Mope

 

ORIGINS: Northern Beaches, NSW

GENRE: Hardcore, Punk

YEARS ACTIVE: 1995-2000

 

MEMBERS:

• Damien Chambers - Vocals, Guitar
• Brett Hottes - Bass, Vocals
  
• Grant Lawrence - Drums

RELEASES: 

 

• Learn to Hate (1995) - Download Here.
  
• 1. Invisible Strings
• 2. Dwell in Hibernation
• 3. Glug

 

• Virtual Carnage (1995) - Split with Barfly, Mergatroid, and Crankcase
• 1. Disposed
• 2. Mope
• 3. Never Understood
• 4. Hatemail
• 5. Window Sniffer

• Lack of Thoughts (1996)
• 1. Drip
• 2. In Thru the Outer 
• 3. Kick a Goal
• 4. Below the Belt
• 5. Mope
• 6. Slappy Time

• No Loss No Gain (1997)
• 1. Fall Aside
• 2. Creature
• 3. Square Disk
• 4. Drip
• 5. Chapter II
• 6. Below the Belt
• 7. Help Me Hemp
• 8. Kick a Goal
• 9. Hate to Say

• Standing by Myself (1998)
• 1. Standing By Myself
• 2. You Prove For Who?
• 3. Always on the Cards
• 4. Sufficiency
• 5. Disposed
• 6. I Got You

• The Final Letdown (2000) 
• 1. Red Tent
• 2. P.H. Level
• 3. I'm the Enemy
• 4. The Place

• Compilation-only Tracks
• Jesus Smith (1996) on Feedback compilation
  
• Simple Superstition (1996) on Across the Bridge compilation
  
• 12 Bedroom House (2000) - on Rockafellas compilation
  

SUMMARY: Mope was a three-piece hardcore/punk band from the Northern Beaches area. Each of the band members had played in other bands before but it was in their time with Mope that they first played interstate shows - venturing to Queensland, Melbourne, and Canberra. After upholding the DIY ethic and playing/recording for half a decade, Mope decided to call it a day and moved on to other projects. All three members have played together in other bands since.

 

SHOWS: 

• Manly Vale Hotel, Manly Vale - 7th October, 1995 
• Time and Tide Hotel, Dee Why - 8th March, 1996
  
• Level 2 Skate Park, Tuggerah - 23rd September 1996 
• Octoberpus 5, Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale - 18th October, 1996
  
• Brookvale Hotel, Brookvale - 13th June, 1997
  
• Northpoint Tavern, North Sydney - 26th September, 1997
• Cabbage Tree Hotel, Wollongong - 18th October 199
  
• Iron Duke Hotel, Alexandria - 15th May, 1998
  
• Iron Duke Hotel, Alexandria - 16th May, 1998 (Day show)
• Northpoint Tavern, North Sydney - 16th May, 1998
• Iron Duke Hotel, Alexandria - 29th April, 1999
• Manly Fisho's Club, Manly - 1st May, 1999
  

ORAL HISTORY:

GRANT: Damien and I had gone to primary school together so we'd known each other since '85. I later met Brett in '91 - his mum and my mum were friends. 

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

DAMIEN: Brett and I met at a Collaroy Plateau Party - he had a Hellmenn shirt on and I had a Massappeal Jazz shirt on. That started it all. We started jamming with our mate Wickman on drums. We were called Hatemail and our first show was with Silverchair, haha. Wickman bailed to live up the coast so we asked Grant to jam Christmas Eve 1994 and that was the start of Mope.

Damien Chambers (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

BRETT: Damien first introduced me to Grant at the Manly Youth Centre, AKA 'Kangaroo Rock', in late '91 after I'd moved to the area. Our first show as Mope was a backyard party on the Plateay. We had six songs and played the set twice to raging backyard partygoers. Another early show was the Mona Vale Bowls Club - the place got trashed. Apparently some people went into the change rooms and pissed in the lockers of members.

Brett Hottes (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

DAMIEN: I moved up to Byron Bay for 18 months and Grant and Brett jammed with another mate, Brucey (Damien Bruce), on guitars. They wrote a song called 'Creature'. I remember thinking, "This song 'Creature' is pretty easy to play, I can also write some songs with these riffs I have". I did nothing in Byron but surf and play guitar and smoke bongs. Mope happened when I came back home.

