The hardcore scene is a flagship program for any city with a respectable claim to be a music city. Creating that is harder than the upkeep. Which is what makes Australian band Speed’s and many collaborators’ accomplishments so impressive. Making Sydney’s music scene world renowned was not an overnight job. Band members Jem Siow, Aaron Siow, Dennis Vichidvongsa, Kane Varden, and Joshua Clayton take their roles about as seriously as it gets, making a name for themselves in an effort to create something that will last longer than any band will. The result: a growing and thriving scene where everyone gets to have the space to mosh, vent, feel, and most importantly, have fun.
Playing the bridge between Jane Remover and Turnstile for a tour is no easy task. It is no problem for the band, which has a history of turning observers into active participants. Frontman Jem dashes across the stage, making sure everyone is off their feet. Each band member takes their moment to be the conduit of an ever-moving crowd. With a new EP to follow up their impressive debut album, they take the time to honor the people who taught them but can no longer mosh with them. Jem sat down with me before opening to discuss the band’s success as well as the loss of key people in their lives along the way.
How’s your year been?
“It’s been amazing. Very short and long at the same time.”
You guys won the ARIA for best hard rock/heavy metal album. When recording this upcoming EP, did anything change with your process, or is it business as usual?
“That had no influence over the writing process or anything like that. That was just like a fun little side quest that just kind of popped up. I mean, we are the first-ever hardcore band to win in Australia”.
Was it a big thing for you guys or just part of the road?
“It’s like a big thing for our parents and your neighbor that lives next door. Your coworker who’s like, ‘Oh shit, yo, okay, this is a thing.’ Now, you know what I’m saying? As I said, it’s like a side quest, in the sense that we just play hardcore. It’s not anything that we ever reached for or had on our bucket list. But obviously, it’s very, very, very, very fulfilling to have the validation. Especially our peers, people like Elliot, who records us, and Rudzy, who does all our visuals. You know, like to be recognized in the industry; for those people who work in the industry, that’s fucking awesome to have on their resume. But in terms of writing, no. It didn’t have any influence on that. The main thing with this EP is that we’re just treating it as a stepping stone towards the next LP. We approach it with a lot more creative freedom. Just seeing how we can open up our palette, open up our toolkit, and what works for us.
Speaking of opening up the toolkit, using the flute solo as an example, how do you pick out those moments of individuality?
“In terms of the flute thing, that ticks a few boxes for me selfishly. I think it ties in with the whole concept of The First Test, which is about championing your own sense of identity and accepting that wholly. For me, putting the flute in, from a conceptual standpoint, was me marrying all of my worlds together and not being afraid to do so. kind of just owning that. But then musically, it was organic. It happened organically in the sense that we wrote this jam part, and it just transpired. When I listened back to the demo without the flute, I heard it in the gaps. And so what you hear is exactly what I heard in my mind. We don’t have any specific flute parts on this EP, and that’s just because it didn’t come naturally. It’s still something for us as a band that’s playing very heavy, aggressive hardcore; the flute is not something that’s going to naturally fit into a majority of the parts. We only ever want to do shit that’s going to elevate the art.
In terms of expressing ourselves and bringing out the individuality, the flute is one aspect of my personality. I’ll give you another example: my brother grew up as a hip hop dancer. In The First Test, the drumbeat is in it. I was imagining a breakbeater drumbeat that my brother could breakdance to. That’s just because it’s something that is specific to him as a person. As Speed, we’re just trying to lead into a part of our personalities that makes us unique and lean into our strengths. Things that we can do to bring that out and not shy away from it.”
You guys have an earnest way of being individualistic. You’re doing it when it fits and comes naturally.
“Going back to the flute thing, people are like, ‘Oh, you did it as a gimmick’, you’re trying to be different or whatever.’ I’m not trying to be different. I’ve played the flute for 24 years now. Like I said, it’s just us leaning into our strengths and things that we’re proud of. Because we’re not trying to be different. We’re just trying to be ourselves.”
