On November 1 last year, Aussie punks Amyl and The Sniffers graced Irish soil for a second time in 2022, the first being their opening slot for Green Day at Marlay Park. Their debut Irish festival appearance is scheduled for this September, with the Melbourne-based rockers destined to enthrall Electric Picnic with their feral anthems.

Having originally formed as Balaclava in 2016, vocalist Amy Taylor, drummer Bryce Wilson, guitarist Dec Martens and bassist Gus Romer have come a long way. Their self-titled debut arrived in 2019 and blazed a trail, winning Best Rock Album at the ARIAs and landing them Foo Fighters support slots. 2021’s follow up Comfort To Me raised the bar even higher, featuring searing noise and piercing lyrics from the band’s firecracker frontwoman. We pick Dec’s brains about what to expect from their EP set.

“We’ve been to Ireland twice,” he notes, nursing a beer in his Melbourne house share. “There was a lot of Guinness last time, it was memorable. We went to Dublin Castle, it was good fun. We probably ended up in Temple Bar after playing the Olympia Theatre.”

Amyl and The Snifters at 3Olympia- November 2022. Copyright Peter OHanlon/ hotpress.com

Touring with rock veterans Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer must have been intense.

“Not really,” Martens shrugs. “There were a lot of days off because we had so much gear to move around. We only had to play for 20 minutes a night, because we were just the opening band. I got some nods from the Weezer guitarist every now and then. On the last night of the tour we partied with Green Day a little bit, which was fun. There’s a lot of hair dye in there!

“There’s a bit of wisdom now with what we do, but I don’t think we really acknowledge what we’ve learned. I anticipate this year’s run being the least party-oriented tour that we’ve ever done. But there’s lots of times where I’ve said that, then I end up drinking a lot, so we’ll see!”

Exploding onto the scene a few years ago, Amyl and the Sniffers’ riotous live show – complete with Taylor’s Iggy Pop-style stomping around the stage – has launched them from pub-rock obscurity to worldwide acclaim. Did Martens foresee their rise?

“Nah, of course not!” he laughs. “I remember when I met Amy and Bryce on the same night. They knew each other already. It was my first night in my first band and I was telling everyone about it. Bryce was in a group, too. My old band went to play a gig in Tasmania and that’s how I met Gus Romer. He had a big orange mullet back then. He was the weirdest looking person I’d ever seen in my life! Straight away there was a good connection.

“We just started Amyl and the Sniffers for fun. Amy had never been in a band before, so we thought it would be for parties. We ended up putting the music that we came up with on Bandcamp and everyone just liked it straight away. Even though we grew up in very different places, we did have a similar outlook and appreciation for our culture. It came easily. We never tried to be like AC/DC or anything. We just embraced being an Aussie band.”

Despite their reputation for incendiary shows, perfected during their pub-rock days in Australia, the group have had to deal with a lot of musical stereotyping.

“Yeah, assumptions is a good word,” Dec nods. “We come from a different part of the world to a lot of our peers. To try and look at us through the same sort of filter that you look at them is probably a bit of a misconception. It makes sense to ask Amy a lot of feminist questions because there is that element to the band, but there’s a lot more to us.”

Martens originally moved to Melbourne from Perth, as he sought to explore different aspects of the Australian music scene.

“My earliest musical memory is my mom putting on a Bob Marley VHS after I finished primary school,” he recalls. “I remember listening to Blondie and Talking Heads in the car on the way to school on a cassette. My dad put headphones on me and played Pink Floyd. He used to tell me to ‘hear it in the middle of my head’. My parents were really into music.

“There’s been some strange moments for us since then. Funnily enough I have a razor out here that must be my housemate’s or something [lifts it up to camera]. But someone in our Facebook fan page sliced ‘Amyl’ into their lower abs and said ‘Can’t wait for you guys to come to Portugal’ [shakes head]. We’ve been to Portugal twice since then and I think we’ll be going there the week before we go to Ireland.

“Back then I was petrified. We weren’t doing it full time yet, it was overwhelming. I’ve seen more of the world now! We always end up at someone’s fuckin’ bad party. Weird house session situations or accidentally at some music industry person’s house. A celebrity you think at first is really cool to meet, and then you end up hanging out with them for a while and you’re like, ‘Fuck, I never want to see that person again.’”

Have Amyl and the Sniffers spent time with any Irish bands, given half the country is in Oz?

“Fontaines D.C. and The Number Ones,” Dec replies. “They’re good. We met The Number Ones in New York a few years ago and we’re still in touch. They’re like a power pop band. I don’t know if they still play, but I remember their logo is four Guinness pint faces. I’d like to see Johnny Marr at Electric Picnic. Usually I just look for our friends’ bands so we can catch up at festivals.

“I haven’t really been to many as a punter, because before I played full time, I couldn’t really afford to go to festivals. Maybe our show at EP will be a big party, because it’s our last European date. We fly to Japan right after. You’re either going to get a really tired Amyl with Sniffers or really buzzed. We’ll see Grian Chatten in Portsmouth. They’re millionaires now, so it’s different for them – no, I’m kidding! We did a Gucci campaign.”

Amyl and the Sniffers will no doubt be fielding off questions about their eagerly awaited third album for the foreseeable future, but we had to stick our necks out and ask.

“It’ll be the same thing as Comfort To Me, where we try to show people that we can do more than what we did on the last one,” says Dec. “Or maybe we can do less than our first album! It’s all about staying interesting. We’ve been working on it for two months. It’s like learning to swim or something. A bit more bravery at every level, happy to go into deeper water.”

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