“When We Were Kids”

From the very first time THE GALVATRONS performed live on a stage in their hometown of Melbourne late last year, they immediately looked and sounded like it was meant to be.

Within months of that first show, the end of 2007, THE GALVATRONS were performing in front of 10,000 people at the annual Meredith Music Festival outside Melbourne. That night, they sent the crowd and local critics wild. It led some to call THE GALVATRONS synth-rock act one to watch in 2008.

Now, THE GALVATRONS are ready to release their debut EP, spearheaded by an anthemic, instantly classic track called “When We Were Kids”. Recorded in Melbourne by Lindsay Gravina (The Living End, Shihad) and mixed in Hollywood by the legendary Tim Palmer (David Bowie, Pearl Jam, U2, The Cure).

As predicted, THE GALVATRONS have already had a huge 2008. Highlights have included a buzz-stealing gig at this year’s Big Day Out festival in Melbourne, a national Australian tour supporting Shihad, plus showcase shows in London, winning over the industry and fans a like. They are also set to return to London in June to perform at Hyde Park as one of the opening acts on the final UK concert by The Police.

Yes, it’s all the stuff of rock & roll dreams, but with THE GALVATRONS it’s all very real.

THE GALVATRONS are Johnny, Manny, Condor and Gamma.

That’s Johnny upfront, with the beach blond hair. Johnny’s the singer, he writes the songs too. And he plays guitar like a rock god should. When he was a kid, Johnny grew up in Geelong and played in a couple of rock bands in-and-out of high school, before he moved to Melbourne and fell in with a disco crowd. Johnny helped the crowd write songs, helped them produce, even played live guitar next to DJs but quickly realised that wasn’t a way forward. “I was killing people’s buzz on the dance floor by rocking out,” Johnny remembers.

Then one night, as legend has it, a friend put on a copy of the old 1986 animated classic, The Transformers. Set against this apocalyptic vision, a soundtrack of wailing guitar solos and ’80s synth noises, Johnny realised at that very moment that his purpose in life was to form a rock band. Johnny would call this band THE GALVATRONS, in honour of the character from The Transformers voiced by Leonard Niroy.

Johnny knew he needed to start with a great drummer, and he knew exactly who that drummer was. Johnny had first met Manny years earlier when both were in bands that made it through to the finals of a high school band competition. In subsequent years, they kept running into each other in the moshpit at the Melbourne Big Day Out. As soon as Johnny told Manny about his vision, Manny was in. And if the Melbourne-bred drummer was going to be in the greatest rock band of all time, then he knew there was only one bass player who could make up the other half of his rhythm - Condor.

Condor came from Benalla in country Victoria. He and his high school band moved into a shared house in Melbourne the week after school was out. Soon, Manny and Condor’s shared love of the local rock scene in Melbourne, led to them spending many a hyped-up night together at various rock shows around town.

With the core in place, Johnny took time out to write the first songs. As soon as Johnny had the first five, he roughly demoed them with the help of legendary Melbourne dance producer Josh Abrahams, and then the band came together for the first time as THE GALVATRONS.

The reaction was instantaneous. The band’s MySpace page alone led to approaches from local and international labels. But one piece of the big picture was still missing. As Johnny writes all his music on keyboards, he was covering the fact that before they could go out live, THE GALVATRONS needed a keyboard player. And Johnny says he doesn’t even want to know how it happened, but around this time Gamma suddenly appeared on his doorstep. The Canberra-bred Gamma learnt those first five songs in a little over a week, and THE GALVATRONS came alive, bursting onto the Melbourne live scene.

THE GALVATRONS are here to put some fun back into rock, but there’s also a serious level of musical nous at work with their hook-laden productions. For now, enjoy THE GALVATRONS with their stunning debut EP, “When We Were Kids”. It’s the start of the future – rock & roll as it was always meant to be.

Johnny Galvatron // Lead vocals, guitar. Manny // Drums. Condor // Bass. Gamma // Keys.