Brittle FX: Eight Up.

A Ballina based trio of year eight students were first past the post as Brittle FX took top honours in the recent Ashton’s High School Rock grand final. The band took some time to answer some questions via email about the event, and what their future holds.

What does winning High School Rock mean to the band?

“Winning Ashton's High School Rock was an incredible break. It's what we’ve been working towards all year. Hopefully will lead to a lot of opportunities for us. We would like to be famous so that everybody knows us, especially chicks, and have a chance to write lots of great songs and perform all over the world and also make a lot of money because we haven't got any at the moment and can't do anything.”

“Getting some new gear is something we really needed. Ben is getting a new guitar as he had to borrow one for the comp. Billy is getting a new bass amp and Geoff is getting a new double kicker to replace the second hand one he got from the pawn shop.”

Did you expect to make it so far in the competition?

“We did not think we had a chance of winning. We thought we would come third when the extra third place was given but when we didn't get it we were a bit disappointed because we did not imagine that we would even come second. When we were called out as the winners we were completely gob smacked for about 10 seconds then we were really cheering. Everyone around us was screaming. All our friends had come from Ballina to support us. It was wild.”

Do you think it’s important for younger bands to have an event like this to help push their musical development?

“Events like this help bands to get some professional experience and develop confidence on stage. It was great to use good equipment and have sound guys to fix up all the gear for us and to be able to hear ourselves through the foldbacks. The stage was huge and lights were great. It was the biggest crowd we've ever played to and we loved it.”

What’s on the horizon for the band? Are you planning on recording?

At present we are trying to make a perfect recording of one of our songs, Reset, to send in to Triple J Unearthed. We have made a six track demo already but it is not good enough to play on radio so we hope to be able to make a single of Reset to promote.”