FU MANCHU Ready For Action

FU MANCHU

Ready For Action

Southern California stoner rock legends Fu Manchu will play their first Australian shows in 10 years this month. Scott Hill talks to JESSICA WILLOUGHBY ahead of their show at the Rosemount Hotel this Saturday, May 5.

Released in 1997, The Action Is Go solidified what was to become the legacy of Fu Manchu.
    The fourth outing behind the definitive In Search Of…(1996) – an album which saw this four-piece come together in their trademark groove – this release charred the mix of Southern Californian punk and hardcore with laid-back surfer tones in the minds of many. It was also the first album to feature Bob Balch on guitar, a union that still exists despite a revolving door of line-up changes today.
    To celebrate the LP’s 15th anniversary, Fu Manchu will be hitting the road later this month to play its contents in full. Although the Australian run of dates this month will miss out on this auspicious occasion, fans are commemorating the shows in their own way – being the first time Fu Manchu has set foot on down under soil in over a decade. But vocalist Scott Hill says they may well come again to play the album in its entirety, for sentimental reasons. “Our first Australian tour was actually off the back of The Action Is Go,” Hill tells X-Press. “So it would be kinda cool to come back and do it there. To be honest, I don’t know why we haven’t been there in so long. The last time was 2002 and we’ve brought out four full lengths since then. But we’re the same band as before; nothing’s changed.”
    Finishing their time with Century Media last year, 2011 signalled a year of new beginnings for Fu Manchu. With the deal done and dusted, they set out on touring trails to play In Search Of… – in much the same fashion as they are doing with its successor this year. Working towards making the outfit self-sustaining for the first time ever, all future recordings will be released through their own label At The Dojo. “We finished with Century Media last year and now we’re free,” Hill explains. “We have been around since 1990 and never really done it ourselves. We thought, ‘hey, we know a bit about touring, putting on shows and doing records’. It’s funny because the name for the label has just really popped up out of nowhere. It’s from a 7” we put out a few years back of an unreleased song. That was the first thing we actually put out on our own and we had to think up something on the spot. It really has no meaning to it, but it kinda stuck.
    “So we’re saving our butts off now for our own first independent LP. Hope to get into it after this tour and release next year. I’ve never really thought we’d do it on our own, so it’s kinda exciting. And it’s the way it will continue, unless a label comes along with a great deal.”