When it comes to the flute, I know you worked as a flute teacher before doing the band full-time. Being a frontman, does that affect the way you view your role with younger fans?
“When I’m on stage and I’m being who I am, I’m trying to be the person that I would have wanted to see up there when I was 12, 13, or 14. I want to say the things and express myself in ways that I would have hoped to have seen in someone I looked up to. If I were that kid in the crowd. I’m very intact with that kind of self-awareness. Because, one, I was a teacher by trade for a big part of my life, which forces you to practice a lot of zooming out; using empathy and understanding your position of influence. Secondly, the band’s mission has always been to promote Australian hardcore culture. We are aware that we’re a gateway band for kids to get into hardcore. That is such a privilege. It’s one of the greatest privileges we have in this position now. There are kids out there that look up to us. By that same token, we are so amazed that we are in this position. We never thought that this band would have this level of influence. We started this band when there were 150 people in Sydney hardcore. I never thought that we would ever be at this level. So with that comes a lot of gratitude and a lot of deep understanding that there are a lot of people that enabled us to do what we do. I think the way of honoring those ‘successes’ is by ensuring that we are responsible with that sense of influence we have.”
I respect your guys’ willingness to play all the roles. Willing to be a hardcore band, to teach people the culture, to be the gateway. Even when it came to the award, you were focused on what it did for the people who helped you.
“That’s important to us, because there are so many hands that go into making what speed is. And when I say speed, I don’t just mean the band. Like we’re literally five friends that belong to a broader friendship circle that have been friends for a long time. I think as you get older, you reflect a lot more on where you want to go in life. Especially for people in our position who have had such an incredible opportunity over the last five or six years. We’ve had so much time to reflect on why this is happening and how is it happening? And it always comes back to my friend who teaches me more about political awareness or my other friend, who I looked up to as a kid, who didn’t shun me. I think about all the people who I looked up to, who inspire me. Who could have easily fucking told me to piss off, as a kid or even just as a friend now. If not for any one of those moments, and if not for all the people who support us and who are on this journey with us, we wouldn’t be able to do this. To us that’s truly what our hardcore scene is back in Sydney. Without trying to use any tropes or be generic, we have a very, very special community that we’re intact with and that we’re really grateful for. We just want to share it. I’ll put it this way, brother- I’ve never been the kind of person that would get excited about traveling solo, going around the world by myself. That idea for me personally has never been enticing, because if I eat an incredible dish somewhere in a random country, I want to eat that with my friend and be like, ‘Yo, how good is this?’ When we’re going through our successes, it’s not just like, ‘Yo, fuck yeah, I did this.’ It’s like I’m saying to my friend Elliot, ‘Bro, how dope is this?’ Like you, you recorded this, and now we get to fucking be here. Elliot is here doing sound for us today. You know, we’re literally like, ‘Bro, you put a fucking air horn in our fucking song, like, three years ago as a joke, and now we’re fucking playing this 4000-cap venue with Turnstile. You know what I mean?”
It’s the same idea as you cooking something really good and you immediately go to share it with your roommate.
“Yes, exactly. As a chef, you make something yummy, and you want to see the people eat it and enjoy it. It’s not just for you. You know, I’m saying so as for our music and for the shows that we play, even the merch that we make, and from interviews like this, from the things that we say, or whatever, like, I get so much of a kick out of my friends being like, ‘That was dope.’ Like, that’s awesome, you know what I mean. That’s our only measuring stick for success, which is, like, the support of our friends and family back at home, who really know us.”
As a frontman, your job is to make sure the crowd has a good night. Did playing that role help you process and grieve during such a difficult last 18 months?