Damien Chambers (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GRANT: Brucey was a mate who played guitar. Brett and Damien had been jamming with him and our mate Rick on drums. Can't have been too long as Brucey had his own punk band called Fallintous and then he started Barfly in '94. I think he must have been in the band that would become Mope between Fallintous ending early '93 and Barfly starting at the start of '94. 

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

BRETT: Grant suggested the name Mope. 

Brett Hottes (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GRANT: We had our first jam one week after Christmas Eve '94. I learnt four or five songs that they had written and recorded/demo'd while they were Hatemail. We then started writing new songs. A few names were chucked around but Mope stuck. Bands starting with M seemed to be all the rage then, haha.

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

DAMIEN: It was the ;90s so grunge angst was prevalent in our lyrics. Break ups and teenage anger mixed with a repulsion of religion and corporations. Jello Biafra was always a big influence on how I wrote lyrics. But of course, my lyrics had no wit or intelligence, hahaha. I fucking hate writing lyrics. I hate back then in the '90s and I still fucking hate it today. I enjoy singing in a band - I just hate writing lyrics. 

Damien Chambers (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GRANT: We wrote and recorded a Zen demo and then went into Damien Gerards' Studios to record 8 or 9 songs. Three of these became our first released proper demo cassette. Another five songs from this session were released on a four-way split CD and one other song went onto a compilation.

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

BRETT: I slept in my car around the corner from Damien Gerards Studio, two nights I think. I couldn't drive because we'd had some post-recording beers. I had a job that needed a license - back in the day I don't think others worried like me about that.

Brett Hottes (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

GRANT: Mope was definitely a fun band, and we loved that it was a three piece. Less is more, pushes you to do more musically. That 'less is more' ethic always came into play as we didn't have a second guitarist to mix stuff up like a lot of bands had then. We liked that challenge, haha. 

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

DAMIEN: Northern Beaches Community Radio was at Narrabeen High School, and they recorded a live-to-air set from us. This was recorded inside a classroom. Mope would eventually play everywhere - skateparks, lounge rooms, etc, etc. We also played Octoberpus - those shows were always a blast. Always a massive day of drinking. I missed the first Octoberpus but I reckon I must have gone to every other one. Very
fond memories of the crew who put them on in the beginning, then Grant started doing them later. The dudes who originally put them on, the Ross St Crew, were awesome dudes. Brett and I had our first jam out the back of their place in Ross Street in Curl Curl. The Rossy dudes were a fair few years older than us but were always very supportive of us back in the day, and for that I'll always be grateful. Sadly, a few of them have passed on to the afterlife. But yeah, the dudes in Wrong, Wild Men From Borneo, Three Header Monster... they were the Ross St bands. Legends, 100%!

Damien Chambers (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GRANT: We played The Evil Star, Lansdowne, Max's in Petersham, and in Newcastle, Wollongong, Port Macquarie, the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane... We played shows with Massappeal, Toe to Toe, Subversion, Methrapunge, Vicious Hairy Mary, Persecution, Savage Cabbage and more. In Brisbane we played with Blowhard, Self Reliance, Downtime, 180 Dischord, Unleash... and we snagged a few international supports with Cathedral, Brutal Truth, and a couple others. We were meant to support the Damned but Brett had to go overseas for work so we couldn't. 

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

REVIEW: Mope are DRI vocals, tight rhythmic blasts, and Massappeal-type song structures that are more than just verse / chorus. This is tight, heavy hardcore that mixes Massappeal, Fudge Tunnel, and fast punchy stuff.

Review of Virtual Carnage and Lack of Thoughts, Bar Code The World Issue 5, 1996

DAMIEN: It was fun! There were a few rooms on the beaches to play. Nowadays it's hard to find one Northern Beaches venue that would play punk or metal. In the '90s, people would show up - not many pokie rooms back then. It was good vibes with other bands. We would have played anywhere at that time and we did - backyard parties, surf clubs, skate parks, and across the Harbour Bridge. Heaps of awesome venues back then. It was a pretty strong scene back then - obviously we had the surf scene here on the Northern Beaches and there is a bit of tribalism that goes along with that. But I don't think that the beach or surfing really had any impact on the music that came out of that area. What I do think stands out about the music and the bands that came from the Northern Beaches was that it was a little bit more of a melting pot of genres maybe. But we also had three or four strong rock venues on a small peninsula - so you could start a band and have somewhere to play. It's such a shame the kids today haven't got the same opportunities to play venues like we did back in the day. But the young punks are resourceful and will always find places to play. It's not all doom and gloom, except for maybe the music! Hahaha. 

