Head to our official pre order store to get your copy of El Pistolero early. There’s also heaps of bundles including posters and t-shirts!

tracer.mlgmerch.com/pre-order/

Tracer are super happy to announce that we’ll be heading to LA at the end of the year to record our new album with producer Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Silverchair, Cold Chisel). We cant wait to get over there and put down our newest tunes for you all to have a listen to. It should be out in the first half of 2013 so look out!

We’ve just won the award for Best New Band at the Classic Rock Magazine music awards in London! We’re super pumped to receive it!
Thanks to everyone that has supported us this far, you’re awesome!!!

Thanks again to everyone for voting for us, amazing night at the Classic Rock Magazine Awards in London, what an honour to have won “Best New Band” – can’t wait to get back over to the UK for the tour in April

We’ve just added our first dates in the UK next year. Check em out!

• 9   APR   SCALA - London, UK  BUY TICKETS
• 10 APR   THE TUNNELS - Bristol, UK  BUY TICKETS
• 11 APR   FIBBERS - York, UK  BUY TICKETS
• 12 APR   THE PLUG - Sheffield, UK  BUY TICKETS
• 13 APR   O2 ABC - Glasgow, UK  BUY TICKETS

The great people at Cool Green Recordings have officially released our EP L.A.? on itunes and on CD in Europe today. You can order your copy over at Cool Green Recordings today, just click the links below or in the shop.

Order here now – CD | itunes

We’re really happy to announce that we will be heading to Europe for some shows this Autumn. See you on the road!

Holy crap! What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been, shit, nearly a month! It goes like that on tour. You wake up wondering what time it is, what day it is and what country you’re in…every day.

Nothing could really prepare us for Alencon, France.

We played a small arena called La Luciole and the opener for the night was, wait for it…an air guitar competition! I was reminded of that bit in Spinal Tap when they get to the fun park and see their name on the billboard under the Puppet Show, “If I told them once I told them a thousand times, Spinal Tap first, Puppet Show second!”

It turned out to be a great night and it was made even better by someone doing their air guitar performance to our song, Too Much. Bloody hilarious.

We had a couple of days off before the biggest shows of Tracer’s lives. First up was Liepzig with the almighty Black Label Society. We rocked up at the 1,000 capacity venue to be greeted with a wall of Marshall stacks, Black Label Society branded stage and a crew of some of the most intimidating bikie types you could think of. The crew was a little dubious about us to say the least. A bunch of young, surfy looking guys from Australia trying to keep up with these seasoned professionals. It started to turn around when we were sitting backstage with the other support band Kobra and The Lotus (a Canadian metal band with a super hot, blonde bombshell with a killer voice) and in walks Zakk Wylde himself. As you might imagine he is quite an imposing figure but after a few minutes of chatting it became quickly apparent that he was a gentle giant and an incredibly cluey guy when it comes to the music industry. We played a killer set to the packed audience and the German crowd went mental for us and we could see the BLS crew start to pay a little attention at what was going on with Tracer.

What blew us completely away was Black label’s set. With their weathered BLS jackets, Zakk Wylde in an Indian head dress all looking like larger than life, Nordic warriors from the set of a biker version of Lord Of The Rings, these guys tore it up on stage. An incredible live show complete with a 15 minute guitar solo, cementing Zakk Wylde’s throne as king of metal guitar.

The next day we travelled to Osnabruck to play another show with Black Label Society and it was great to see the slight turnaround in attitude towards our band from the BLS crew. It seemed we had won a little bit of respect from the night before.

The show was great too! The venue, called Hyde Park, looked like something out of Terminator that had graffiti all over it and looked kind of run down…but really cool. More on the Black Label shows in a minute, because the day after we were off to Spain!

We had never been to Spain before and, to be honest, we had been wanting to go for the last four years! There was a high level of anticipation and excitement from us all for this leg of the tour. As we were driving into Spain we noticed how the landscape changed into something very familiar to us. The dirt started to take on an ochre tone. The mountains started to flatten out and become rolling hills. It was like driving around the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia. Our home! The only real difference being the colour of the towns we saw from a distance or travelled through. I think Spain had a big terracotta sale and the house builders bought up big. All the houses are basically the same colour!

