MINI CHAT WITH THE EXILES ABOUT RECENT SINGLE ‘GET DOWN’

Melbourne punk rockers The Exiles have crafted and released a brand new track earlier this month that is fuzzed out and totally rad, titled ‘Get Down’. Known for their high-energy performances and powerful, unique sound, the five piece are ready to make themselves known and blow your mind. Keep reading to see them talk about the new single and also learn about their creative process, and inspirations.

Firstly, let's get started with how you first got into music, who is your biggest inspiration, and what is your main goal when creating your own music? 

I started playing drums around the age of 10. My mother was a musician and my old man loved rock n roll. My biggest inspiration would be Rambo, my biggest inspiration creation, I love that you can turn nothing into something that people will hold onto. I guess that answers the next question. 

How did you meet and where did the name the Exiles come from? 

Tony and I met when we were playing in our other bands. Mutual friends of ours didn’t want to introduce us because they thought we would hate each other, they weren’t wrong! 5 years later and I still can’t stand him…. Ha! From there we met the other lads and decided we should just play some tunes. It’s nothing special, just a bunch of friends enjoying playing music. The Exiles name came from our first show as Josh Aubry and the exiles. We thought the name Josh Aubry was boring so we just became The Exiles. 

Your new single ‘Get Down’ was recently released into the world - how has the reaction to the track been so far? 

I feel that releasing a track is the hardest part, once you’ve done that, the rest is just a bonus. It’s nice to hear everyone’s different experiences listening to the song. Mostly all positive! But as if they’d tell us the truth! 

Can you tell us a little about the track itself - what the track is about, where the inspiration came from, and what the creative process was like. What is your favourite thing about playing live ?

The song is about not being ready to fall in love. I was listening to a lot of Baxter Dury and Viagra Boys at the time so I wanted to take the piss out of myself lyrically.  

I started this song out like most of our songs. Bass and drums with some vocals demoed on GarageBand. Tony and I actually recorded this one in 2021 with Alex Markwell on recording duties, Jim Stirton on guitar and Thomas Van Der Vliet on drums. 

This is usually our set ended and favourite song to play live. It tends to go for around 10 minutes and always ends chaotically. 

 You’ve also been described as a band who brings high energy to their live performances so what can people expect when they come to see you live?  We just like to have a lot of fun. We enjoy seeing people dance and get involved with the shows. It’s just good honest rock n roll not much more to it! 

Describe each member in one word.

Nick - Nerd 

Oscar - Freak 

Billy - Suntory 

Tony - Machine 

Josh - Busy

What are the band's plans for next year?

We hope to finish off our album. Do some really fun shows and make some more clips! We love making clips!