Violent Soho is Luke Henery on bass, Mike Richards on drums, James Tidswell -guitars/vocals, and lead singer/guitarist Luke Boerdam. Maybe it's because there are two Luke's on board this quartet who "feel the force," (obscure Star Wars reference, sorry), but whatever it may be, Violent Soho has found a way to feed rabid hardcore music fans with power chords so thick, they'll tear your face off.

Hailing from the land that gave us The Saints (precursors to the Ramones) there is enough creative fertility in this quartet to pack a one-two power punch on the indie circuit. Don't take my word for it though. Proof is in the numbers.

Violent Soho's debut U.S. single, "Jesus Stole My Girlfriend," clawed the Top 30 of Billboard's Alternative Singles chart within the first weeks of availability. Aside from firing up the Billboard charts, the Aussie quartet has been very busy touring, opening up for such giants as Band Of Skulls, Dead Weather, and indie legends Built To Spill and Dinosaur, Jr., among others.

Not too shabby.

Signed by Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and his label Ecstatic Peace after a much-talked about 2009 New York City showcase, the label synced up with Universal Motown Records to roll out the US tour of Violent Soho this spring. One of the stops on the itinerary, SWSX. If you are lucky enough to be at the festival, this is one band you'll kick yourself in the ass for if you miss them at SXSW.

We chased down Luke Boerdom, lead singer and guitarist for Violent Soho prior to their preparation for SXSW. Thanks boys!

antiMusic: Talk a little bit about the production of Violent Soho and working with Ecstatic Peace/Universal Motown. Have you worked directly with Thurston Moore?

Luke: We worked with Thurston in picking the producer and mixer, that was discussed quite a lot. But once we started working in the studio it was all us and Gil Norton. When you do a debut album you get a great opportunity because you have a whole back-log of song-writing covering 5 years. So the production involved stripping back the songs, and staring again. But we knew what we wanted and it was more about capturing the energy from our live set. We had a lot of time to work on guitar sounds, which was probably the biggest difference from past recording sessions - and that we were in the middle of Wales countryside.

antiMusic: What's it like growing up a musician in Brisbane? Is there a lot of opportunity for creative expression? Fans of the Ramones?

Luke: In my opinion I think there are lots of opportunities, but thinking back it did take us a year or two before we were invited to play the best of the local venues in Brisbane. It definitely has an incredible local scene of stoner/garage punk bands. Everyone knew each other - we learnt a lot in those days, about music, gigging and how to be a band. Its also developed a noise scene were artists set up their own gigs in the backyards and collectively perform, there is something definitely unique about Brisbane. I thinks it's always going to be an amazing place for bands to develop. And yes, we are big fans of the Ramones. There is guy who runs a guitar store called Tym's Guitars. He used to setup a show called Ramone-A-Thon. All the local bands would get together and do Ramones covers - it was great. I think he's put it on hold for awhile, but I'm sure it will be back again soon.

antiMusic: Who are your biggest influences?

Luke: The Pixies
Jesus Lizard
Pavement

antiMusic: How did the band meet?

Luke: We all went to the same school, myself, Henery and Richards were all friends and had a few "sessions" together. After graduating we started working on the band and practicing in Henery's and Richard's garage. James heard some of my songs and asked to join, we invited him to a practice and he had some difficulty and so he just smashed his only guitar out of frustration in front of us. It was incredible, he was instantly in the band! 6 years later we are still here.

antiMusic: What's the backstory behind the name Violent Soho? Got something against New York?

Luke: Well we needed a band name for our first E.P, so we mixed the word Violent, and took the last word from the Rancid song "Ruby Soho". We didn'treally know anything about Soho in New York. Some people have told me they picture Soho up in flames when the think of the name - Music flattening buildings. Considering how heavy our music is, I take this as a good thing.

antiMusic: You have toured with some powerful musicians--Dead Weather, The Black Keys, Trail of Dead, and countless others. What can you tell us about your experiences?

