Sandi Sieger chats to Eddie from Australian four-piece, all male pop-rock band, Because They Can. In a world where manufactured pop seems to be the norm, these guys stand out with true talent and set the bar – writing, composing and performing their own music.
Tell us about how the band came to be…
The band formed as a creative outlet during our high school years. We attended a very sport orientated school, so it was inevitable that we, as four young musos, would come together. James (drums) and I (vocals/guitar), at the age of 14, would ‘jam’ in his garage after school trying to replicate the songs of our favourite artists at the time; Sum 41, Green Day, Blink 182, etc… It was around Year 10 when we began to understand how a band was meant to be structured and began looking for a lead guitarist and bassist. Enter Jackson and Jed. Ever since then we’ve been writing and playing as many shows as possible, not to mention touring during our final exams.
And how the name came about…
‘Because They Can’ came about because during the early years as a band we were forever changing our name whenever it didn’t impress someone or we were influenced by a new artist. It reached the point where no one knew what we were called and a friend asked us why we changed it so much and another said, “because they can.” From that point on it stuck and became a new mentality for us; we can do this, because we can.
You’ve been called ‘Beatles-esque’. How does that make you feel?
To be even slightly aligned with The Beatles is a crazy thought to us, which we tend to shrug off as impossible. However, time and time again we’ve had comments along those lines. We grew up listening to our parents record/CD collections and artists like The Stones, The Police, Bob Dylan and The Beatles became big influences on us and our playing, so perhaps that is where it’s coming from.
We like to think that any success we’ve had online can be attributed to our live performance. When we formed the band, the only way we saw music was practicing in a garage and playing as many shows as possible, like the 90/00’s punk rock bands we looked up to. Now, the industry has reached a point where it has a heavy reliance on social networks and TV shows. While that’s all good, we want to prove a band can grow the old fashioned way, on the live circuit, writing our own songs and having a personal relationship with our fans that way.
Where do you draw inspiration for songs from?
As a vocalist I write all my lyrics from personal experience. From a young age I found it off putting when I could see when a singer didn’t know what they are singing about. Our first single off our EP ‘It’s Not About You’ for example, is my opinion on what’s becoming of the industry, a lack of focus on what is really important, the music.
What can we expect to see from you in 2013?
2013 will hopefully see a lot of touring and promoting of our debut EP ‘Alive’, which just came out. We’re always writing so maybe some new material later in the year.