Damien Chambers (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

ARTICLE: The three-piece outfit Mope... describe their style as hardcoe punk. Over Christmas the band makes its first interstates trip to record its next release in Queensland and hopes to do some shows too.

Unidentified newspaper article, c. 1996?

GRANT: I'd organise tours by reaching out to venue bookers and other bands or mates' bands getting me in contact with bands they'd done shows with outside of Sydney. Then it would be: hire a van, jump in, drive to venue, play, sleep, wake, drive to next show, repeat, then home, haha. We always drove interstate back then - vans were hired from Avis or Entrans, and we shared driving. We'd sleep on peoples' floors or at the venue if they had accommodation. Regarding organising shows, unless someone in your band was motivated enough to do it, touring wasn't really gonna happen. It was a lot of sending promo CD packs and using your PO Box for snail mail and contact. For a band of Mope's size, unless you were part of a booking agency like Harbour Booking or were a bit bigger and had a manager, you had to do it yourself. I was out at a lot of shows back then and meeting people, which led to leads for shows elsewhere and - more importantly - making new friends.

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

BRETT: I've got vague memories of touring - Damo's van with the broken rear window replaced with plywood and spraypainted with the word 'Mope'. We played gigs at pubs, surf clubs, and live at the Brisbane radio station 4ZZZ. While in Brisbane we stayed at the house of Rollo, who was in the band Blowhard. We travelled to Melbourne as well, and played at the Arthouse. Grant was good at finding gigs and contacts, so we always just went with what was on offer. We recorded No Loss No Gain while on tour, up at Grant's uncle's studio near the Gold Coast - at Nerang or Labrador I think. Payment for the recording was unlimited Coca-Cola for his uncle!

Brett Hottes (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GRANT: I walked into our local music shop back in late '95 or '96 maybe, to buy some new sticks and skins for a Mope show that weekend. We'd put the 7" out only a couple of months beforehand. Anyway, like most music shops, they had amps set up so guitarists or bassplayers could try them out. While walking in and up to the counter, someone was having a play on a guitar... I remember thinking, what the fuck, I know that song. I look behind me to see who was playing, thinking it must have been a mate and he'd seen me walk in or something and was taking the piss, but to my surprise it was some young kid playing the start of one of the song 'Drip' from the Mope 7". What the fuck! I walked out stunned. Was bizarre. To this day I still have no idea who he was. We'd done a bunch of All Ages shows locally over the last year at that point so I'm guessing he must have been coming to the shows and had learnt the song off the 7", haha. I doubt he saw me walk in too, which is what made it even weirder. I guess he liked the song, haha. 

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

DAMIEN: Touring was great fun! Grant would organise it and we'd jump on other bands' or mates' tours, or hook up with local bands in the areas we'd be travelling to. If we did, say, Newcastle or Wollongong, we'd pile everything into my Nissan Urvan with the band and our friends in the back of the van. You couldn't do that shit these days, haha. The Urvan, or the Mopemobile as we'd call it, had a busted-out back window. The van was my old man's before I had it. He's a builder - he busted it and just fixed it with plywood. I spraypainted a big 'MOPE' on the back of it. The van also didn't lock, so I had this rod I used to use to 'break' into the van every time I used it. I'd stash the rod in the roof rack, pull it out, and slide it down the window seal to pop the lock open. Such a class van, that one. One trip to Newcastle the Mopemobile started playing up, backfiring and shit. We pulled into a servo to get fuel and food, and when I started the van it backfired so fucking loud that a couple of people literally hit the fucking deck, thinking the petrol station was blowing up or something! Fuck we laughed, but I was stressing out big time! I think someone from Angry Earth Mother or one of their mates may have done a dodgy tune-up or something to get us home because I (or the band, even though Grant's old man is a mechanic) know fuck-all about fixing a car! Haha. 