We arrived at our first show at Taberna Belfast in Santa Maria Del Paramo and immediately wondered why it looked like a ghost town. Ah, siesta! It is a very strange thing for us Aussies to arrive somewhere in the middle of the day and not be able to buy any food or go into any bars because the whole town is sleeping.

That wasn’t the only thing to take us by surprise either. These guys eat dinner at 10:00pm! We were starving at 3:00pm! And nothing was open! We were wondering if it would be possible to eat out on arms! Thankfully our host and owner of the bar Eva, put on another fantastic Spainish custom…a plate of delicious tapas and a cold cerveza! Eva was an incredible host and fed us delicious meals for the two days we spent in Santa Maria Del Paramo, we can’t thank her enough! This night was the last night of Dre being 27, a scary age for any musician so we made sure we partied hard and warded off any evil spirits with the power of Jack Daniels.

The venues throughout our Spainish run were all quite small, but they were packed with music loving folk. The next show in Burgos was actually a small room under a stadium!

Low roofs don’t go very well for us, especially when we do our party tricks at the end of the set. Both Leigh and I cracked our guitars on the ceiling when we put them behind our head! The show was pretty cool though.

The best part of Burgos was the awesome showers in our hotel room. Now this may sound weird but showering on tour is close to the best thing in the world. Obviously people can see that we sweat on stage but just how much sweat happens is incredible. I have seen Dre literally throw his shirt to the bathroom wall and have it stick. There are salt rings around all of our jeans from where sweat has settled over night. It’s fucking gross huh? So a shower is not just a shower. It’s a cleansing of the soul! And Burgos had a shower that was like a waterfall dumping on your head. Then there were two other taps. Curiosity got the better of me so I turn all of them on full. Jets of water streamed out of the wall like tiny massaging fingers. And the pressure would have been enough to wash an elephant! This was incredible! The funniest thing about it all was when I stepped out the shower I saw a very ironic “Save Water” sticker on the shower screen.

Zaragoza was the next show up at a place called La Ley Seca. This roughly translates to something about the Prohibition in Chicago in the early 20′s and explains the Al Capone imagery and the Tommy-gun on the wall.

The bar was plastered with comic books, band posters, album covers and other cool paraphernalia and the owner was a cool guy. He sent us to one of the greatest tapas restaurants we had ever been too and full bellies always leads to a great show!

Next up was another unconquered country for Tracer, Portugal. After trying to navigae the labyrinth of cobbled roads, one way streets and road works in downtown Porto we eventually found Hard Club. And what a venue! State of the art P.A. system and a great stage. This was another Black Label Society support show and holy shit was it a good one!

This was BLS’s first show in Portugal and it was sold out. When we took the stage the crowd was so amped it was electric! The crowd was with us from the first note to the last and it was one of our best shows of the tour. BLS ripped it up yet again.

Madrid was our next stop at a venue called Ego live. It was another small show but a really cool crowd that was into what we were doing.

The next day we caught up with our friend Joh and did a really cool interview/acoustic session while enjoying the Sangria famous to Spain. I have to say that Madrid’s nightlife is crazy and filled with amazing looking women. There were a lot of conversations that trailed off into mumbling as one of us saw one girl more beautiful than the other. Spainish guys are lucky fellas!

The next two Black Label Society shows in Tilburg and Saarbrucken were great. We got to hang out with Zakk and the rest of the boys backstage for a while. I even got a personal tour of Zakk’s huge array of custom guitars.

We had really built up a re pore with the crew and I talked to Zakk’s guitar tech, Moby for a long time about endorsements and helping Tracer out in the future…Sure was a turnaround from the first show! Dre got along great with their drummer Chad and had a massive drum geek chat that no one else really understood. By the end of the tour with these guys, they had all helped us out so much and we had learnt a great deal about how a bigger touring band operates on all levels.

