Turbo Fruits Can Sense Your Rock And Roll Energy

From L-R: Dave Tits (bass/vocals), Jonas Stein (vocals/guitar), Kingsley Brosh (guitar/vocals), Matt Hearn (drums)

Nashville garage champions Turbo Fruits unleashed the solid LP Butter midway through last year, following on from a series of releases with a rotating band roster. Having settled on permanent lineup, they’re now putting together a swift follow up LP, but not before bringing their shit-hot live show to Australia for the first time. After ringing through to front man Jonas Stein’s enthusiastic voicemail greeting a few times, the dude eventually answered in a charming southern drawl.

NOISEY: Hey, Jonas?
Jonas Stein:Yeah man, sorry I missed your calls.

No worries. There’s a slight pause in your voicemail after “hello” and I awkwardly responded each time.
Oh sorry about that. Must have been from a long time ago. It’s time for interviews, isn’t it?

Yeah. Where are you right now?
I’m in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m at home, but we’re in the middle of recording the album, our fourth album. So I’m taking a little break from that. But yeah, I’m in Nashville.

How’s the recording going?
It’s going really well, man. We’re spending more time on this one than we have on the last ones. Just been working really hard the past couple weeks. Now we have another week and a half in there.

After a few amorphous years, you’ve consolidated the band line-up. Do you feel settled now—like a proper band?
Yeah, that’s a good way to put it. When we made Butter, it was the first time we were in a band working on an album together. So we were trying to figure out the how, what, and where. But now things are settled for the most part and we’ve figured out a routine. Everybody seems to be doing a good job.

People tend to romanticise Nashville and its musical history. What’s the reality of it? It seems similar to Memphis, whereas that Jay Reatard doco made it seem like a shithole.
There’s definitely a large history here. Anyone can find that by coming here and checking out the Country Music Hall Of Fame. I think a lot of people think of Nashville as a primarily country music place, which is true, but for a while there Nashville rock and roll was overlooked. The country music thing is understandable, considering it’s made a big mark here. But rock and roll is extremely vibrant right now. Every year there is a band that starts to do really well. A lot of my friends moved out and tried to make it somewhere else, but I stayed around and watched things grow. It’s pretty crazy, and I feel partially responsible. It’s a nice feeling.

Do you have the business side of things figured out at this stage? Butter was through Kings Of Leon’s Serpents & Snakes imprint, and you have your own Turbo Time label.
No, definitely not. I don’t have anything figured out. Things are changing due to the Internet. One minute you have really exciting news, then the next minute everybody’s focused on another artist. It feels like people’s attentions spans are short these days. The main part of it is letting people know you still exist. You could be an amazing musician, but people don’t give a shit about you unless you keep ramming it down their throats. It’s tough selling records these days. I think we’ve sold more vinyl than we have digital. I have no idea how those big companies make money these days.

Also, people don’t really seem to be confined to listening to one genre nowadays,
When I was a teenager I was a lot more genre-oriented. I listened to punk, then moved into psych-rock, basically one genre of a time. I’m not much of a consumer of music, so I don’t listen to a whole lot of modern music. But I’ve noticed that my taste has expanded; my generation has been infected by the Internet. We can look up punk, disco, whatever and learn about it so quickly. Any time before 2000, you had to live in it. I fucking love disco, but I love playing rock and roll.

Have you been to Australia at all before?
Nah man. We’ve been to UK and Japan, and then this offer came out of nowhere. We’re really excited about it.

Been listening to any Australian bands?
I’m really not. Can you tell me about it a little bit?

Heaps of great shit happening at the moment. Too many good bands to list here, I suppose.
A lot of them have been coming to Nashville, I’ve been noticing a lot more Australians in recent years. I can sense the rock and roll energy coming from Australia, the rad young people coming through in the past three or four years.

You’ve spent a good part of your life in fairly successful bands, is that a difficult environment to grow up in? Do you think you’re good at being an adult?
I think you start to learn when it’s appropriate to party, live the rock and roll lifestyle. I can’t party and live that lifestyle all the time and be productive. I think the people that have done that haven’t been able to maintain success. Some have lucked out and learned how to live and write while partying, but it becomes a distraction for me. You have to pick and choose when it happens. It’s easy to say, “I don’t give a fuck” between the ages of 16 and early 20s. I just turned 26 yesterday and I don’t feel old by any means, but I feel like I should be getting my shit together. Time is going faster. I’m not at the level of success I want to be at yet.

Turbo Fruits will be playing our VICE Presents next month. Get more info, and RSVP here.

If you really know where it’s at, catch a side show too:

2 November at The Tote in Melbourne

3 November at The Brisbane Hotel in Hobart

4 November at The Toff in Melbourne

5 November at The Barwon Club in Geelong

6 November at GoodGod Small Club in Sydney