Fumes, The www.thefumes.com.au
The story so far…
Compelling Sydney two-piece, The Fumes burst onto the scene in 2004.
The Fumes deliver multi-facetted, stylistic raw blues tunes mashed with healthy rock riffs and snappy beats.
Steve Merry (vocals, guitar) spent 12 months in the U.S where he took on some mentoring from Bob Brozman and an opportunity to immerse himself in many styles of music. It helped define and develop The Fumes.
Having left Sydney an already accomplished exponent of the resonator guitar, Steve is now more than ever so strongly articulated in the finger picking rhythms and slide techniques that are relative rare in Australia. He returned with a new passion for his music. The Fumes complete with the addition of Joel Battersby, who had been drumming with members of The Beautiful Girls, proceeded to churn out an 8-track demo. The demand for the demo was so strong it was re-packaged as a 7-track E.P for gig sales.
The Fumes continued to surge through 2005 with lighting pace, never out of the nations gig listings relentlessly delivering red hot live shows. Support for others came in packages that ranged from The Beautiful Girls, Dallas Crane, Ash Grunwald, The Pictures, and Dan Kelly, with some added scrambling up and down the east coast of Aus on tours sponsored by ‘Jager Uprising’ and on tours with Cog and blues bandits Hayseed Dixie (USA). They covered of NSW, Victoria, their snowfields, Brisbane and a number of towns and cities in between.
They delivered their own headline shows too, notably in Sydney where they played to full houses in Darlinghurst, Annandale, Manly, and Avalon …and the way they delivered those performances, well the great reviews just kept coming.
The Fumes released their first official single to the media in July of 2005 and the newly minted ‘Oh My Babylon’ with its beautifully built arrangement, a BIG intro and a HUGE rousing ending had radios’ attention.
§ Airplay on Triple J (National). Interview and programming slot on Roots ‘n’ All with Ash Grunwald.
§ ‘A’ Rotation airplay. A live set and interviews on Sydney’s FBI.
§ Adds and interviews on ABC Illawarra, PBS and RRR in Melbourne, 2XX Canberra, 4ZZZ in Queensland and selected regional and community stations in NSW and Victoria.
§ Selected as part of the ‘Next Crop’ for Triple J’s AusMusic Month in November 2005.
§ The Fumes and ‘Oh My Babylon’ were featured on the Triple J website. ‘Oh My Babylon’ was available as an MP3 to download for 2 months.
The reviews for the music matched the reviews for their live performance too.
The Fumes also made their festival debuts in 2005. The Great Southern Blues Festival sold out of their pre-release EP before the end of their encore. They garnered the same ‘sell out’ result at Newtown Festival (Sydney) and at Peats Ridge Festival (Central Coast NSW).
The fan emails kept building from all over the country. The Fumes just kept getting better and stronger.
To cap of The Fumes went on to take out ‘Blues Artist of The Year’ at the Music Oz Awards, with a spectacular live performance to boot that was televised nationally on SBS.
Its 2006 and The Fumes are putting final touches on their official debut album produced by Lindsay Gravina at Birdland Studios in Melbourne. The chemistry is GOOD and the album promises to be chock full of swagger, groove and assured great times. The guys have signed a recording deal with Silent Partner thru Inertia. The anticipated album is due for release in March 2006.
A review from Brag Magazine (9.05.05) to sum it up. ‘You cannot deny the raw power of The Fumes’. The blues rockin’ two piece from Sydney are well and truly on the map. Please stay tuned for more….
www.thefumes.com.au
Live Reviews
Soho Bar- Sydney 9/11/05
’Two piece band The Fumes seem to rear their heads in almost every gig guide of late. And this evening they show us once again why they’re headlining and supporting their way across the countryside. For a two piece, keeping the crowd entertained is no easy feat. Serving up a plethora of blues and country tinged numbers, they betrothed the busy Wednesday night crowd for what seemed the fastest hour in headline history. Vocalist and guitarist Steve Merry seems to embrace his guitar as though it were another body limb. And drummer Joel Battersby gives his sticks and skins more workout than a 3am stint in a Chuck Norris infomercial.
But it’s not just the impressive musical ability of The Fumes that makes heads turn and feet tap. It’s also about the configuration of their song writing. They say a good craftsman makes his art look easy. The Fumes take that one step further and add a dash of inspiration as well’
Drum Media-Sydney 15.11.05
Evelyn Hotel 18/8/05
‘The singer gave it the gun using the bottleneck on the guitar and picking notes out. He was on the floor praying to the god of drummers a couple of times. The crowd really responded to a band they had never seen before, plenty of hell yeas and encouragement coming their way. A good sweaty show. Try to see them next time. A worthy edition to the scene’
Inpress -Melbourne 23.8.05
Caringbah Bizzos w/ Rollerball
‘The next big thing? If not, they’ll certainly come close’
-Drum Media 27.9.05
Annandale Hotel-1.12.04
‘An amazing set of lungs and a man behind the skins that doesn’t miss a beat’
Drum Media 7.12.04
Single Reviews
‘A loose hipped groove punctuated by some heavy handed dynamics keeps the interest engaged whilst the sound is redlined and hot compressing hard against the speakers.….Cool’
Brag Magazine 22/08/05
‘Shows they can bend and stretch as well. Album could be well rather tasty’
Drum Media 30.08.05
