The first ever No No Fest is happening this Saturday 27 July at the Black Box Theatre in Nambour. The fest is presented by No No Records, the brainchild of the inimitable Sydney Kerley, musician, fan, promoter, organiser and no doubt one of the hardest-working lads in the local music scene.

We hit up Kerley for the inside story on No No Fest, the vision behind his growing empire and the shape of things to come.

BAD HABIT: As a kid, I can remember seeing glimpses of punk and alternative music in mainstream media, like the Dead Kennedys on the news and satanic panic in current affair exposés. These things made me so intrigued at this forbidden culture hiding just below the surface, and that intrigue led to a lifelong immersion into punk. I’m wondering what the trigger points were that led you down this overgrown path into underground culture?  Where would you be if you didn’t get those prompts or if your brain didn’t follow them into this subterranean world?

KERLEY: I don't think there was a real trigger point for me, I think it kind of just snowballed into the No No-sphere. When I was about seven, my father and Tom, his best mate, opened up Jampot Studios in Noosaville, so I was exposed to a lot of music creation from a young age. I have memories of going into the studio and listening to mixing sessions and bands rehearse, so I was always around a lot of music.

I went to high school with The Chats, so I went to a lot of their small Coolum backyard gigs where they'd play to 10-15 people and that led to me doing some work with Macka (The Cosmic Psychos) and helping him plan some tours in exchange for him teaching me guitar. Macka then introduced me to Stumpy (Andrew Leavold), and we started planning Ketamine Cowboys and mucking around on shows, which in turn got me involved in the Nambour scene and shows. I then met Peter Clack, who played with AC/DC in their early days and he taught me how to play drums.

I think everything just snowballed into what it is now and that feels really great and natural.

There wasn't exactly a "Fuck you Mum!" rebellious moment.

BH: You have a focus on the more garage punk (and I know that focus still includes a lot more than just garage punk, but I feel like it’s your bread and butter). What is the draw of this particular style over others?

K: I guess what I really like is how everyone has room to breathe. It takes a special sort of band to have the guitarist doing an amazing blitzing guitar solo, but the bass and drums are so solid and clear that they aren’t overshadowed by the others, and everyone feels like they're there and nothing is being dismissed. It's a sound that is so distinct for the 90's St Kilda scene that I adore. Probably just the fact everyone was using Marshall Majors and no pedals other than the bassists fully blown out fuzz.

There is just something so seminal and distinct about that late 80's to 90's Brisbane/Melbourne Toilet Rock scene. I remember when I fell in love with it. I got an autoplay video pop up on YouTube and it was the Cosmic Psychos’ Slave to the Crave. As soon as I heard the bass and drums on Decadence… by the guitar solo I was hooked. That then spiralled me down the path of The Onyas, Powder Monkeys, Hymies, Dangermen, etc. to more current stuff.

It's really interesting how you will often see younger people follow the same path I did in which they start at the origin of that pivotal point of Aussie garage rock and then expand their view and start looking at local bands. You'd think you'd start with a local band that a mate’s mate plays in and then work backward but more recently the younger punks I've conversed with seem to follow a similar path where they don't know much, hear one of these seminal songs and then start looking locally.

What's the go with No No Records? How did it begin and how has it evolved?

K: No No Records originally started around four years ago under a different name. I had the desire to do a music blog where I'd write reviews for albums, which slowly morphed into me doing audio podcasts with underground musicians from varying genres and art forms across the world. (I've left them up on YouTube and they're still on the No No YouTube channel actually, but they're shit). I got to interview one of the actors who did a major character in The Walking Dead video games as well, but I never published that episode cos he was kind of a dick.

BH: I know you’re doing a buttload of gigs right now and you’ve mentioned it can be difficult. What would you say are the big challenges with gigs under the No No banner?

K: The challenges are an interesting question. The main challenge for me is time, resources and money. Time-wise because I work full time, five days a week, eight and a half hours a day.

