Before we get into who and what Sex Panther are, let’s clear up what they are not – another girl band churning out album after album of generic pop sounds.
‘Girl bands are bands that sing together, harmonise together and sing songs about loving your coochie-ya-ya. And we’re not that. Everyone plays instruments and writes songs. We’re not the fuckin’ Spice Girls,’ says lead singer Storm.
While they might not be a girl band, they are a group of four rockin’ local ladies – Storm (lead singer), Mouth (guitar), Jess (drums), Ainslie (bass/backup vocals) – who let it all hang out on stage and can tell a tour story with the best of them. In fact as soon as the subject of tours comes up, the girls are off and running down memory lane.
‘We played a festival in Brighton,’ said Storm, before Jess jumps in, ‘We wanted to go down for the first night of the festival – it was a three-night festival – and the town was entirely booked out. But that didn’t stop us. We just got on a train with our sleeping bags, and then slept on a playground at a camping ground. These guys who were really drunk came to play on the playground at 2am and didn’t realize there were six girls sleeping there. They screamed and then we screamed, and then we bonded. They were down the front row in all of our concert photos.’
For all their tour shenanigans, punk edge and rock energy, Sex Panther started, believe it or not, as a barbershop quartet. Four high school friends watched the movie Anchorman, in which Will Ferrell uses a cologne called Sex Panther, and then joked that they should start a barbershop quartet named after the cologne.
A few years since and the girls have definitely strayed from the barbershop. Instead, they can be found on stages throughout WA singing such full-throttled vocal hits as C*ntstruck in front of fans the girls describe as cult-like. If that seems a bit extreme, bear in mind there are a few dozen ‘pantherettes’ out there with a tattoo of a panther claw that Jess designed for the band. And there is at least one bloke with a dead flamingo on his bum, another homage to the band, though it’s probably best not to ask why.
So, having amassed a tattooed following, just what will Sex Panther do next? Well, June saw the Perth-based group migrate east to record their first full-length album.
When asked what fans can expect from the album, Storm says, ‘It’s not just verse-chorus-verse-chorus. There’s a lot more things going on – rhythm changes and that sort of stuff. It’s not just songs for the moment, it’s songs you can look back on and enjoy,’
Mouth nods along to Storm’s description, then sums the new album up in a single word –’Dirt.’
To find out when you can get the latest dirt from Sex Panther, visit www.myspace.com/panthersex
THE SEX PANTHER MOST LIKELY TO…
- Wake up naked on a stranger’s lawn with no idea of how they got there – Mouth
- Win a Nobel Prize – Ainslie
- Inspire the creation of a Japanese Anime character – Jess
- Retire from rock n’ roll to live in the suburbs – Storm
- Pass out at a party before midnight – too close to call
