Saturday, May 11, 2024

All in Favour

 

ORIGINS: Penrith, NSW
GENRE: Pop-punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 2000-2003
 
MEMBERS:
  • Brett Islaub (Vocals)
  • Marcus Catanzaro (Guitar)
  • Daniel Sipple (Guitar)
  • Luke Smith (Bass)
  • Hugh Webb (Drums) [2000]
  • Anthony Deitz (Drums) [2001-2003]
RELEASES: 
  • Demo (2001) - Download Here
    • 1. Road Less Travelled
    • 2. Seek and Find
    • 3. Never Will I 
    • 4. Whole New World
  • You Win Some, You Lose More (2003) - Download Here.
    • 1. Knuckles Tight
    • 2. Not Then, Not Now
    • 3. A Thousand Miles
    • 4. Crossed Lines
SUMMARY: All in Favour began with the intent of pursuing a particular pop-punk sound, with the band members coming together after being inspired by older siblings and having played in some earlier high school bands. They were influenced by bands such as Slick Shoes, The Ataris, Less Than Jake, New Found Glory, One Dollar Short, Millencolin, and Unwritten Law. Shortly after forming, All in Favour began to rapidly gain popularity after playing several All Ages shows and attracted the attention of One Dollar Short's bassplayer, Adam Check, who then became their band manager. This was followed by oastal tours and several shows attached to extreme sporting events, with the band hitting its peak in 2002-2003. Various members began to look into exploring different genres after this point and the band then parted ways. 
 
SHOWS: 


ORAL HISTORY:
LUKE: My older brother was always listening to cool music like Blink 182, Unwritten Law, Jimmy Eat World, and some heavier stuff like Korn and Limp Bizkit. I naturally followed in his wake. I first started playing bass guitar in a local punk/ska band called The Oi-Skas with my good friend Ged. That was when I first picked up an instrument and learned the basics. A few years later my good friend Dan Sipple, who was a wicked left-handed guitarist, decided to start a local pop punk band. Our name was Self Serve. 
Luke Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MARCUS: Dan and I met when we were in Year 6. My brother Joey was playing in punk bands already (Speckled Foam) and Dan had an older brother that gotten him into punk rock. So we bonded and started a 'band'. Two years went by without either of us ever picking up an instrument until one day, Dan met neighbour Brett, school buddy Luke, and Brett's buddy Hugh. In the crusty, dark rooms of Symphonic Rehearsal Studios, All in Favour was born! 
Marcus Catanzaro (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

LUKE: A group of us who had mutual friends and all liked the same genre of music thought we should start a local band. We loved bands like New Found Glory, One Dollar Short, The Starting Line, The Ataris, Finch, MxPx, and Mest. We all met and started jamming at Symphonic Sound Studios in Penrith. I was already friends with Dan and he introduced me to Marcus Catanzaro and Brett Islaub. Brett went to school with our drummer, Hugh Webb. Hugh's older brother Luke was in a cool band called Fifth Place and Marcus's older brother Joe was in cool local bands like Speckled Foam and Unpaid Debt. 
Luke Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
DAN: Brett Islaub and I were lifelong mates and lived a couple of streets away from each other. Coming both out of previous high school bands, our plan in 2000 was to put together a new outfit and channel the '90s fast punk Fat Wreck sound merged with newer poppier melodic sounds that were coming through, like from one of our idol bands at the time, One Dollar Short. The original All in Favour lineup was a mesh of St Paul's and St Dominic's boys.  
Dan Sipple (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
Introductory Interview in 'Foetus' Column, Obzine Issue 24, November 2001
 
MARCUS: Our first show was at North Richmond Scout Hall. We ended up playing there quite a bit over the next few years. That North Richmond / Windsor area was such a cool music community. The band developed connections in the wakeboarding world, and a lot of the pro dudes lived out there, so it became this melting pot of alternative music and extreme sports. 
Marcus Catanzaro (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

REVIEW: One of my personal favourite bands that I really enjoyed watching was All In Favour. This was the second time I had seen them live and just like last time their performance blew me away. They really got the crowd going, and had a huge skanking circle which was good to see.
Erin Williams, Review of Grounded Festival 2002, Obzine Issue 26, July 2002

