“pop is evil”

Australian fans have waited, patiently in keen anticipation, but now, at long last, U.S rockers POP EVIL are finally coming to Australia next week for the first time, to conquer the lands with their live shows in celebration of their 5th studio, self-titled album! Pop Evil are described as a larger than life rock band that blends the earnestness of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden with the showmanship of Motley Crue and Kiss!

And if that wasn’t good enough, we got Brendan the blind guy to have a chat to lead singer Leigh to find out what Pop Evil has installed for Australian fans!

“A Pop Evil show is not just a concert, it’s an experience”.
After Brendan did his fair share of talking, giving everyone a back-story and stuffing up quotes (as he’s notorious for doing), Brendan thought it would be great to find out if making their live shows an experience, and what makes their shows so memorable.

Leigh: “Yeah 100%... (continued in podcast)

Leigh: “Time is money in our days, people don’t have time to waste, they wanna be entertained, they wanna experience something, and how more to experience something than a rock n’ roll show...  (continued in podcast)

Leigh: “I could be stressing in life, and I got to see my favourite band, dude, I feel good, life is good again! … (continued in podcast)

Leigh: “It’s all about our crowd being involved, and singing back with us as one, and you know, together we’re stronger that is a family, rock n’ roll, brotherhood/sisterhood is something that is very real and powerful, so it definitely is an experience to us no doubt.”

So what else can fans expect on these Australian dates?

Leigh: “Well we just try to be ourselves number one, ‘cause if you do that, you be natural, you be honest with the fans, that’s what they want the most. But you know, we’re very raw and energetic”... (continued in podcast)

Leigh: “So to have that energy, and to be able to have those songs that lift you up, bring you back down, pull you through one way, pull you back the other way, that’s what a great concert has always been to us”

In past interviews, Leigh’s mentioned his love of Croc Hunter from a young age, thus spiking a fascination of Australia and the dream to one day bringing his music here. So, will Leigh be trying a bit of croc hunting for himself?

Leigh: “Aw I wish, are you serious I would love to be able to do that! Hopefully on this tour, we’re gonna have a little bit more free time, who knows what we’ll be doing”... (continued in podcast)

“A surging contemporary sounding release that incorporates metal, hard-rock, alternative and even electronic”.

That’s how the bands latest 5th studio, self titled album is described, so what does this album mean to Leigh and the stories of it?

Leigh: “It felt like our first record, it felt like we almost arrived in a way you know, it feels like the first record and it’s a brand-new line-up, we feel like we know who we are off the stage better than we ever have, so now we can be better on the stage together. That’s a really special thing we haven’t really experienced on the first four records”... (continued in podcast)

Leigh: “Writing this record, I think always being open minded to be experimental, trying new things but always being influenced by metal and rock”... (continued in podcast)

That’s pretty awesome if I might say so myself, but what about the lyrical side of things? The band have songs like ‘Colors Bleed’ and Ex Machine’ that deal with social and political issues, is this the general lyrical recipe?

Leigh: “I think it’s not about being political as much as trying to be aware, like, of what we’re going through as people, you know, I’m a big writer of not only what I go through now but what our fans are going through.”... (continued in podcast)

Leigh: “If you can create these opportunities of ways to be relevant with the youth, you can create a lengthy career and having toured with some of these great classic rock bands I mean, that’s the lesson they’ve taught us”

So what’s Leigh’s views on rock, pop and writing, his musical moral compass as such?

Leigh: “It’s all about being a crusader for rock and think about the name Pop Evil again, it’s, pop’s a bad word man, pop was always evil, so it’s kinda like a mission statement for our band, it’s about being more crusaders as brothers, as fans, as sisters, to come together united I mean we’re stronger, just like our song ‘A Crime To Remember’ you know we’re better united rust divided, hopefully be doing that, we’ll remind people that, that saying ‘rock n roll is dead’ that is, *pfft* it’s an absolute insult that it doesn’t exist, rock n’ roll is very much alive”... (continued in podcast)

Leigh: “...that’s the beautiful thing about rock n’ roll fans man, those fans, are here for life! You know pop fans may be here today gone tomorrow, they’re about singles, about songs, but rock fans, yep they’re around for life man, they’re about your careers!”

Now after all that Brendan and Leigh talked about, Brendan thought it was time they got exclusive, took the next step in their relationship as such. So an exclusive fun fact?

Leigh: “ah, gosh, well everything you can’t find on the internet, I make sure you can’t find on the internet”

Come on Leigh, make it juicy!

Leigh: “....my juice is so boring man”

*sigh* fine, well what do you do when you’ve got a sweet-tooth then?

Leigh: “if we’re going to the ice-cream shop, I’m not getting’ mint, I’m not getting’ no sherbert, I’m gettin’ cookies & cream!”

…...I wonder if I can Menu Log a cookies & cream ice-cream to the office right now?

Well would you look at the time, it’s WTF time! Being a rockstar we can imagine Leigh would have many priceless, hilarious WTF moments, but let’s see which takes the cake!

Leigh: “we did a cruise and my WFT moment was I, I burnt the mattress pretty much completely done, cause, I was getting my hair done and the mattresses in the cruise ship you could flip up, but I didn’t know that you couldn’t flip this one up to, directly up ‘cause the lights were all above it so I burnt holes all in the mattress and in the mattress cover. So we tried to cover it up and we tucked it in and were like oh man this is no good, they’ll never know! And literally, we got a bill after the tour and the money we made, we ended up having to pay it, I mean we got paid pretty good that tour, but we had to pay it all to fix the mattress and the cover… it might not be the most craziest story, but it was an expensive one for me”

Leigh: “So what’d I do after that? The only thing you could do, was throw the pillows to the dolphins, so we donated the pillows to the oceans somewhere in The Pacific. So there you go, dolphins need pillows too right?”

And finally, as Leigh mentioned rock n’ roll is not dead and it’s fans are for life, so what does he have to say to his fans, especially the ones who finally get to see them live for the first time here in Australia?

Leigh: “Well, we want to say first of all, to all the Pop Evil fans that’ve been waiting a long time, thank you for your patience, it’s been a long time coming, but it is happening, Pop Evil is finally coming to Australia so next week it’s on. And for those that are new to Pop Evil, we wanna thank them for listening and hopefully they’ll be open minded to come out and see us, it’s SO important that they come out, and make the effort ‘cause the more they come out the more opportunities we’ll have to come back and make this more of a regular thing, so, join the fans and if you wanna be entertained and rock n’ roll is your thing, then Pop Evil is definitely the band to see! So gives us a shot, let us prove it to you, and hopefully you’ll be coming back for many more years to come!”

Head to the bands official website for all the info including venues and ticketing, of their upcoming Australian tou!