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Unless you’ve recently returned to Earth after a trip to Mars, or have been nesting in a desert cave somewhere alongside Osama Bin Laden, you can’t fail to have heard the tones of ‘Just A Song About Ping Pong’ this summer. One of the most addictively catchy songs to have emerged in ages, it has also introduced the British public to the work of Operator Please, five teenagers from Australia who are already one of the bands to name-drop over the coming months.
Yet according to Amandah Wilkinson, the group’s brassy, take no shit vocalist and guitarist, the radio conquering success of 'Ping Pong', both in Europe and Australia, wasn’t exactly part of a master plan for success. Indeed, it nearly wasn’t a single at all. She explains: “When we first recorded Ping Pong, we didn’t think anything of it. It was kinda just a song. It wasn’t like this is, the thing [that would make them]. It was just one of those songs.” That theory is expanded upon by the group’s bubbly violinist, Taylor Henderson who points out that: “Ping Pong, compared to the rest of our stuff isn’t probably the best representation of us. And I think you can tell that on the album [' Yes! Yes! Vindictive!', currently slated for a February release in the UK] . Ping Pong was written really early, and you see how we’ve matured and found a little bit more technical side, a little bit more grungey. We didn’t even pick Ping Pong as a single!”
The single’s success is certainly a long way from the band’s modest beginnings, when they formed simply to enter a battle of the bands contest at their high school in Gold Coast. Since winning the contest, things have moved rapidly for the group with their manic combination of punk, funk and party pop winning admirers all over the globe. Meeting the band, in their cramped Barfly dressing room, there’s still an energy emanating from them, which suggests despite their youthful age, they have very firm ideas about where they want to go. Amandah feels that the success of Operator Please has happened naturally.
“ We formed solely for the battle of the bands. After that, we realised this was something we enjoyed, we thought we’d make the most of it while we could because there wasn’t that many sort of like minded people that liked the same kind of music. It was kinda like, let’s play some more shows because we enjoyed it and we weren’t really thinking about anything. We didn’t know that it gonna come this far, we just were playing shows and that’s about it. Subconsciously we were hoping something would happen but it didn’t actually sink in that we could make something of this until a while ago.”
Although Wilkinson is nominally the group’s leader as vocalist, (she’s also the band’s lyricist) there’s a strong united vibe from the quintet, with everyone continually chipping in throughout the interview. While keyboardist Sarah Gardiner onstage bounces around like a lunatic, she’s more reserved off it, although there’s still a steely determination to a lot of her words; bassist Ashley McConnell gives more laconic observations and drummer Tim Commandeur is the quietest of the five. And the group feel that having such strong personalities in the band is a real benefit. Taylor points out that:
“I actually joined the band later [she replaced original violinist Stephanie Joske in 2006] and I came into it as a 15 year old, very shy, and it was like sitting in the centre of a storm, like the very eye because these guys were just like four corners, completely opposite. We would not be friends if we weren’t in the band, that’s true. We’re one nation under this music! But, I would really consider it a loss to not know these people. I’d never have met them otherwise.”
Amandah supports that, adding “None of us will back down to each other. None of us hung out with each other at school. As cliched as it sounds, it [the band] is the one thing that really unites us.” Such a personality clash did lead to early problems, as Sarah Gardiner explains; "We all like so many different types of music. When we started the band we all thought each other’s tastes were weird. And then we all made mix CD’s for each other. It’s so broad. But we have so much in common too! Music is what pulls us all together.”
Of course, such a rapid rise has its inevitable downside with various media decrying the band for a string of reasons, from their youth to suggestions their parents bankrolled their success. Yet Operator Please are taking this in stride. According to Amandah: “It happens. Is it because people just think you’re shit? It’s like if you hate someone, oh fuck that girl, she’s a stupid dick, look at her shit shoes. Do you know what I mean? People can hate anything for anything. Yeah you get compared, you get hated on, you get hate mail, it’s all that kind of shit, it’s just a given when you do something like this where you get attention. You can’t expect to have all 100% attention that’s good, it’s the same for any band."
She continues: "I’ve come to notice that when any local band is doing well on their own, everyone is really behind them but as soon as something kinda good happens, that’s when everything starts coming out. It’s happened to a lot of our friends that are in bands back home actually. You know, it’s just a given when you’re in a band or when you’re a actor or anything like that. Like our parents would actually pay the record company, that’s just hilarious.”
Sarah adds: “It’s like any given day, is it because we’re too young, is it because we have a violin, is it because some of our songs sound different? We get compared so much it’s not funny. We can’t let it bother us or else we’d just melt into the floor.”
Despite the criticism, the band have some famous fans too, having already supported the Arctic Monkeys and the Kaiser Chiefs. They're experiences which the group obviously savoured, as Amandah beams: “Any time an international band comes through, it’s like, getting them to tour is like holy shit! It’s inspirational what those bands have achieved. To be able to support them is amazing. You’d walk in on them round a table eating and you’d be like, back to the dressing room!”
And the band are also enjoying their own shows, having just completed a headline tour of the UK, with Taylor remarking that “It’s encouraging cos this isn’t even our country, you know? We had our 1st sold out show here recently, which was amazing, cos this is a different country. We’ve not done much headlining stuff either, so this has been good.”
Ashley also admits to be being surprised by the tour’s success. “There’s been so many more people than I thought [would come to our shows]. I thought there’d be about 4 people coming to our shows!”
While the live shows have been a success, the band are also excited by their debut album as well, Amandah explaining that: “I think the aim of an album is to bring out the potential of a song, because you have the capabilities to do so. And, an album and live are two different things, cos live is all about the vibe. There was no kind of outside pressure, I think all the pressure came from within the band. You only get one chance at making it. We mucked around with a lot of instruments, it was just natural really.” Sarah confirms this, stating; “Hopefully people will see us live and think oh wow, I got this from the show but I got this from the album.”
And if anyone doubts that Operator Please will continue to enjoy success then Sarah has some words of warning. “There was five in Captain Planet, five Power Rangers, five Spice Girls and there’s five of us!”
Operator Please may be lacking the neon costumes, but they certainly pack a punch.
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