It truly was an honour to share the stage with these guys and pick the brains of the crew, we are truly thankful!

But that wasn’t the last we would see of the Black Label fellas. We were off to open the mainstage for the biggest metal festival in Europe: Graspop Metal Meeting! Crowds of up to 45,000 people! A stage the size of a bloody jumbo jet and the three of us blasting the hell out of the enormous P.A. Yep, this is where we belong! The big stage, the big crowd and the big sound of Tracer made us all realise why we do this job.

The feeling that you get from something of this magnitude is hard to put into words. It is why we work so hard, drive so many miles, have no money, have sacrificed for so long. Standing on front of that stage with the crowd taking the same ride as us is something that I will never tire of and always strive for. Fuck it was good!

The great thing about being first on stage was we had the rest of the day to check out other bands. Side stage at Kyuss Lives was incredibly cool. The bottom end from the bass shook our gut and our brains throughout their set. Slash with Myles Kennedy was just as awesome. Those that know me know that I’m not a Guns ‘N Roses fan but I love Slash’s playing and with Myle’s Kennedy’s incredible voice, this was a fantastic show. I have to say that the highlight for me was watching Ozzy Osbourne play War Pigs with Slash and Zakk Wylde on guitar. Fuckin fuck yeah!!!!

We had a day off next up but our friends from The Royal Republic invited us to their show at SouthSide festival in Germany. We were still riding the adrenaline wave of the day before when we surprised the boys as they were actually on stage. They played the killer set we have come to expect from these guys and we were lucky enough to score backstage passes and hang out with them again. There’s a special connection bands have when they tour together and although we told the same stories and some new ones, it was just cool to hang out with these great guys we are privelaged to call our friends.

The day was capped off by watching The Cure. My Dad is a super fan of these guys and I didn’t realise it but I had become a fan also and the events of the last few days become a little overwhelming when they played my favourite song Lullaby. Holy shit! We are actually living out our dreams!

Until next time and as always, cheers and beers

It’s always when you have some off time on tour that you realise how far removed from reality the touring life of a musician is. What other job can you wake up at the crack of noon and all you have to worry about is “will I get to the toilet in time?” Then it’s a matter of finding something to eat, showering and then play a show. You’re expected to drink and party, hang with rockstars and every now and then do something stupid…like get a schwenken tattoo across your belly for instance.

But on an off day, or in our case for this tour about a week, what do you do?

Wake up at the crack of noon, check.

Get to the toilet in time, check.

Find something to eat…is Pringles and milk a good breakfast?

Play a show.

Well, that doesn’t work on an off day. So we’ve had to occupy ourselves for most of the day with something. Most of the time we have been writing new songs for a new album. This is a fun job but it’s hard to have spontaneous creativity when you actually schedule it into your day. That being said, the songs are literally pouring out! So Dre and I have decided to do a 6km run around the village that we’re staying in. The morning after when we could barely walk, we decided that maybe there would be an easier way to stay in shape. Like drinking! Drinking is a sport isn’t it?

We have also been able to do some really cool stuff while here in Switzerland. For the last two nights we have cooked sausages over an open fire next to the Aare River, and then sat around another fire on top of castle ruins down the road. It’s usually at these moments, albeit with a little liquid enhancements that we realise, this really is a cool way to spend your life. There is always something breathtaking around the corner, something that locals take for granted but completely blows us away.

I should go back a few shows though!

We had 2 days off in Berlin a few weeks back and after getting Mustafa’s kebab at Mehringdam station….twice, we hooked up with the Royal Republic’s tour manager Ole for some time in his mates recording studio.

We pull up to this massive, gothic brick structure and learn that it used to be one of Europe’s biggest breweries.

Danger, danger!

We had a few songs that were half written but we ended up recording a Mexican-inspired song that we had wrote back home. It was really fun to record without any pressure and to really go mental with some crazy sounds and things we wouldn’t usually do. Plus we got to hang with a really great friend of the band in one of our favourite cities. Hell yeah!

