Meet Masketta Fall, the Melbourne band responsible for smash hit "Summertime Girls."
Moli: For us, it's huge. We knew it was big coming into it, but even just rocking up here, there's fans at the gate singing our songs at us, yelling at us, trying to get photos. We were trying to estimate how big [the stage] was, but it's actually really big inside. It's crazy.
Ben: For us, our summer was all about "Summertime Girls." It's been great so far getting the song out there, but the next thing for us is a new single and hopefully we'll be working towards an album. It's been a big goal for us as a band. We've been a band for about three years now and it's been a goal since we got together to write a really strong album that people can relate to and have as a big part of their life. So if we can do that and release a whole bunch of singles off that. [They'll be] fun, feel good anthems.
Ben: After [we release our album], we'd like to do a big headline tour across Australia this year. [We want to] get to some places we haven't been to this year, go regional, go to some smaller towns, as well as the capital cities.
Jamie: We don't actually know, 'coz we took it back to the pound, so someone else has got this dog!Braden: Probably a more suitable candidate! *laughs*Moli: We were only sixteen, we didn't really have it sorted out.
Jamie: I'll be honest, I was very much a nerd in high school. The first invite I ever got to a birthday party was a 16th that year. I thought it was a joke, 'coz it went 'til midnight, and I don't think I'd ever stayed up 'til midnight! And then when I went to my first few 16th birthday parties, I wasn't very good at talking to people, especially girls, so I just brought my drum kit along, 'coz it was all I had that made me cool, and... yeah. I was just jamming along to the tracks while everyone's out in the house having their first Cruiser and kissing each other, and I'm just rocking out with all the parents! But it's a good thing now, 'coz Ben was there, who I didn't know at the time, and he heard me playing, he was a muso too, and that's kinda how we just kicked it off!
Moli: Well, myself, Jamie and Braden all went to the same high school, so we'd known each other previously, but not really in a music sense. We just kind of knew each other as mates. Once we met Ben, those two (points at Jamie and Ben) kinda started talking about jamming, and then we kinda got in there... Ben: BAM! Started playing Greenday, Sum 41 and Blink 182 every Sunday... And now, five noise violations and council threats and all that, and here we are!
Ben: I think as a teenager, it was very much punk rock for me. I think we're all a bit more open with music now. [Jamie] actually loves gangsta beats.Moli: We're pretty wide, we'll listen to anything. If it's good music, it's good music. It doesn't matter what genre it is.
Moli: I wanted to be a cricket player. I played sport, basically until I met these dudes and went the full flick from being one of those dickheads who plays sport everyday, to like, a music guy. *laughs*Ben: He was a cool kid in high school, everybody wanted to be friends with Moli. He used to walk around with like, his collar up, and I remember seeing him on the bus, in the back corner with his collar up, wearing his red blazer like 'What's up? What's up? I'm Moli.'
Moli: It depends! We need to narrow it down. Do you wanna have a rowdy time or a classy time? If you wanna go high brow, I'd probably say... don't go with us! *laughs* Nah, like, St. Kilda's quite nice, if you wanna have coffee or something like that...Braden: There's some fancy stuff going on at the Crown casino, too. (Moli makes a disapproving noise)Jamie: If you're into the casino stuff, the Crown's the best. We've been to all the casinos, the Crown's the best. Definitely.Moli: Across Australia, it is the best casino, by far.Jamie: If you're into that kind of thing.Moli: If you wanna have a really rowdy time, you can go to Billboards.Jamie: On a Thursday night!
Moli: It's a bit random to be honest. "Summertime Girls" we wrote on the Gold Coast, we had a couple of days off. We literally just went to the beach for two days and tried to write songs, and wrote three songs in two days, which is good for us. Other times, we have a studio set up at [Ben's] house, so we write a lot out of there.Ben: Whatever gets the ideas going, really.
