Rawrus Tongue are an exciting three piece hard rock band that can riff and roll with the best of them and are based out of Wollongong,NSW, Australia. Rawrus Tongue have a sound inspired by the Aussie rock greats as well as bands like The Hellacopters and Powdermonkeys.Rawrus Tongue can best be described as a hard rockin’,stoner fuzz,riff laden rock and roll, led by the irrepressible Glen Bourne on Guitar and Vocal Duties,Paul Slappin da Bass Appleton,and Rich the heartbeat Berndt on Skins. Recently Jai was chatting to Glen through social media about their Ep Dinosaur Language and got together a few questions for the Rawrus Tongue guys about the EP which we go through track by track ,as well as all things Rawrus Tongue and Glen being an all round legend took some time out to go through them for Crannk. Give it a read than go Crannk up some RAWRUS TONGUE\m/
Q:About us and who are Rawrus Tongue.
GB:So we are just a bunch of musically like minded dudes,probably past our prime,musicians from Wollongong.The three of us have all been in other bands and we are all actually guitarists,weve all just been floating around really.I moved to Wollongong and put an ad on facebook to start this band,Pauly Appleton answered first and he was a guitarist for Brown Paper Bag and a few others,and he jumped on bass.Then along came Rich Berndt for the drums,who has been in about a million bands,Ii think.Me,myself have had some bands that just fizzled,but I kept alot of material which I had written and managed to put it into Rawrus Tongue.
Q :How did you form?
We formed early to mid 2018,I had moved to Wollongong from further down the coast with the intention of starting a band.My girl put an ad on facebook for me and I got Pauly pretty quick,he is a solid player,a good dude with good ideas.So after a bit of a fuck around with drummers ,we found Rich who has been awesome. It worked out that when I moved up here,I came with probably enough material for an EP and an album fully written.So it was just a matter of learning the songs with the boys and learning to play together. Pauly has done an awesome job at adapting tto bass,its all happened pretty quick.
Q:How did you get the name?
GB:This is a funny one,and will probably clear up a few things for the folks who have heard of us and come to our shows.So me and my girl were partying and this was years ago,I was in another band with a different name at the time,but any hoo,we managed to party til the morning came around and we wre pretty tired.My girl turned and said to me,”Ive got the rawrest tongue”,I misheard it as she was kind of holding her tongue as she said it.I said “what,you’ve got the rawrus tongue.”? It sounded like a speech impediment, but anyway I laughed and said that it was a good name for a band.,It made me think of all the iconic tongues’ in rock and roll like Gene Simmons(Kiss) ,with his anaconda and the Rolling Stones lips and tongue.I just thought it had a backdated stoner aesthetic sound to it.So then a Rawrus is a cartoon dinosaur,that made me think of all the critiques and other styles of music who now call rock and rolll a dinosaur genre.I went and watched Rose Tattoo a while ago,and somebody asked me why I was going to watch those dinosaurs.I thought fuck it,thats what we’ll be then.Rawrus Tongue and Dinosaur language mean exactly the same thing…?
Q:Describe the sound and style.
GB:I think the sound is basically Australian garage rock meets punk/stoner/metal at the moment, but were are trying to bring psychedelic and more sonic stuff.
The songs are structured pretty straight forward and simple,I deliberately write them that way.But saying that,a few different people are saying that ‘Our love’, track four on the EP, sounds like Jane’s Addiction,someone else said Collective Soul lol,it was actually another drummer we had for a little bit,so you could say that I’m fucking glad tha ,he didn’t work out,Collective Soul indeed!.We’ve even had ACDC, Ramones,Motorhead,Bored,Powdermonkeys. I don’t know,it just sounds like rock and roll to me!,
Q:How and when did you start playing.?
GB:I started picking up the guitar when I was 9 and I’m 41 now,so just add that up,I should be a lot better player than I am due to laziness and lack of practice.My older brother who was a good player got the first electric, a shitty strat shaped copy with a little prac amp.We had to stab holes in the speaker to try to get some gain because we didnt have a distortion pedal,my brother tought me alot!.Ididn’t start writing songs though until Iwas in my twenties,and only for the fact that Iwanted to be in a band and no other cunt I knew was going to write or sing so i just said “fuck it, I’ll have a go” and here it is,love it or hate it ,I dont five a fuck!.