LUKE: We opened a show at the Annandale Hotel for Something With Numbers, Irrelevant, and One Dollar Short. That was really cool. Adam Check from One Dollar Short was our manager and helped us a lot. We also played a number of shows at the Panthers' venue called Backdoor - it was a great local venue and always pulled a big crowd. Another time we played at Evan Theatre inside Panthers Leagues Club. We opened again for One Dollar Short, and I remember walking into the club foyer holding my guitar case. The lady on the front counter asked if I had any ID and I said something along the lines of, "I'm playing in Evan Theatre tonight."
Luke Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
 
MARCUS: Dan Sipple generally led the charge with songwriting. I may be the one still working in music all these years later, but he was and is by far the most talented out of all of us. We would go between Symphonic Studios or Brett / Dan's house in South Penrith and just write, write, write. Looking back on it, it was entirely our life. We spent every spare hour jamming, hanging out, or playing shows.  
Marcus Catanzaro (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
LUKE: One Dollar Short were on Channel V playing live and being interviewed. Someone phoned the show to speak with the band and they asked if All in Favour were opening One Dollar Shorts' show on Saturday. That was their question! 
Luke Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
ANT: I used to follow Hugh and Brett round as they were more my age and after becoming friends with the whole band I filled in for Hugh at a show. He had school certificate exams and couldn't play at the Penrith Scout Hall show. I joined the band from that point on.
Ant Deitz (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


DAN: Stand out shows... the Barney Miller Classic 2002 in Coffs Harbour. This was with one Dollar Short and our first 'on the road' experience. We had to get parental permission (being 14 and 15 year olds) and travelled up with our band manager, Adam 'Checky' Check, bass player of One Dollar Short.  
Dan Sipple (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

ANT: A favourite memory would be playing with One Dollar Short in Coffs Harbour for the Barney Miller Surf Classic / Wakeboard Australia Event. Another great show was in Nowra at the Backdoor when Brett lost his voice and was sick, and we had either karaoke where crowd members would come up and sing, or friends of the band were filling in.
Ant Deitz (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

Local paper article about All In Favour at the Barney Miller Classic

MARCUS: When Adam Check from One Dollar Short started managing us it was pretty huge. All of a sudden we were on big shows in cities all over the state. Playing Grounded Festival a few years in a row and eventually headlining the small stage was a big deal for us also. 
Marcus Catanzaro (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
ANT: The band finished because it was time. Living in each other's pockets tends to do that. Shortly afterwards, Marcus and myself started another band, The Cadence Method.
Ant Deitz (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

MARCUS: I honestly can't recall why or when we stopped playing. I guess we all started growing within music and potentially growing out of that sound. Looking back on All in Favour, I'm pretty confident that had we been in this modern era, we would have been a much bigger band. Social Media has opened up the world. A band from Penrith, Australia, can just as easily blow up as a band from Lincoln, Nebraska. Working in management now, I am always searching for those bands that just have to make it, like they know nothing else but to play in a band and live/breathe music. That's what All in Favour was.
Marcus Catanzaro (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 
DAN: The band was being divided by musical taste in 2003. Was certainly not a case of hard feelings or confrontational reasons. The emo sound was becoming popular at the time and a couple of the guys desired that darker sound and others (myself included) were keen on keeping it fast punk rock with a brighter pop element. I was also getting more into reggae and dubby sounds and less enthused about pop punk. Marcus and Anthony were also heading in a different, rockier direction, which ended up being The Cadence Method. After the band broke up, Brett continued the pursuit of that darker emo sound and ended up putting together The Mission in Motion. 
Dan Sipple (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

LUKE: I absolutely loved my time playing in the band. We wrote some really cool and catchy songs. Dan was the technical mastermind behind a lot of the tracks but the music was a lot of fun to play live. We were all mates and spent a lot of weekends together. I am really glad we had the time together. It left me with unforgettable memories and mates for life. I still listen to some of our tracks now. Our last two songs written, 'Battle Scars' and 'Knuckles Tight', were definitely our best and certainly my favourites. 
Luke Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

ADDITIONAL CREDIT: Thanks to Michelle Catanzaro for the photos.

RELATED BANDS: The Cadence Method, Mission in Motion, Red Distress, Toe to Toe, Self Serve, The Ramjets, This Version, Nativosoul, The Oi-Skas





From The Western Weekender, May 17th 2002

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