SEDATIVE // Happy Gilmore Samples, Inflatable Crocs & Thriving On Their Own Terms

A band who could not be sonically further from their namesake, Perth’s Sedative have roared into view with a vengeance in 2023, most recently via their latest single Romeo.

MORE: TROPHY EYES: “I Realised My Career Was Probably Close To Over If I Didn’t Release Something” REVIEWS: POLARIS: Fatalism // THY ART IS MURDER: Godlike // C.O.F.F.I.N // Australia Stops // HYRO THE HERO: Bound For Glory

Magnetic, malevolent and searingly executed, Romeo follows on from the band’s earlier 2023 single Ain’t No Love – but, as vocalist Blanche recently shared with HysteriaMag.com, the two share a similar origin point, with Romeo patiently biding its time before ferociously unveiling to the world.

“We’ve sat on Romeo for almost 6 months now,” says Blanche, “we tee’d both Romeo and Ain’t No Love up at the same time and through the process of touring, making videos, and getting the timings of releases right, we had to just patiently wait so we could finally get them out to the world!

“Musically I would say it’s the Sedative brand of music in its current evolved state, we’ve tried to be constantly improving what Sedative is from release to release and I think these last two singles are an excellent representation that shows we know exactly who we are as an artist now. Everyone knows what to expect with Sedative, the heaviest, most ridiculously shattering audio base, top-tier samples and truly heart wrenching lyrical content.

“I’ve had huge outpourings of feedback whenever we release a song of people really getting something from the lyrical content and that’s just such an absolutely huge deal to me personally.”

Lyrically inspired by Blanche’s own personal life, namely the current state of his relationship experiences, Romeo charges itself with sharp relatability alongside its barreling soundscape. And with an accompanying music video featuring Sedative’s on and offstage antics during their recent national tour with Within Destruction, there’s also yet another burgeoning Sedative trademark lying in wait at the end of Romeo in the form of an Adam Sandler Easter egg.

“The Happy Gilmore sample is just one of the things I’ve enjoyed doing so much with this band,” Blanche says. “I have a monolithic list of samples that I work my way through and cater to Sedatives music, and early on I had the idea of using the Adam Sandler stuff we’ve used so far, with samples at the end of Midnight Valentine and at the end of Romeo. They’re just incredibly fun samples that I know our fan base will enjoy as much as I enjoy using them.”

Ticking off a full Australian national tour alongside Within Destruction earlier this year, another standout moment arrived for Sedative in 2023 via their addition on the sold out TerrorLoud 2 bill in Darwin alongside Make Them Suffer, Starve and more.

There’s something hugely liberating in doing what you want to do instead of doing what’s currently popping and I think that’s something we’re very adamant about staying true to.
[ Blanche – Sedative ]

“The amount of time we spend across the country is such an awesome part of this band for us,” says Blanche. “We love nothing more than being on the road and bringing what Sedative is to as many places as possible.

“Darwin is a pretty huge highlight for us as a band. To be part of that gigantic sold out festival with bands we love so much, such as Make Them Suffer and Starve, was already awesome in itself. But for us to then go to Darwin and it be the most wild night we’ve played in a long time was just incredible. The venue was beyond packed out, a fair bit oversold I believe, oops…and honestly Darwin goes HARD as a crowd, we’re hugely big on crowd engagement and they ate it up immediately. We had stage dives the whole set, everyone going absolutely mental the whole time, blow up crocodiles that we brought on in our set being crowd surfed on, and someone went to hospital with a neck injury in our set. Just all around wild stuff from the top end.”

Emerging in 2021, Sedative have rapidly found their groove in the heavy scene, balancing their violent creative output with a refreshing outlook on their own professional identity and integrity, alongside the occasional hurdles that face bands living beyond the East Coast.

“We were pretty adamant from the inception of this band that we weren’t going to be just another Perth band which so many bands fall into the trap of, just getting way too caught up trying to get a ‘pass mark’ from the same people that have always been there,” Blanche says.

“So, from the beginning we were set on touring off our own backs and we’ve done exactly that, in our first year of a band we’d left Perth twice, once for a one-off trip and again for a full Australian tour, all organised ourselves. I think that was a huge deal for us because our unrelenting hard work has transformed into so many wonderful opportunities that we’re being afforded now that we’re so incredibly grateful for.

“The core of us in Sedative, Raphy, Ryan and myself, had moved to start Sedative fresh from a previous band and we’ve just had the rest of the group filled out along the way, our drummer Siv is from Adelaide and we met Siv on our first full Aus tour and just hit it off with him. And then when the opportunity came up for us needing a drummer, Siv slotted straight in and we took him to Darwin with three weeks to learn our whole set!”

With their collective gazes turning to 2024, a year that will see the Sedative team look to tick off their first ever international tour, from the outside looking in it appears that the Sedative streets are lined with pure gold. And while their tenacity and sonic savagery have certainly catapulted their trajectory far in a short space of time, the Sedative MO has eternally centred around staying true to themselves in an industry that is in constant and disparate flux.

“It’s not something we’re hugely upfront about, because we try to avoid it being our whole identity, but being a band that has both indigenous members and LGBTQ members, I think there’s always groups out there that still live in a world where they use that against you,” says Blanche. “I think it’s definitely hugely better than let’s say 10 years ago, but there’s always room to move forward on those subjects and especially being in a band that is so heavily not the usual type of band that represents these areas. I think there’s still a bit of stigma attached to certain people who work with bands in the scene, but we’ve never let that hold us back and we’ve always done our own thing off our own backs anyway.

“Beyond that there’s so many examples of bands that get booked for everything in a city because they’re friends with the agent etc. But that stuff is never going away and unfortunately you’ve just gotta work harder than the groups that get given that type of stuff.”

And it’s these core values of persistence and authenticity that ultimately brings Sedative’s larger-than-life creations to even greater heights, with Blanche’s own personal musical tastes and influences also ultimately attesting to the old adage: to thine own self be true.

“My influences make absolutely zero sense for what I do in Sedative,” says Blanche. “I’ve played in heavy bands since I was 15 years old so I’ve kind of always had that in my life and it’s always shaped me in that sense. But for me on a personal level, my biggest influences are the likes of Prince, Sade, Marvin Gaye, Amy Whinehouse, The 1975. I’ve always drawn huge inspiration from real icons like them and they’re who made me wanna do music.

“I grew up on From First To Last, Dance Gavin Dance, Fall Out Boy and I know this doesn’t help paint the picture of Sedative at all! These days I look at heavy bands that do things differently instead of trend-hopping and take a lot of inspiration from that. There’s something hugely liberating in doing what you want to do instead of doing what’s currently popping and I think that’s something we’re very adamant about staying true to.”

Imminently bound to tour Australia’s East Coast later this month, Sedative fans are in for a monumental treat with the group armed and thriving with their new drummer Siv alongside their latest insatiable singles ready to pounce under your skin in a live setting.

“You can expect the usual brand of Sedative energy and violence in a whole new refined era,” Blanche says of the upcoming shows. “Having Siv join Sedative has hugely improved our live performance in an area that was previously lacking. Sedative will be slamming the East Coast at the end of this month and you can finally hear our latest releases Ain’t No Love and Romeo live for the first time!