BIO

Gerling was formed in the outer western suburbs of Sydney, Australia at the peak of grunge in 1992, by three teens who dabbled in metal and rock in their formative years, but were warped by an independent radio show whose signal barely bled out to the Gerling homeland.

The weekly transmission exposed them to the classic first outings from twisted west coast guitar geeks, Truman's Water. Combined with a steady diet of early pre-slanted Pavement, Sonic Youth and Huggy Bear, the trio set up their equipment in a warehouse in an industrial estate and created a chaotic and joyous noise that was certainly unheard of in metropolitan Sydney up until then.

Darren Cross, Paul 'presser' Towner and wunderkind Burke Reid set about remapping the geography of Australian music by going where ever the hell they wanted.

Never having relied on, well, reliable equipment or technology, Gerling invested in battered analogue keyboards; moog copies and farfisas came and went as did 4-track technology. Way before digital sampling and looping came into the common vocabulary, Gerling were three teens with a pause and record button, a cassette 4-track and splicing knives. The result was the naive, primitive but glorious debut album children of telepathic experiences that set Gerling off onto what has been a stunning and always-exciting ride.

Children… earned Gerling release in the UK, and their early 'hit' enter space caspule won them the adulation of one Kylie Minogue who, upon hearing that they were on tour in the UK, agreed to pop into a studio and lay a guest vocal track that was to be included on Gerling's second album headzcleaner.

With slightly updated technology and a much more refined knowledge of studio happenings, headzcleaner continues on where children… left off. Polished and thumping beats sat seamlessly beside tuneage akin to their earlier guitarrorist raves and krautrock-inspired instrumentals. Other guests swayed by the Gerling sound included Dutch cut-and-paste chanteuse Solex and notorious hip hop chameleon Kool Keith, who both contributed vocals to headzcleaner.

headzcleaner went on to help establish the band in Australia as mavericks who were willing to take risks, and the live experience has long been talked about as one of the shows to see in Australia. As proof of this, in January 2004, Gerling are/were in the middle of their third national run on the Big Day Out tour in 5 years. A feat that no other act can lay claim to.

On top of an ever-expanding live fan base in Australia, Japan has also been a ready and willing audience with headzcleaner being released on Sony music to rave reviews, coupled with a storming live set at Fuji festival in 2002 that saw Gerling in front of 6,000 far eastern fans.

Then came BadBlood!!!

Channeling the punk sprit of 1977, Gerling have written, recorded and produced most of BadBlood!!! in their now infamous G.E.R.L.O.G. studios in sunny, downtown Alexandria, Sydney with a do.it.yrself attitude and style.

The sound of BadBlood!!! is more refined – their wish was to be able to transfer their live energy to the studio and then actually be able to take it back out on the stage again with less reliance on studio technology. BadBlood!!! is darker, more abrasive and punk than headzcleaner… Gerling return to their snotty, bratty guitar roots on Badblood!!! without completely forsaking their travels through the musical soundscape… Featuring the whacked out electro of Who’s Ya Daddy? as well as the current noisy, spiky, antagonistic, punk-disco, new wave rock anthem Get Activated, BadBlood!!! is punk music you can dance to.

Punk_dance_music!

Gerling - three scruffy punks, with nice shoes, daring to push the envelope and challenge the mainstream. Armed with shitty broken equipment, and ready to take on the world.

www.bighassle.com