I'm fortunate enough to work from home and work a mostly solitary job other than the phone calls throughout the day, so that gives me the ability to coordinate venues and make calls throughout the day. However, balancing and organising two tours, on top of six to seven local shows, on top of planning and organising the next seven confirmed album releases at the same time as making my full-time job my main priority is draining.

I've probably been doing 12-hour days for the last three months, every day.

Resource-wise, one of the main hold-ups with lots of gigs is organising a backline. It's hard to find venues that have a backline for shows, so I often rely on the bands. I often feel guilty and stressed about this, however I am working on a more permanent solution. After I get through these next 25 shows we have planned for the year, I intend to take some time off from organising shows and sink all the money I would’ve put into shows into organising a solid backline.

I lose almost all my income doing No No, but I do it for my friends to help fund their passions and artistic visions, as a social outlet to get out of the house and, most importantly, because it is what I want to do. I love new artists and bands reaching out to me asking for shows and feedback. I know No No will grow, which I'm already seeing now but I'm currently surrounded in my close circle with some of the most inspiring, creative, freaky flag waving motherfuckers who really taught me that it doesn't matter what you like, how weird and mental you are, that there is always a place for everyone, and that makes me really happy. I wouldn't be around if it wasn't for the support of people like (but not limited to) Stumpy, Steve, Dave, Mick and you, Borg.

BH: No No Fest is coming up this weekend. What’s the concept behind it? Will it be a yearly event? What can we expect? What is the vision with the event?

K: No No Fest is essentially my idea of an all-ages, all-day soiree with a collection of bands that I find really awesome, with the goal of bringing together various rock communities and exposing people to genres they might not have checked out before. Sort of like your block parties, I guess, to an extent! This first one, as you mentioned, is on 27 July with a bunch of sick funk, punk and rock bands.

I'm unsure what the frequency of this will be just yet. I'm currently working on the second one, which will happen on 21 December and is going to double as "Kerley Birthday Beers". We've got some killer Brisbane bands lined up, I'm looking forward it.

What I expect is a full day of my favourite people on the Sunny Coast coming to the one venue and just sharing drinks and having laughs while listening to some kick ass music. It's really awesome putting genre variety on shows, because it keeps everything fresh and fun! You have to have some kind of genre-based focus that the event centres around but get different bands that expose rockers to genres or musicians they may have never thought of checking out. It's sort of like why you never hear of any doom festivals (haha). There's also going to be an Antivision popup stall there run by the Doublesided Nail boys, which will be sick!

I envision I'll be able to slow down on the other shows so I can focus my attention to what No No Records is and should be about, which is actually putting out records. We've got so many in the pipeline and I want to eventually be able to just have these sick bands hitting me up asking "Can we play No No Fest?". That would make my job and mental state a lot easier.

I will continue to do smaller shows like we did Saturday at Morts but will maybe only do one or so a month rather, than the three to four I'm doing now.

BH: I’ve heard you mention developing a unifying ‘look’ for No No Records, and I have noticed you’ve had the same artist do the last bunch of flyers. Can you tell us about the artist and the idea behind the look of the label?

K: This idea was more from a business perspective. My thought was "How can I make the local community look at a poster and know it's a No No show?".

Jaben does my graphic art and does a really sick job at it as well. He runs Pineapple Sticker Art. When it comes to things like artwork creation, I'm not overly fussy but I don't personally have a knack for the graphic arts. Normally I just send Jaben the venue, date and lineup and he'll whip up something pretty sick. I think his style is pretty damn cool and of the people who hit me up, I liked his the best.

For the first few shows, I was messaging various people who do graphic art but would constantly hop around and didn't dial in on a specific style. But I've done that now and I reckon people can look at one of the shirts/posters/events and understand who/what's behind it.

BH: From what I understand, and correct me if I’m wrong, the first release is an Indonesian band. Can you tell us about that and what’s on the cards for future releases?

K: There are a few releases coming out. Technically the first one is out on the day of No No Fest, our launch show actually! It's Punktilious Live in the Can! It was a recording that they did on 4ZZZ. They sent it to me and I went through and did up a really cool sounding mix and mastered it for them, so we're putting it out on tape.