Q:What are some of your musical influences?
GB:Very early on my brother got us into metal,Metallica,Megadeth,Exodus,Slayer,Anthrax,all the good thrash,mullet,wife beater and tattoos.He used to let us into his room to listen to Rose Tattoo,ACDC, The Angels,so all those bands I just mentioned are influences.my brother said “fuck metal”one day,now we’re listening to this,The Doors,Pink Floyd,Hendrix,Neill Young.The Doors are still one of my main influences,but to be honest,the band that really crossed it over for me was watching The Hellacopters at The Metro in Sydney.I wont go into how good the show was but I’d been playing for a long time at this point and it was everything I had in my head or wanted.I had been furthering myself from heavy metal for years before that and watching that band,,they blew me away and it was within my capabilities too.To tell you the truth,not knowing they were actually playing an Australian style.I’ll leave it at this, Jimi Hendrix and Robert Dahlquist,aka, Strings..R.I.P. are among my biggest influences as far as guitar goes.
Q:How do you approach the song creation and the writing process?
GB:So I have beeen the sole writer in this band up until this point,I’m sure that will change.Paul has got some stuff that he wants to do and Rich probably has ideas too.I’ve actually held onto alot of songs that i wrote in other bands for a long time,three of the tracks on Dinosaur Language have been rewritten,rearranged,in different keys and all sorts of shit for 15 years,lol.I never said that i was a natural songwriter or the most intelligent, so all the songs plus an album’s worth were actually written before I teamed up with the boys, but the way I go about the creation side is this, every riff or guitar bit should spark its own personality.That should lead to a concept,from there it should be forming atmosphere and emotion,then I just try to write words and lyrics as vividly as possible.I think im gettting better at each one i do!…….I’ll just let it be known to anyone if they ever read this,lol,that we are aware of how much more couldve been done to Dinosaur Language,production wise and it is really as bare as it comes.We just wanted it to sound like us live, EP or demo ,call it what you like,it stands up for 600 bucks.
Q; Ego Killer meaning?
GB:A good stoner cross punk riff and chorus! My favorite guitar solo is on it.This song is about the muder a 15 year old girl in a small town where everyone knew what was happening to her and did nothing to help her,not even her father.! She was involved with a certain association and she probably knew and seen to much.The details of the case are still proceeding to this day.!It was just sad!,Nobody ever did anything for her,so I thought I’d write this song!!
Q;The meaning of Fuck or fight
GB;Its ACDC cross Radio Birdman in the music,I reckon anyway. Paul can hear Motorhead,but its just about jealousy really,taking your girl out to the pub and having someone try and chat her up or just being aware of people with ulterior motives, especially when they’re in your life.Generally after a night out drinking,,” fuck or fight”,,that’s what most folks go home and choose! If you have a partner or friend!!.But there’s nothing wrong with a drunken root even if its by yourself!.haha.
Q;The meaning for My satellite
GB:I thought the main riff sounded like the Ramones and it also has a tribute line to Radio Birdman at the start of the pre chorus.,living eyes,beams of light across the sky, etc .But its basically about everyday battles with addiction,it is about a certain person, and how annoying and delusional some drugs can make some people .It is sad to watch and nobody can help!.
Q ;The meaning of Our Love.
GB:So the riff is pretty big, heavy and bombastic and it wouldve been pretty obvious to turn it into a complaint or a hate song or something with the middle finger up.I thought, fuck it,I’ll turn it into a love song.,because i didn’t think the music matched that.It really is an ode to the neverending love to my partner but its got a cold bitter confused twist to it and turns into a look at when love goes wrong.This is one of the songs that I’ve rewritten a hundred times over the years and all ideas and concepts never worked out.I think you really need to live a bit to write really good songs,I love it and i love what it means, and I love playing it live.
Facebook link – Bandcamp Link –
RAWRUS TONGUE are Glen Bourne – vocals + guitar
Paul Appleton – bass
Richard Berndt – drums