Then it was off to Osnabruck, Germany to play the Maiwoche Festival. Thanks to German traffic and thousands of bloody road works we finally got to the massive street festival and played an awesome show.

There would’ve been close to 1,000 people all digging the music and we love the big stages! What a show!

We made the trek back to the Netherlands to play a tiny but super cool venue called the Little Devil in Tilburg. I remember way back to our very first Euro tour in 2009 when we were hounding these guys to put on a Tracer show and although it was so small it did feel like a small triumph!

Bands such as Goijra and Volbeat have all played there in the past!

The best part however was our schwenken fanclub who made an Australian flag with Schwenken on it and held it up proudly half way through Louder Than This. It totally took us by surprise but it was absolutely schwenk!

Next up was two shows in one day. A Tracer first!

First up was Afterdauwpop, a small festival but that was ok.

The organisers made the day with great food and a really comfy backstage area.

The show, to be honest, was a bit of a downer because of some douche bags in the crowd throwing stuff at other people that wanted to watch the band. But, hey, we can’t all be cool I guess.

The show after, however was freaking rad! It was in the smaller venue of the Luxor but it was cram packed with noisy Dutchies who made the show unforgettable. The stage was like playing in a sardine can, the room was incredibly hot and sticky and the sound was loud…perfect on all accounts!

Again the organisers were great and the chef was brilliant. We’ll be back for sure!

We had one day to recuperate after the two-shows (which left us knackered) so we decided to visit Burgers Zoo. We had also acquired the Schwenken flag and I may have used it as a cape for the whole day yelling out “I’m Australia man! How’s it goin?”

The Dutch families in the zoo didn’t seem that impressed but I could see their kids having a bit of a giggle at the hairy Aussies with beer imitating the monkeys.

More photos from that day are all up on the Tracer Facebook page!

Last show in Netherlands was a big festival called EgoPop in Egchel. We aren’t very well known in these parts but there was a massive stage and about 1,000 people so we let rip with an hour of our best. Crowd turned and we had an awesome night on stage.

The crew ended up buying almost all our t-shirts and we got to hang out after the show with some locals, watch some bands and have a few quiet frothies.

We definitely have to say thanks to the beautiful bed and breakfast that we stayed in, De Kamphoeve. We ate so much at the breakfast they put on we could hardly fit into the van!

That just about brings us up to date with going’s on of Tracer on the road. Stay in tune for more babblings on the next edition.

As always, cheers and beers, Mike.

I know, I know. It’s been ages since the last blog ad I promised to do them weekly. Truth is, we’ve been incredibly busy with this tour and organising the next one and maybe something exciting is on the horizon for us…but more on that later.

So on the 30^th of April after a brief stop over at the farm in Switzerland we were off to the city of romance, a big steel tower and Parisian people, Paris!

We were supporting a killer band called Headcharger who are like a screaming freight train of stoner rock. And totally cool dudes too! We were once again reminded of the fantastic catering and food France has to offer and a big thanks to Rob who helped us out yet again in Paris.

The next show was with France’s premier metal band Gojira.

We had heard some of their stuff on YouTube when we were back in Oz but we didn’t really know their popularity in France until we played the first show with them in a 600 person arena! We were extremely worried about the mix of music styles supporting these guys. I mean, shit! These guys are metal monsters! It turns out though that the French audience are really open minded about different styles of music and on the two support shows we did with Gojira we had a really great crowd response.

It has to be said also that the guys from Gojira are some of the most down-to-earth cool guys we’ve ever met. And amazing musicians. We stood in the crowd, mouths wide open while we heard the drummer hitting the kick at warp speed with military precision. Dre mentioned that in one show, Gojira’s drummer plays more kick hits than he does on the whole tour!