Moli: It's so important. I like to think we're a pretty pretentious-free band, we're easy-going and we like to chat to our fans and give them all the time we've got 'coz without fans, we're nothing, so we'll give as much time to our fans as we can! If I have to write a fan's mum a letter, and I've got the time, I'll do it!Ben: It's great to see fans getting back on board. You know, we've been doing this for so long that some fans sort of grow out of your music a little bit, and now that we're pushing hard, they've come back on board, and it's great to see all these different fans from all these different places we've met along the way come back. We were at a radio station in Newcastle, and a girl saw us busking at a concert in 2012 at a Simple Plan show. She came in the room while we were on air, and she was like 'Oh my gosh. You guys, I remember you at this concert, you were busking, and now you're in here with your single and you've got Universal Music behind you!' and that's a huge feeling for us to have that satisfaction.
Ben: We've been a band for three years, so it's not something we knew was gonna happen overnight, and we knew it did take a lot of hard work. For us, the reward is seeing some success out of it. Even though it's only small at the moment, it still reflects all the hard work we've done. We can't explain how much hard work we've put into this band, in terms of all the financial sacrifice, still living with our parents, driving all around the country in a car and having no accommodation, trying to find friends and make friends so you can sleep on their couch... The best thing about this band is we can now have some sort of satisfaction.
Moli: It's literally a three-day story so I can't tell you all of it 'coz it'll take 20 minutes!Braden: A lot of crazy things happened. It kinda started off with us meeting Kochie early in the night, and then we were all just excited from that!Moli: They ended up bomb-diving into a pool, naked!Jamie: We were at this very very classy rooftop nightclub with a pool, everyone's standing around the pool in suits, a couple of people are sort of splashing their feet... [Ben and Braden] see the pool, strip down, bomb dive in it, there's a strict no splashing rule, so security comes up and tried to kick them out, our Universal dudes are like 'You're not kicking them out.' Next minute, one of the club people are bringing them fresh towels... and a platter of drinks!
Ben: We had a performance at an all-girls school, which started at 12 p.m. I found my way back to [Braden], who was an hour and a half away...Braden: I spent a lot of money on a taxi...Ben: Everyone's phone battery was flat, [Moli and Jamie] were... somewhere...Moli: We ended up getting to the high school at 4 p.m. so we missed the whole thing.Ben: [Braden and I] had to do the performance as a duo.Braden: A full band performance, as a duo! It was very awkward!Moli: It's a long story!Ben: ... And we killed it! But, coincidentally, the guy who decided to sign us to Universal decided to rock up to the show. So he's rocked up to the show, expecting to see this band, who he'd taken out the night before, to party the whole night, mind you. He's expecting to see all these boys rocking out on stage with 250 girls, he walks in, and just sees us two (gestures to Ben), and we're just like ... 'We're dropped.'Jamie: And to wrap it all up, they've finished, we've finally made our way to the school, it's 40 degrees, mind you, and the Universal guy walks out, and here's me and Moli on the fence of the school, just tipping water on ourselves.
Ben: As it turns out, the guy from Universal thought we did a spectacular job, so if this doesn't work out... Braden: Just call us BrayBen.
Ben: I was rocking out to MKTO's album this morning, The Script, Maroon 5...Moli: We're really into Hot Chelle Rae when they were around a couple of years ago.Ben: I actually listen to The Vamps, too, which is cool.Braden: Katy Perry's got some killer stuff going around.Moli: Just pop. Just big pop acts. They work with the best songwriters in the world; they're amazing.
Moli: Ben sleeps naked a lot.Ben: I spend a lot of time naked.Braden: We're sharing a room on this tour, and I walked in, and he was just setting up his bed, getting everything ready, fluffing his pillows... completely naked.Ben: It was hot, though. I did cook the band dinner though, so I can be as naked as I want!
Moli: Well we're gonna be up in Brisbane with Vamps, so we'll probably try to get some Aussie flags or something, giant thongs...Jamie: Just rep Australia on the stage, with all the UK boys around... SHOW 'EM HOW IT'S DONE, AYE?!Ben: We'll skull a few VB tinnies.
Moli: I saw the Taylor Swift thing...Ben: It's a bit dramatic...Moli: It is a bit dramatic, but I do like Taylor Swift. I think it's great.Ben: We're a pop band, and we like pop music, we're not really into the whole... Triple J world.Moli: I vote Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber for the Hottest 100!
Braden: I broke my toe.Ben: Did ya?! *laughs* That's sick!Braden: It was at Geelong wharf...Moli: Were you trying to crack a VB tinny with your toe?Braden: I went to dive off the diving board but I didn't jump far enough and I just hit the diving board, toe first, and I broke it and I had to swim back out.Ben: If you're making that up, that's a good make-up story.Braden: I was on crutches for about two weeks!
