Although many Perth bands are jumping on the pop music bandwagon, there are still a few around that have decided to take the road less travelled and continue to play some good old rock n’ roll. Never one to follow trends, The Fuzz just keep on getting stronger and have established themselves as one of Perth’s finest rock acts. On the eve of the release of The Fuzz’s debut album ‘100 Demons’, lead vocalist Abbe May said it was great to finally be getting the album out.

“It has been a long time coming. We’ve been waiting for quite a while, what with tweaking it, re-recording songs and working on the cover and artwork.” Whilst the majority of the album was recorded at Poons Head studios in Fremantle during April last year, four tracks were later recorded at Sydney’s Velvet Studios during November and December. Abbe says that there are definitive differences between the material from each recording session, with her preferences lying with the four tracks from Velvet. “There are tracks that we did at Poons Head that I am really happy with. I wasn’t for a while, but I think it was because I was listening to it too much and I was too close to it. But after a bit of a break, I think they are okay. And I am very, very happy with the Velvet session. I think they came out really well.” Abbe goes on to describe the two recording sessions as definite learning curves. “I think when we started recording I didn’t realise you can have a lot of control over the way things are recorded and how they sound. Now that I know that, I think that it’s just going to make future recordings better.”

‘100 Demons’ is a mix of the pure, straight-up rock and roll that many are familiar with from The Fuzz’s live gigs and yet also thrown into the balance is the beautiful and emotive track, ‘Long Wheel Base Blues’. With the terms generic and stoner rock usually associated with The Fuzz, ‘100 Demons’ is sure to prove that they definitely have more to offer than generic rock songs. The album was produced by Anthony The (The Vines, Sarah Blasko), along with some help from Ian Underwood (ex-Kryptonic/Challenger 7 front man) and Russell Hopkinson (You Am I) from Reverberation Records, who not so coincidentally are the label that have a worldwide distribution deal with The Fuzz. Abbe also mentions that Fuzz bassist Shayne Macri also had his hands in the producing pool whilst recording at Poons Head.

With all band members heralding from Bunbury, it seems the formation of The Fuzz was destined to happen. Since 1995, Doug May (guitars), Ben Mountford (drums), Jiah Fishendon (guitar) and Macri had been playing together as Hating Velveteen. Also during this time Abbe was lead singer in the band Fox Mulder. By 2001 Abbe and the boys had been living in Perth for a while and after extensive gigging, Hating Velveteen decided to retire. It was later that year that they decided to join forces and became The Fuzz we know and love today. They are a band that remains free of any overtly obvious influences and they also don’t seem too worried about the public’s perception of them, which they proved when they put their faces to the recent Department of Health campaign against chlamydia. When asked how the campaign came about Abbe said, “Well we were all hanging down at the clinic . . . no seriously, we just thought it’s a pretty important issue. The number of people that have it and don’t know have increased like ten fold over the last five years. It’s a really serious disease. So we thought, what the hey, we’ll put our faces to the cause of chlamydia. It just seemed like a pretty serious issue and we don’t take ourselves too seriously, so why not?”

Another element that sets this band apart from other Perth rock acts is having a female vocalist. Abbe agrees that for some reason it does make a difference. “It’s kind of funny that it does give us an edge, because I am just doing what, or trying to anyway, what Johnny does in the Volcanics, or Ken does in the M16’s, but it’s just the fact that I haven’t got a dick really, isn’t it? I think it’s funny, and it may even hold us back a bit as some people don’t like female singers. I suppose they might think that rock and roll is more of a man’s sport.”

Whether it is a help or a hindrance it doesn’t matter, with The Fuzz taking to the road in support of Magic Dirt and You Am I during their eastern states tour in October and November. Whilst a launch date for ‘100 Demons’ has yet to be set, Fuzz manager Brad C says they want to get as much touring done in support of the album over east first and then set a date for the party when they get back. With a brand new website being launched along with the release of the album, everything in the land of The Fuzz is going to plan.