Following that, we've got The Joplins, who are the Indonesian band you mentioned. They're really sick, they reached out to me probably after my first or second No No show. I have no idea how they found me and sent me their rough demo. I remember I saw the link and didn't listen to it until they reached back out to me a couple months back and I finally listened to it and thought "Holy hell, this is some blown off the Tascam awesome cowpunk shit!". Hence I decided to press up 50 tapes for them, which I'll send over for their tour. We're also talking about doing a split with them but more on that next year.

We're also doing a Morts show this Saturday, which is free entry. We’ll be recording, mixing and mastering a live Ketamine Cowboys cassette, which will accompany Stumpy's book launch sometime in September/October. Think the writings of Ted Bundy if he was half as loose as Andrew, with doodlings of Fred Negro to soften the offensive humour. (You should hear some of the shit that got censored!).

On top of that, we've got a 12 inch coming out for Mark's Paranormal Dysneyland. This one here was technically meant to be the first No No release, however due to me wasting all of my money on shows, I haven't scraped up the funds yet. But we're sending it off for pressing in late September. We've got some really cool features on there, like members from Laughing Clowns, Screamfeeder, Gravel Samwidge, Some Jerks and a bunch of others. We put out the first music video for that last week, entitled "Don't be Crying". It's not punk at all!

We've also got some 7 inches coming out with Gudgeon, Skirmisher, 7ft Sooks, Punktilious and the Mr Bastard 30th anniversary reissue (once we get to Europe and get the master tapes). We're getting The Hymies back together soonish and the new Gudgeon album but more on that will reveal over time.

BH: Do you give much consideration to the total digitalisation of the music world and what that means for physical media?

K: I think there will always be appeal for physical media. If you couldn't tell from the above, I love physical media and what it represents. It’s why I got into collecting records when I was young, even as someone who grew up with technology. I wanted something I could physically hold and show off that says "Yes, I appreciate this piece of media so much that I want something I can physically shove down people throats".

Nowadays, a majority of my music I discover comes from online, like most people, however as soon as I find a record or song I like, I'll immediately search around for a record of it and purchase it.

It's also vital to a preservation standpoint. One day Spotify, Apple, YouTube etc will all close and those records will be gone. Digital goods are not something that you own, it's essentially an extended rental until their service goes offline.

Cassette tapes are great, they're cheaper to press up and sell than CDs and (I think) people find them more appealing as a "collector’s item", so people pick them up. Nobody really has a tape player anymore but finding a middle ground between streaming and physical is a must.

BH: Cheers for answering these questions. Lets wrap it up with a list of your stuff coming up and how heads can tune into whats going on. Any last words?

K: I think I've waffled on enough but come on out to the first No No Fest on 27 July. It's all ages, under 18s get in half price ($10) and it goes for 8 hours.

Thanks for the opportunity Borgy, and thanks for what you do for the community!

Much love.

WHAT IS NO NO FEST?

An inaugural celebration of funk, punk, rock and hardcore brought to you by No No Records, a local powerhouse of music promotion and good times!

NO NO FEST
Saturday 27 July
Black Box Theatre
80 Howard Street, Nambour

Punktilious - (No wankers allowed, just raw tunes!)
7ft Sooks - (Tall as a gum tree, twice as rowdy!)
One More Billy - (Billy’s got one more bloody song to belt out!)
Mark’s Paranormal Dysneyland (Where the haunted teacups play sludge!)
The Get Nots - (They don’t play around, they’ll make ya bloody ears ring!)
Work? - (Yep, that’s their name. No questions asked!)
Cuff - (Funkadelic grooves to get ya hips shakin’!)
Leaker - (Hardcore chaos that’ll rattle ya bones!)
Mystery Band - TBA (Who the flamin’ heck are they? Exactly! You'll find out soon)
ALL AGES
2pm to 10.30pm
Tickets $20 or $10 for under 18s
Book here