laughing at that! That’s f*cked up…
HPR: That’s not f*cked up! It would be f*cked up if I asked you if you were big here and you said no…I thought you were. I thought you would say “Yeah!”
S: No, no, no, we’re not. We haven’t been home very much and Australia’s a fickle industry. Unless you’re there permanently they’re not really going to pay that much attention to you. Unless you’re Lady Gaga and you have songs that happen to make it up to number one or something, unless we’re touring we’re not doing much over there.
HPR: Is that why you came to LA?
S: Yeah, that’s why we came to America was because there was more touring and there was ten times more work to do, so we wanted to get into it.
HPR: How’s it going on this tour with Nickelback, Breaking Benjamin and Shinedown?
S: This one’s been great. The catering’s really good, the food’s really good and actually having three meals a day is rare, especially three meals you didn’t have to pay for. All of the bands that we’re playing with are bands that we’ve played with before. We know all of the guys from Breaking Benjamin and Shinedown and I’ve sung songs with them before and we’ve all sort of hung out and knew each other beforehand, so it’s been very comfortable. Normally, you spend a little bit of time getting to know each other and it takes a couple of weeks to get comfortable, and this one isn’t like that.
HPR: What’s next for Sick Puppies?
S: After this, we’re doing a few dates with Chevelle, we’re doing some summer stuff, and some headlining stuff. It’s all up on the myspace page. We’re confirming it right now so I’m not one hundred percent sure what is going to be happening.
HPR: How about in a general sense?
S: In a general sense? We’re just going to stay on tour.
HPR: When are you going to start working on a new album?
S: Not for awhile.
HPR: Just tour, tour, tour?
S: Pretty much.
HPR: Well, that pretty much covers it for me. Thanks so much for your time. I look forward to catching your show.
S: Thank you, thank you for an entertaining interview.
HPR: Back at ya.

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If You Go

What: Nickelback, Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown, Sick Puppies
Where: FargoDome
When: Thurs, May 27, 6:15pm
Info: 701.241.9100