Check out the interview with Adam Houghton from the energy music punk rock band Good Til Sunrise!

The band features on one of Shot Spot videos of the Quiksilver Pro 2010 with the song JUST FINE.

Click here to watch the video now >

Band Name: Good Til Sunrise

Music style/genre: Punk Rock 

Location: Melbourne, Australia 

Members: Matt Batty (Guitar/Vocals), Adam Houghton (Bass/Backup Vocals), Benji Meilak (Drums)

Why Good Til Sunrise?

Good ‘Til Sunrise is a pretty funny story. Matt and I (Adam) were severely intoxicated in the city one night and we needed a cab to go 10 – 15km but no cab would take us, so severely drunk we decided to walk it home. Which was a bad idea because all the way I thought we would probably get stabbed or something. Anyway Matt and I had played music before and we were talking about doing it again and how much fun it would be. The conversation kept rolling on and I said to Matt “Isn’t it funny how you can be drunk, almost sober, but soon as morning comes you get your hangover.” Matt replied with “Yeah you're good until sunrise then the headaches start.” And pretty much from that we decided it sounded good. So if anyone asks it means “You're good til sunrise then you're hungover.” Then there’s the clever people who think we are vampires (or vampire related), but yeah that’s not the case.

How did the band start and how long have you been playing together?

Matt and I had been at it for a while, just writing, mucking around and throwing ideas at each other. We had another drummer at the time, but unfortunately it didn’t go as planned so we were left without one for a while, but we just stayed at it. Matt had Benji on his MSN for some time and we asked him to just come and try and see how he’d go, and he played all the songs and was perfect in every sense, and really just became the driving force for the band. I remember how excited Matt and I were when he played the songs just the way we kept hearing them in our head.

Who writes the song lyrics and music?

Matt is definitely the songwriter. He pretty much will come up with a melody, and an idea or guitar riff and then me and him will sit down and come up with arrangements and make it sound sweet, then Benji will come in and make our sweetness into awesome and just make it even more amazing. It’s a team effort, but Matt is definitely the seed and we just build on it together.

What are the bands musical influences?

Well we all grew up listening to Punk Rock. Bands like Yellow Card, Sum 41, Millencollin, NoFx, Blink 182, Pennywise etc. We all kinda branch out into different areas still, like I listen to some bands from Japan and other bands like Muse and Benji likes other bands like Avenged Sevenfold etc.

We heard that there is an E.P coming out soon? Can you tell us about it?

Yeah we are stoked. It’s taken 6 months and Matt to quit his job to get this out, but it comes out April 16th and its available from our My Space, at shows and also available on iTunes. There are a few independent retailers too that are stocking it, so yeah we are super stoked about it.

Tell us about your experiences playing live?

We’ve had some great experiences and met some amazing bands that we now call  real close friends. We’ve had some bad experiences to with equipment failure etc, but I guess you learn from them. About 95% of all shows are all real positive, with a few beers and just having a good time.

What’s the best venue you’ve played at?

There’s been a few. What really makes a good venue is the crowd and the staff who work there. You could have a bad stage, but the organizers and staff could be real switched on and it just makes it that much more fun. I’d say Mynt Lounge (POW! Fridays) is the best fun. We’ve played it about 3 times and the organizer (Bryce Haysom) is real switched on and really pays attention to the bands efforts.

What’s been a stand out gig for you and why?

For me, I’d say it would be our first one. We were all a little nervous and we booked the show like 3 days before and we weren’t sure how they’d be played or what people would think. All the fears really sank in, but we finished and people loved it and they were really congratulating us on a good show. It felt good.

What are the places Good Til Sunrise will be playing this year?

So far for the rest of the year we are playing Melbourne shows at Noise Bar in Brunswick on May 21, and Bang! On June 5^th. We also have an appearance on Noise TV on CH 31 on May 8 (mysapce.com/goodtilsunrise has all the details).

What sort of feedback are you getting for the style of music you play?

Better than we ever thought really. People really seem to be liking it, and when people like yourselves will take our songs and put it to your videos, or outlets stock it, it’s a little exciting. It’s also really good because we’ve had people from 13 to 30 say they love our songs, so it’s great.

Any of the band members surf / skateboard / bmx / motocross or any other extreme sport?

We all grew up skate boarding, but we all love the surf now. Matt and I love body boarding when we can, and Benji just loves hitting the Gold Coast. 

There is a video on Shot Spot with the song JUST FINE? What are your thoughts on that?

We are very stoked about it. Just to know that there is another artist on a different platform, thinks our music is good enough to put on their video is just awesome.

Do you have a website or a My Space Page where people can listen to your music and get to know more about the band?

Yeah we have every site you can think of:

www.myspace.com/goodtilsunrise

www.facebook.com/good-til-sunrise

www.twitter.com/goodtilsunrise

www.mp3.com.au/goodtilsunrise

Anything else you want to add?

Yeah, thank you to Shot Spot for taking the music on board to their own platform, thank you for the interview and thank you for anyone who has read this and taken interest in our band, bands say it all the time, but it really does mean the world to us.

Thanks for talking to Shot Spot!

We look forward to hearing more from Good Til Sunrise! 

Interview by Grace Gutwein