PREMIERE: Drown Your Iso Sorrows With Strange Fiction’s New Video For ‘Schooner Or Later’

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Paul 'Browny' Brown

Brisbane is known for throwing the best parties and one upcoming band in the heavy music scene that know how to work a room are Strange Fiction who will be unleashing their new debut EP Captivated By The Chaos tomorrow (our review here). It’s no secret the lads are massively influenced by Every Time I Die and it shows in their music and antics so if you’ve been looking for the second coming of ETID, go no further than these blokes!

We sat down with frontman Grant McMillan to not only premiere their brand new isolation inspired video for ‘Schooner or Later‘ but to discuss the band’s handling of COVID-19, how UNIFY Gathering brought them closer together and a whole bunch of other SHINFO you’re gonna love immersing yourself in…

G’Day Grant, big time fan, first time chatter. How’s COVID life treating you?

G’day mate. Crazy busy with work! Lucky for us, our jobs didn’t get affected by covid. The only downfall is we couldn’t use the Iso time to really delve into writing some new material for future Fiction.

Well done to you all for being essential workers though! Your debut EP Captivated By The Chaos is out tomorrow though, how long have you been working on this release?

Its been a long time coming for us releasing this EP. From recording to having it mix and mastered it was ready to release for the past few months but we wanted to wait until we thought the scene/venues were ready to open again to give people a chance to listen to the EP and get them familiar with the songs for some sing-a-longs at our next show (whenever that may be)

For those who haven’t discovered your band yet, tell us how you came to be?

Faber, Arlen and myself (Grant) went to high school together and Bren also grew up around the same area. Arlen and I had always jammed together since high school with different styles of bands. But ultimately we have UNIFY 2017 to thank for really getting the ball rolling as that was the year we grew closer with Faber on the road trip down and also that was the time we met Jackson.

From there we slowly started hanging out catching up with each other at shows, dicking about jamming and finally put together some songs which you’ll hear on the EP

And your style is akin to that of Every Time I Die. Literally, when I listen to you lads, I hear ETID through and through. They must obviously play a big part in your inspiration?

HUGE INSPIRATION! They way they handle themselves as a band, writing whatever sounds cool to them not really caring about what other people think, to their killer live performances. They really show they’re having the best time with their best friends. It’s hard not to be inspired by them.

Agreed 100% and great role models too! In the spirit of ETID, tell us some Shinfo about each member of Stange Fiction!

Jackson and I fangirled for about half an hour over each other’s ETID tattoos at UNIFY 2017 when we first met. Faber is legally changing his name to just Faber (yes like Cher), Arlen can vomit on command, Miguel is a beast jazz drummer, Bren is a massive sweetheart and The Shoey Shark is a Virgo

Your new video for ‘Schooner or Later’ has a bunch of fans downing drinks in isolation (thanks for the invite too), was it always your intention to do a video like this or did the isolation blues get in the way of your original plans?

Was the isolation blues! We had ideas of doing other film clips for other songs but this really worked out the best option. We can’t thank everyone in the clip enough for getting involved and helping us out getting this music video sorted. True legends! We love you 😘

Once the EP is released, what’s next for Strange Fiction?

Plans are to get back to writing some new material with our new drummer Miguel and releasing a few new tracks by the end of the year (providing covid fucks off) and get back to playing some great shows with some wicked bands

You’ve been upcoming in Brisbane’s heavy music scene for a little over a year now, what do you want to achieve as a band moving forward?

We want to start branching out and go interstate, head up North play some shows in Rockhampton, Mackay, Cairns etc places that don’t really get to see what Brissy bands have to offer.

I do know the Beef Capital (Rocky) loves heavy music so you’d be sweet to get a gig up there alongside locals Affinity Minus Perfection for sure! Side note, what’s the strangest no-fiction story that’s ever happened to you?

On the way home from UNIFY 17 we stopped at this beautiful campground called Granny’s Flat. Whilst very intoxicated I needed to go to the toilet (those nasty ass campground drop toilets) only to find that someone had put some paper towel down and laid some brickwork down on the toilet floor! Laughed so hard at the fact that 1. They couldn’t bring themselves to sit on the drop toilet, 2. It was the biggest turd I’ve ever seen and 3. They didn’t even bother to pick it up!

Sounds like a real shitty experience! Anything else to add to take our minds off that last moment?

A lot of people have been put out of work in the music industry over this pandemic, so we just want to encourage people to support local bands, bars, pubs, brands, etc. wherever they can so that our music scene can bounce back better than ever!

Couldn’t agree more… also, go to the toilet, in the actual toilet. Thanks for the chat Grant!

Interview by Browny (@brownypaul)

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Captivated By The Chaos is out tomorrow. Pre-Save here