THE MENTALLY UNSTABLE

The Mentally Unstable are a young band from the Northern beaches of Sydney playing pure Punk rock that would be lost on most kids of today. I've had the chance to see these guys play a few times and their attitude and sound really impressed me. I had a chat with sam in between skateboarding sessions to find out what the bands all about.

Who are The Mentally Unstable? How did the band come about?

Yo Pat, well first up we are just a band that likes skateboarding and playing the shit we play, so thats who we are...

I think we came about one day, myself and mark the drummer and rask our guitarist from the past (r.i.p) were sitting on some steps and just wanted to do something productive with the music we enjoyed, so we all just got our shit and played a god save the queen cover. We then kinda mucked around with it on and off for a while and by the time the year 2007 rolled around and we just called it quits.

We later on decided to start back up again late 07 i think writing our own songs and stuff but shortly lost Rask to the Singaporean army, those D-bags! Then josh took his place and we have me on vocals, Drew on guitar, Mark on drums and Jack on bass. Thats kinda it up until now, sorry for the rant haha.

What bands would you say are your main influences?

We all really have different influences that we bring together and it just molds into what we got, mine personally are bands like the dead boys, stooges, GG, misfits, ramones, J. thunders...But i guess that speaks for us all, we also dig alot of rock and rolly type stuff

You guys play a style of music thats pretty different to what alot of kids listen to and bands play these days, whats the deal there?

I dunno really, i guess its probably drawn from our influences, Although alot of bands are on a similar track to us, we are probably just not doing it right haha. Fuck the kids!

With the style you guys play, is it hard to get shows? Is it hard playing with bands that have absolutely nothing in common with you?

Haha, We have played so many SHIT shows with bands that almost seem as if its a different genre completely, this one with like some bands like sixlip? or something and you know... 'HARDCORE' bands...what a disaster. It's quite hard for us to get on a show and i hate hassling people, but saying that we have just had a pretty good streak of shows which has unfortunately come to an end...for now

You guys have put out a couple of low-fi demos, any plans to put out a more polished recording?

Our recordings are heinous, thats all i have to say on that topic. We are now on Don't blink Records and i think there was some talk of possibly another demo or E.P so fingers crossed!

Any plans to tour?

We would love to tour, so hopefully... i guess its hard for 5 unemployed teens to scrape money and van together though haha, if anyone wants to tour with us, hit me up bromie.

I heard you guys have been banned from a few venues in Sydney, whys that?

Ah man, yeah we have from a few. Basically for the most Lame reasons. I think there was a bit of a ruckus at the Sando that may or may not have involved a mic stand and an angry fuckin maniac sound dude and something to do with drinking at the other venues.

what bands/ records are you into at the moment?

Just the usual really. Misfits, GW, Reagan Youth, Taipan, Repoman, Eddy Current, DB, Impact unit and so on and so forth.

Last words/shout outs?

Dick sucking to Pat for doing this and featuring us, thanks dude! and i dunno... Hate-park crew, All the bands we play with, Snake Face, Sawn-Off, Taipan, Ekrils and Oniks...ETJ wot wot.

If you wanna check out this awesome band, suss their myspace page for show details and some sweet low-fi recordings.

www.myspace.com/thementallyunstable