WHO? Perth’s very own Charlie Stewart, Aidan Armory, Jack Rennie and Adam Neville all make up The Riot Vans
GENRE? Punk Rock
FOR FANS OF: Slaves, Parliamo and The Reytons
THE MUSIC FILES FAVOURITE TRACK: BLAZIN’ Straight in with this incredible blend of electric guitar hooks, explosive drums and bold lyrics … the track has this fast pace energy from the get-go. It’s the type of song that needs to be played LOUD…
WHY ARE WE DIGGIN THEM? Lyrically genius vocals, catchy guitar riffs and a modern day twist on punk rock…. what more could you want?
THE MUSIC FILES FAVOURITE LYRICS: ‘Saw across the dancefloor, he though yous were kissing, chased you to a cubicle to give you a kicking, one of boy was pissing while the other one was sniffing’ (Memory Lane, 2020)
CAREER AND GIG HIGHLIGHTS AS TOLD BY THE BAND: Looking into what we’ve achieved over the years as highlights. A big achievement I think we don’t notice too much is our ability to adapt, whether it’s musically, style and fashion wise, or even when in tricky social situations, we’ve managed to overcome and develop every step of the way. We’ve changed our sound numerous times, from indie rock to punk bangers to prog rock to disco funk, we’ve written some mad tunes over the years, and the best feeling is we all feel like we’re only getting started. Just four mates wanting to be heard having a laugh doing it.
Memory lane is the total obvious one, the expectations we had for it have been exceeded in every respect. So proud of the songwriting, the recording and how well it’s done. Heart warming stuff to see and hear so many people really digging the song, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. We’ve mad keen for getting more and more songs out because we aren’t short of them!
Had some fantastic gigs over the years, “years” is a scary thought actually. We’re all still teenagers and to have so many under our belt is a great feeling, and what’s even better is probably our last three gigs have been our best ones by a mile, things are starting to come together and move after so much work and graft fills us with excitement.
We try stay cool and focus on the little things when it comes to commercial success and not get to caught up in numbers but trying to contain our excitement when “Memory Lane” got This Feeling’s ‘Track of the Day‘ and radio plays over in the states blew our minds. Insane. We‘ve not reached any heights like our contemporaries but we sure as hell are on their tales.
I think it’s a miracle Aidan hasn’t fallen out with me yet, we’ve been at it since the start, that’s an achievement in itself! I can’t take away from the lineup we have now, gone through some changes but oh man we feel good. Adam is a wizard on drums, smashed his first few gigs out the park. Jack just breathes new life into our tunes, changing little bits of old songs and brings a complete new dynamic to the whole thing. Aidan, top drawer as usual, his voice is becoming a superpower, a lovely reviewer said a line of great beauty, “the singer sounds like a machine gun”. And myself, don’t want to be up myself or nothing but I’m feeling the best I’ve ever done with my songwriting, going places I’ve never been and ideas are coming one after another! Onwards and upwards!
CHECK OUT RIOT VANS BELOW…
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/theriotvansband/
TWITTER: @TheRiotVans
INSTAGRAM: @theriotvans
The Music Files 