Luke: I think we've learnt it's a lot of work, and touring alongside other bands makes you realise this more every day. Watching these bands every night also reminds you how far you have to go, they have played a lot of gigs and it shows in their performance.

antiMusic: What's your impression of Jack White? Any great advice passed on to you?

Luke: Ahhh didn't really get to talk to him, I think he may have watched the show but not too sure? Dead Weather are incredible though.

antiMusic: How do you feel about people not being able to pinpoint a particular genre for your music? (Thrash, punk, grunge, etc.)Was that your goal? To be sort of ambiguous and all-encompassing? What would you classify your music?

Luke: We usually describe our music as Stoner-Pop, to me that describes it best. Its heavy, it has drowning guitars, but in the end its till 3-4 chord pop songs with basic melodies. We're definitely not trying to revitalise a whole "grunge" movement as a lot of people say - that really annoys us. "Grunge" as labeled in the day, probably will never happen again. We just follow the ethic of our influences - write sincere, honest music.

antiMusic: What have been the biggest musical challenges you have faced along the way?

Luke: Learning to play as a band. I think this took 3 years.

antiMusic: Talk about South By South West. How did you guys get there? What hurdles did you have to cross? What are you looking forward to?

Luke: We always heard about SXSW and how it's a great opportunity. We got there because we are on tour and we have an album coming out that week so it makes sense.
We're not too fazed by it, we're just looking at it like more shows. We are excited about doing 3 shows in one day thought, because most sets are only 20mins, so we can put more energy into each show. Also excited to see other bands obviously, especially the Ecstatic Peace showcase so we can finally meet all the other bands on the label. We haven't met one yet!

antiMusic: What are the differences between playing in the States and touring the rest of the world? Do you find fans are easier to please or harder in the States?

Luke: The States are incredible. There are just so many people you could on tour here non-stop. We've found some cities are harder to play than others. Oklahoma/Texas/Arizona/New Mexico definitely have the best crowds, they will cheer for anything, and we feed of energy so we love playing South West - maybe it's that or we just like the weather better being Australian and all. We're looking forward to playing England a second time around, we scared people there last time but I think people are more ready for it now, something heavier.

antiMusic: Talk about the inspiration behind your songs on the album?

Luke: I think it comes from the suburbs, where I grew up as a teenager, the boredom, frustration - you feel desensitised. A lot of the songs are experiences too, like Slippery Tongue or Jesus Stole My Girlfriend. It feels like lots of different pieces from the past thrown together randomly, but now I'm looking back I can draw the lines together and see how it all works together and where it comes from.

antiMusic: Who does the majority of the lyric writing?

Luke: Me

antiMusic: Do you collaborate on lyrics and instrumental?

Luke: No, we haven't worked with other people�is that what you mean. Internally it functions
with me writing a song in my bedroom, then taking it to the band, then we all work on structure.

antiMusic: What are your favourite tracks? Why?

Luke: Muscle Junkie, this song just worked instantly with the band.
It's one of my favourites to play live also, I think it's the strongest track on the album, it really seems to sum the whole album up for me.

antiMusic: What tracks do you most enjoy playing live?

Luke: Bands always like playing their newest tracks live. So for us it's Here Be Dragons and Muscle Junkie. We also love playing a cover by an 80's Australian band called GOD, the song is called My Pal. I think we really connect with that song.

antiMusic: Any thoughts for a next album yet? Will it be more of the same or do you see the band trying new things?

Luke: I see us moving forward with a more developed sound. More interesting and unique guitar sounds inter-twined with the usual 3-4 power chords - We love
that, and I don't see us separating from it just yet. It will be different though in that a sophomore album has to be written quicker, (1-2 years as opposed to 5), I think
we're gonna branch out and try new things, and I think its going to be more of a conceptualized collection of songs.

antiMusic: Talk about the success of "Jesus Stole My Girlfriend."