Moli: On Australia Day, two years ago, we played at a festival called Tunarama, which is in Port Lincoln...Ben: It's six hours south of Adelaide...Moli: So we rocked up, we were like the headline act, and we weren't really promised any rider or hotel room or anything and we were like 'Hey, we're Masketta Fall from Melbourne,' we made everything up. 'Apparently there's a massive rider and a hotel room for us... where is it all?'Ben: So they're all like 'Oh! ... Um... Yes, sir!'Moli: So this girl goes away for like, ten minutes, and then she comes back like 'Okay guys, just follow us upstairs,' and takes us upstairs to this massive, six bedroom hotel suite, drinks everywhere... And we ended up getting drunk...Jamie: Very, very wobbly.
Ben: At Tunarama, we were onstage and the crowd was really enjoying everything we were saying and doing, we rocked out "Wonderwall" and just played a bunch of hits and then I think Braden didn't have much to say to the crowd so he just decided to scream 'WHO'S GOT A COUSIN?!?!?!?!' and literally, like a thousand people were just like 'WOO HOO!'
Moli: We all used to drink vodka, then we started drinking beer, and recently myself and Ben have been onto Canadian Club, and now we're drinking spiced rum. Rum and dry, with some lime.Ben: But like, the night gets going and you mix it up. Never limit yourself to one...Braden: A little bit of sambucca comes into the picture every now and then...Ben: Sambucca yeaahhh!
Jamie and Braden, simultaneously: Berocca!Jamie: Before you go to sleep...Braden: Definitely.Moli: No, there's more than that, there's a better one!Jamie: I don't care what he has to say.Moli: No, it's the same thing, but it's a Berocca and a Panadol. You need to have like, a Berocca and two Panadol before you go to sleep, and you wake up fresh. It works every time!Ben: You need to have a Berocca, Panadol and KFC before bed.Braden: Oh! There's this really good hangover cure, it's called Hair of the Dog, and that's where you just keep drinking.Jamie: There's no cure, there's only prevention. If you wake up with a hangover, it's over.Ben: Drink safe, guys! Drink safe at home.
Ben, Jamie and Braden: KFC! *Moli nods*
Jamie and Braden, immediately: TIM TAMS!Jamie: Has anyone ever said Vegemite?!Moli: Tim Tams, Tim Tams... Wait, can I have bread? (Yes.) Oohh...Ben: Like what type of Tim Tams are we talking about here?Moli: The whole range!Jamie: Can you have Vegemite 2.0?!Braden: Can you have Marmite? Mighty Mite?Jamie: iSnack?!Moli: Is that still on sale?
Braden: I'm watching The 100 at the moment, it's a sci-fi show.Jamie: What is that?Braden: Well, um, the human race has been living up in space for 97 years because there was a big nuclear attack on the earth, so they send a hundred prisoners down to earth to find out if the earth is habitable, and what happens next will shock you!Moli: CLICKBAIT!Ben: I have a lot of favourite shows, I'm big on TV shows...Moli: He's struggling to find a new one, he's watched that many!Braden: He watches terrible shows and enjoys it!Jamie: Walking Dead...Ben: Boardwalk Empire...Moli: Game of Thrones, everyone loves that...Jamie: I hate Game of Thrones...Moli: Sons of Anarchy, amazing...Braden: [Ben] watched House, as well.Ben: House was a great TV show!Jamie: And Air Crash Investigations! I'm not even lying, it's one of my favourite shows.Ben: And Home and Away, I love Home and Away.Braden: And It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, for a comedy, it's so hilarious.Ben: Entourage. Great show! *turning to Braden* What about A Current Affair?! Today Tonight?! Season 850 was soo good.
Jamie: I'm a Star Wars boy.Ben: Anything with Matthew McConaughey... except Mud.Moli: I liked The Island.Ben: Anything with Leonardo DiCaprio is great too. The Beach has a great vibe to it.Braden: I think my favourite at the moment is The Dead Poet's Society.Jamie: Air Crash Investigation: The Movie.Ben: Brad Pitt, anything with Brad Pitt is also good.