Underground Sounds

UNDERGROUND SOUNDS: FREE METAL FOR YOU TO ENJOY
Who would have thought you could grow a multi media monster from local metal alone? For Shane McNamara and his budding, three-headed empire - Magnertron (the band), Magnertron (the recording studio); and Underground Sounds (the best metal show on telly) - It’s a given. A purist at heart, Shane’s a genuine guy whose band has been going for well over a decade so he knows what he’s on about. Shane and the rest of the guys from the band all help to host Underground Sounds; on which they’ve guested everyone from Golden City to Blooduster. Considering they’re already taping shows for the next series, I get the idea that it’s meeting great demand from the heavy masses. Based from his home in Brisbane, Shane’s working in the studio today and I can hear rugrats going off in the background. I enquire, and learn that Shane put one of his kids on the show last week, mimicking ‘dad’ in the credits. Classic. But fatherhood has its ups and downs. Says Shane, “One of ‘em likes Slipknot. Whaddya do?”

It’s one thing to say’ it’d be cool to do a Metal Show’ and it’s another thing to actually go out and do it
You remember the AMV show? Well I hosted that once or twice and we used to go on there nearly every second week, Magnertron, and perform. So I’ve been hanging around the Bris. 31 Studios for a long time. (Underground Sounds) was something that just had to happen. We just did the final episode of the season but we’re continuing on all the time, we’re actually trying to get a grant for season 2 but we’re still recording and as we do them we just take them in and air them.

What’s the schedule?
We were on Wednesdays and Saturdays for six months it’s been flat out, so we’re going to go back to just doing it once a fortnight or something. Plus we’ve used up all our songs; we have to go and make up some new songs!

You’ll have to put some time aside.
Ten minutes ago I was at the studio ready to do the first four vocal tracks for the CD we’re releasing in July.

Oh there you go. Can you give me a hint?
Yeah I ‘spose, we haven’t really got all the titles and that down fully yet but we’ve got all the lyrics and that worked out. I don’t want to give anything away though. We’ve got two other albums out though, Demonized and Holocaust, thirty songs between ‘em, released ’96 and ' 99 we haven’t had any new material for a while, we’ve just been going around promoting ourselves. We’ve been on Rage and Triple J; we’ve been flat out.

Since the show has formed and the affiliation with Triple J has grown et cetera, what has the influx of interested bands been like?
We’ve been getting some really good bands in. We got Blooduster in we had a Blooduster special, that was awesome. When we had them on there were only three words the drummer was allowed to get through; everything else had to be burped or farted out.

Ha! To cover profanities?
Yeah. Instead of a beep we try to make it funny, so in that case ‘brutal’, ‘drugs’ and ‘rockin’ were the only words that got through.

Well then do you have to burp out swearing within a song?
We can have swearing within a song, it’s that artistic law and shit; but we’re not allowed to swear in the commentary or interviews.

Underground Sounds showcases local Brisbane bands and their ORIGINAL music. If you want to get your band on Underground Sounds or are looking to do an affordable, a broadcast quality recording ; give Shane a ring 07 3200 4680 or email magnertronstudio@yahoo.com / www.undergroundsounds.4t.com