Damien Chambers (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

 

GRANT: For me, Mope was the starting point of feeling like we were a proper kind of band - being the first band of ours to go away and play, playing with overseas bands, mates' bands, with some of our favourite Aussie bands, and bands we met for the first time and were digging being on the same shows with. Mope also stands out for me because we had the chance to record a lot - I think there was only maybe one or two songs max that we wrote at the very end and never got to record properly. Everything else we wrote we recorded, which was great. This was a big help in the writing process as we'd all contribute to song structures and would try out different things to find what worked best. 

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

DAMIEN: Recording the No Loss No Gain record was memorable. We recorded it at Grant's uncle's place in Queensland. I think we must have flown up or hired a car. It was super fun. We had a heap of time to record, unlike going to Zen or something and just knocking it out. My girlfriend and I slept in the rafters of the studio. The others slept in the live room. The studio had a Great Dane dog and a cat living in there. This massive dog lived in the studio! It wasn't a massive studio, hahaha, so there were fleas. The fucking cat wouldn't touch the ground - it would jump from furniture to furniture to get around the studio and to get outside, such a classic! Jimmy Meek (Downtime, Massappeal) came up to hang out right in the middle of us recording a Massappeal cover, 'Damage Zone'. Also, Marty Mergatroid came up to hang out, along with some other friends. That was a super rad trip. 

Damien Chambers (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

Band Bio, late 1998

BRETT: There are two Mope songs that stand out for me - 'I'm the Enemy' and 'A Red Tent'. 'I'm the Enemy' is a powerful little song where I had to project vocals in a section as best I could, so I tried my best - after singing and playing it I really feel the emotion of it... 'Red Tent' is the most important song I wrote in Mope, with Damien's assistance mapping my lyrics and riffs, etc. 

Brett Hottes (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GRANT: Damien and I had both started Seconds Away while Mope was together and this new band was something different for us style-wise. We'd had fun and done a heap in Mope by then so the timing felt right. We did some reunion shows later and the three of us played together again in We Each Knew, so we were and still are good mates. I've done a bunch of bands with Brett and Damien since, but We Each Knew is the only other one with the three of us together again. 

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

Advertisement from Shaft's Big Score / Healthy Body Sick Mind split zine, November, 1998

BRETT: Mope finished as we slowly lost our desire to keep doing it. 

Brett Hottes (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

DAMIEN: It was just time. I remember saying to Grant, "I think it's time". And he said he was thinking the same thing. I can't remember if we did a 'last show' sort of thing. We did reform for the Monster Sessions in 2009. That was cool. There's a couple of songs I'd like to re-record maybe one day. Life swings past so quick.

Damien Chambers (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GRANT: A lot of the bands we played with, the members didn't really continue on in new bands, so I've lost contact with a lot of 'em. On the odd occasion one or two people would come to later shows and say hi, etc. That's if they were still going to shows. Once the internet and MySpace came in it was a lot easier to stay in contact with people. These days being in a band is our time for catching up with different mates from different circles of friends. Everything else like playing shows and recording is an added bonus. Some people go to the pub to catch up, which we do too but it's also to see bands. Just hangin' out, making a racket, and having fun writing and jammin' while catching up is cool too. Those who are married with kids and families - they enjoy the break from reality by catching up on doing what they enjoy. That's why I've been consistently involved with bands since '91. Longest break I've had is about seven months after Seconds Away finished in early 2001. Hardcore and punk music is about being able to be yourself with no judgement, and being part of a community in a way with like-minded people - either seeing live bands or having the same interest and enthusiasm for music. It's that energy of playing fast music; stuff that makes the blood flow. 

Grant Lawrence (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Hatemail, Blood Like Water, Firebrand, Seconds Away, Wild Men From Borneo, Cabin 18, We Each Knew, The Future Device, Fallintous, Barfly, Lost Trolls, Scapegoat, 4 Days in a Maze, Twin City Faction, Gene Pool Sharks, One Take... Earthquake, Violent Abuse, Arcane, Frank Rizzo, Downtime, Chroma, Damage Zone, Herbal Lunatics, Hostile Objects, Attack / Delay, Cruel World