Australia has produced quite the number of new faces within the metal scene and Feed Her To The Sharks has swam under the radar and has been drawn the attention of fans everywhere they have ventured into. This summer’s Rockstar Mayhem Festival is the band’s debut North American tour and are soaking in the somewhat overcast spot in Southern California.
“It’s been an unbelievable experience so far, even though it’s been only one day,” said guitarist Kim Choo, about their first 48 hours on American soil in Devore, CA. “You sort of see from us from being from Australia, we see DVDs of bands playing festivals of this sort of scale, but it’s so far away for us. Now that we’re here playing these shows, it’s just an awesome experience. We’re stoked.”
He shared his thoughts about being on the touring festival and what it means to be part of this tour, especially being it is their first time across North America. “We were a bit worried because we were playing when Hellyeah were just finishing and before King Diamond. So obviously there are two separate stages. People definitely came back and checked us out. We were stoked.”
“There were people who even know a lot of our songs. [It was] one of the biggest crowds we played in front of – all of these Mayhem dates seem to be crazy. Today it looks like the upwards of 5000 people here. It’s going to be mental. We’re really looking forward to doing this tour.”
Feed Her To The Sharks at Rockstar Mayhem Fest – Devore, CA (via Facebook)
They are thankful for all of the support they have had behind their latest album Fortitude, and having friends on the tour made the transition onto this festival tour an easy one.
“We’ve gotten a lot of support from our label Victory Records and we’ve got some mates on this tour. The guys in Thy Art is Murder – they’re an Australian band as well. We just finished touring Europe with those guys. We’re not new to playing shows, but I guess we’re new to doing the festival runs. So far so good – we’re really enjoying it.“
Any specific acts they’re looking forward to seeing this summer? “Slayer. I grew up listening to a lot of thrash. Fuck yeah. It’s going to be sick. King Diamond’s going to be killer. Obviously Thy Art is Murder and Whitechapel is going to be brutal. I can’t wait.”
Fortitude is their third album overall and their first album released internationally. Choo explained after shuffling lineups since their start in 2008, they were able to bring in players who would help shape their sound into what is heard on the release.
“We never really had a full lineup for the first two records (2010’s The Beauty Of Falling and 2013’s Savage Seas). We’re basically in between members and lineup changes. Luckily we came across some rad dudes who really wanted to do this and treat this seriously. We got the right lineup.”
“So for this album compared to the first two, we had a full lineup. We had everyone who was 100% forward. Everyone worked towards the same goal and that’s what makes this record, in my opinion, so much better than our previous two. We’ve got everyone working together in unison to make the best record that we can.”
Aside from Choo and vocalist Andy Van Der Zalm, the band had not held a steady lineup until recently. “We’re the only two original members. We’ve got Marinos (Katsanevas, guitars), Rob (Davies, bass) and Andrew (‘Stix’ Coterell), who are the other three members. Rob’s been around for a bit longer, since Savage Seas, our second record. The other two guys came along when we were writing this new album. It went really well.” “We found the right guys who could take our band to that next step. We’re stoked that we found a really cool group of dudes that we enjoy being friends with and we enjoy doing business with.”
Their band moniker does definitely sounds Australian, as sharks and the whole oceanic vibe paints a vivid picture into what their sound could be like. “The first song we wrote as a band is off our first album called The Beauty of Falling called ‘Misery.’ The opening line to that song is ‘feed her to the sharks’,“ explained Choo.
“At the time we wrote that song, we didn’t have a band name yet, but it kind of stuck with us. We thought it was a cool sound theme. It sounded good on fliers. It stood out for people. It’s got that Australian sort of feel to it.”
After the Rockstar Mayhem Festival, they have a couple of upcoming tours back home. “We have a couple of tours back home in Australia. We’ve got one with Nile and Unearth. It’s going to be sick. It’s in November. I can’t say anything about the other tour quite yet. It’s not announced yet. We’re going to be doing the rounds of Australia a couple of times. We haven’t played there for a while now. We’re hoping to head back to Europe and doing that run again. We had a really good response there so we’re going to try to go back and try our luck.”
Feed Her To The Sharks at Rockstar Mayhem Fest 2015 – Albuquerque, NM (via Facebook)
While the band is enjoying their time on the tour, they escaped the opposite season known now as winter back home. Technically, Feed Her To The Sharks scored by getting two summers this year and Choo is stoked about this.
“It’s so good man to be away from Australia, or Melbourne in particular while it’s winter there. People think it’s Australia but in Melbourne it gets cold in winter. It’s really cold. We don’t get snow or anything crazy like that, but it’s cold. I’m so glad to be here right now.”