One show that we were really looking forward to was the gig on the 4^th of may at Le Nef with one of our favourite bands, Triggerfinger. We got introduced to the music of these Belgian rockers by our friend in Berlin and have since got all of their albums. Live these guys were awesome! You can really tell that they have honed their live show, and their performance, showmanship and sound were fucking incredible! And yet again, we were surprised at how great the guys in the band were. We had a really great chat to their drummer Mario about their latest recording at the now closed Sound City in LA. For music geeks out there you know how much of a big deal this is! Nirvana’s Nevermind, Rage Against the Machine’s self titled album and Kyuss were all recorded there. And these guys were one of the last bands to record there!

After the second show with Gojira (another tits set!) we also meet up with the Headcharger lads and hit the town to celebrate the end of the French leg of the tour!

Thanks to all the fans that came out to the shows and thanks especially to the awesome cooks that made France one of the most hospitable places to play. The food was great and muso’s play better with a stomach full of good grub!

Another blog will be done (I promise) very soon taking in Germany and our fun time recording with Royal Republic’s Tour Manager/Sound Engineer, the one and only Ole or Rumpe Skumpe! Oh yeah…and the awesome news may also be revealed mwahahaha!

Cheers and beers ya’ll

Ok, so I’ve been massively slack and haven’t written a blog in two weeks. Sorry peeps! Good news is I bought a new guitar. I tried really hard to be responsible and even set a price limit for myself…then I played all the guitars that were in that price range and spent a shitload of cash on a Gretsch White Falcon.

Sexiest guitar of all time!

And I fuckin love it.

So let’s start with the UK. Funkin’ awesome! A full day of press in London with our PR guy Peter Noble made us realise that there is quite a bit of hype around the band here and we started to get excited about playing the shows.

London, O2 Academy was the biggest show Tracer has ever headlined. A head count of 550, most of whom sung there hearts out to the same songs we wrote in our parents music room over the other side of the world.

What a trip! The crowd was loud and the band really got amped on stage. People were hanging off the mezzanine screaming for their favourite song.

Apart from it being one of the best shows we have ever played and the general “rockstar” awesomeness of the whole event, this show really did touch us. I personally had a “moment” on stage in between songs and couldn’t believe that this was all happening…sure it’s what we’ve all worked so hard for but, damn man it’s actually happening! After the show we had a proper “after-party” with fans at a local bar called Surya. We had a packed room of fans who had a drink with us and took some photos, pretty cool.

Bristol at the Tunnels, Manchester at another Academy, were both smaller but still killer shows. Again the crowd was loud and noisy all through the set and we sweated our guts out in response. It was cool to see that the sets we had been rehearsing at home were really working the way we wanted them to, taking the crowd up and down before finally blasting their heads off! We rolled into York on the Friday to play the Duchess. We had never been to York before and we were all taken back with an old village that was really spectacular. After eating at a traditional British pub we cranked out another set of Tracer’s finest.

We were all psyched for Sheffield as we had hear that it was our first sold out show. We had also heard of an Aussie dude who was spinning our tracks at the rock bar called the Nelson across the road, so we surprised him with a visit. It was really weird to go into a pub before a show and a little hush comes over the patrons and eyes start wondering in our direction. People were actually recognising us as the Tracer guys! Most of the people there came up and asked for autographs or photos, it was a cool experience.

Back at the venue we all felt incredibly satisfied knowing that no matter what, there will be a packed house and come gig time there was an electricity in the air among the band and crew. The show went off! The crowd were almost as loud as the London audience! I even got carried away and got up on one of the speaker bins to thrash out a guitar solo.

We definitely have to thank Barney and especially Jules from Gig Cartel for helping us out backstage at all of our shows. These guys bent over backwards to make sure we were well fed and prepped for the shows. I mean, Jules upgraded our Jack Daniels quota! What a guy! We can’t say enough thank you’s to them.

Also a massive thank you to Planet Rock for helping the band throughout the UK with their airplay. They also just released pre-sales for the September/October dates so get onto it! Also thank you for all the people that came out to the UK shows for our first headlining tour, we can’t wait to get back!

I’ll be writing the next blog really soon, I promise. We’ve had some awesome French shows in the last week and it’ll make for a good read.

Until next time, cheers and beers,
Mike