“Absolutely, a show for us is not about Speed. The show is about the people in the crowd. We are almost a vehicle for everybody in the room to express themselves. Hardcore to us is a raw, pure, unbridled palette that you have to just throw everything of yourself at for those 25 minutes or those 30 minutes without any fear of judgment. It’s just literally unleashing passion all at once. That sense of expression is so symbiotic between myself and whoever is on stage with us or on the floor. Those people that we’ve lost, that you’re asking about, like RJ and Alex and Tommy. We met all those people through hardcore. They’re on stage with us. They were coming on tour with us. They were there for some of the best moments of our lives over the last six years, especially in Sydney and Australia. As I said, this whole sense of expression is so simple. It’s so symbiotic; it just all goes around, so going out and doing shows again. We lost RJ in the middle of a tour, but going out and doing shows again didn’t feel like this burden or this thing that we really needed space from. I remember at the time we were very keen to reschedule these shows and get back out there, because it felt like a way to celebrate him. Any of those friends that we’ve lost would not want us to stop doing this. If anything, they would want us to continue. Because I know that a hardcore show was such a sacred place for all of us, where we could just be ourselves. And they had their demons, which they unfortunately had to succumb to, but that had nothing to do with this place that we have. To stop doing that or put a pause on that would be the opposite of honoring them. If anything, it was the greatest light in some of their lives. We are just the sum of our friends, and these people have had such a lasting impression on us. These people are the ones that pushed us to be better. For the longest time, living in Sydney wasn’t a cool place to be. It’s so far away. You know people will be like, “Oh, New York hardcore.” Or like, ‘Boston is so cool,’ or ‘London is so exciting.’ People never talked about Sydney like that. You know what I mean? And in the last six years, that sense of cultural identity has really changed. It’s something that we are so proud of that we ride for. When we say that we’re from Sydney, and when we were flying that flag, I’m literally seeing the image of people like Tommy, Alex, and RJ. These are people that gave us something to ride for. Now, I’m fucking proud to be your friend and say that I’m from Sydney, because it means that I’m from where you’re from. Just because you’re such a fucking cool, inspirational person. This band is like a vocation. It’s our whole entire life, and being wrapped up in one thing, it’s like so much more than that; I can’t even put it into words. Every single thing that we do in our lives involves this band. If I spend more time practicing being a better person. How I treat my partner at home, how I treat my family. The way I engage with my parents and just invest in them. Something as small as that carries on to the values of the band and how I pour into this art. Everything is compounding. In that sense this is the most incredible vocation to ever be in.”
Was there a moment on tour where it felt really special regarding this or a night that you really needed?
“All My Angels is dedicated to our three friends. The first to pass was Alex Arthur a few years ago. We played a benefit show for him run by his friends up in Newcastle. Which is a scene that is an hour and a half north of Sydney. Their friendship crew is called Steel City Terror. They ran a benefit show for Alex, and his best friends play in a band called Feel the Pain. They had just started, and they opened that show, and their first set really moved me. I think because of his passing and each of our friends’ passing. Even though we lost something, I feel like we gained 100 more. I hope this comes across the right way, but as tragic as these circumstances have been. They’ve been very powerful bonding experiences for us and the people that surround us. That show was very, very moving. That was two years ago, and now Feel the Pain just did our full Australian tour two months ago. They were playing for 1000s of people around Australia, fully smoking. They’re doing this all in the wake of his passing. It’s a very beautiful thing. It’s not easy, but it makes it easier to go through hardship when you’re sharing that with a lot of other people who understand you.”
What’s the biggest difference between the American and Australian hardcore scenes?
“The history. The scene in Australia is dominated by a very, very young scene, whereas here is the best place for hardcore. You have people from all generations, who are all part of it and contributing.”
One artist everyone needs to be more aware of?
“Primitive Blast is my favorite hardcore band. They’re also our best friends and from Sydney as well. If you like any modern hardcore in the wake of Hard Stripes or Violent Reactions, definitely check them out.”
Anything else to tell the fans?
“Keep doing you and have a good time.”
