In an age where viral videos and gaming soundtracks can mean more than label clout and record sales, Sick Puppies are leaders in the field of cross marketing and maximisation of musical opportunities. The Sydney three-piece blew up globally a few years ago with that free hugs video on YouTube; now, fifty million views later the band is an established powerhouse in the North American heavy music market and trading hard on some good breaks.

Having just completed an Australian tour with super-heavyweights Nickelback, Sick Puppies are pushing onward and upward with a new record under their arm and an eye on the prize.

RedHotPie caught up with singer/guitarist Shimon Moore to chat about the band’s journey from humble beginnings in Australia to the World Wide Web, the Rock Mafia and Oprah Winfrey…

Hey Shimon, where have you woken up today?

Hey man, we’re in Perth at the moment.

You’re based in L.A full time these days right?

Pretty much yeah.

So how are you finding La La Land?

Well we don’t spend a lot of time in LA itself anymore man, we tour around and we’re in pretty much a different city every night all the time.

And just how much time are you guys spending on the road these days?

All the time, we spend all our time on the road pretty much, Like once a record’s finished we’re pretty much out there for a couple years promoting the record on tour.

That sounds gruelling.

Yeah but that’s just how it’s done, it’s the only way to do it.

Well a lot of bands sit back and expect the world to come to them, looks like you guys learnt early on that that’s not how things work.

Pretty much man, that’s exactly right

How have you gone about setting up the infrastructure to be able to be so pro-active?

The thing you learn is that success has to do with everything, like we did all the work ourselves in the beginning and then when it got a point where we need to recruit a few people to help us out we recruited people to help us out, then we got a record deal, then the more successful you get the more fans you have come on board, like sickpuppiesworldcrew.net is our dedicated fan site and they do a lot of promotion for us as well. It just builds, it stretches out in any direction it needs to go.

Do you guys see yourselves as the exception rather to the rule For every band that makes it, 100 don’t, do you think you’ve been lucky or is it simply a product of the work you’ve put it?

It’s both, there are some amazing bands out there that never get a chance because they just never get a chance and there are some bands or artists that are all luck, you know, they land one hit, but we’ve always just focused on making the best music we can, and then when a good break comes along you’re ready to take it. I mean it took a few years for us to really get a break but when it came along we were ready because we had been working so hard.

The Free Hugs video On YouTube, that’s obviously the biggest break that’s come down the pipeline for you guys thus far yeah?

Yeah, definitely, that put us on the map so that everyone was paying attention to what we did afterwards.

And where does the Free Hugs thing fit with the bands current persona? Does it still come up in every interview?

Not really, not as much anymore, yeah not like it used to but it does a bit in Australia just because we haven’t been back in a while and the last thing you heard from us was the Free Hugs video yeah.

So it’s kind of old news now back in the States.

Yeah we’ve got a lot of new stuff we’re doing, I mean we were on the WWE pay per view stations with the single that went number one over in the states and before we finished the album we wrote a song for the Street Fighter ad campaign that was nationwide and a lot of stuff has been happening but that stuff won’t get noticed so much over here because it’s kind of dedicated to the States, a lot of people here still know us from the Free Hugs thing which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that, I mean it’s probably the biggest thing any band could do in the history of being in a band, I mean the 50 million views has created a worldwide phenomenon, there are very few garage bands that can say they’ve been on Oprah twice, so fuck it.

And she’s retiring!

I know that’s the thing, not many people are gonna be able to say that now.

So you’ve got the wrestling, the street fighter campaigns, the free hugs video, are you guys quite conscious of the cross platform marketing of your music?

Yeah definitely now, I mean it’s changing every six months now, I think the rule now is there are no rules, you just have to take what you can get while you can get it, you do the best you can and when someone calls and says ‘can you put a song on our ad campaign’ you say ‘hell yeah’ and you write something and if it works you’re stoked.

Breaking into the music machine’s changed a lot over the last ten years, what advice would you have for the kids trying to get a look in these days?

The best piece of advice I could give is to make sure that you are friends first and foremost and that you stay friends first and foremost because the whirlwind of shit that comes around, it’ll put everything to the test. If you’re not sure about the people that you’re working with then don’t work with them, don’t get into it. I mean if the things not successful and you don’t make any money at least you get to have a great time working with your friends no matter what. We’ve been pretty lucky where we’ve been able to avert it but we’ve had a couple close calls with people who weren’t shit hot and then you get half way down the line and you’re like ‘geez we got to change this or redo that’. So yeah, just make sure you’re happy with how you’re working with.

Always helps to have a unified front.

Yeah man and that’s advice for life, like I wish someone had told me that when I was younger, If you work with friends, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the million dollars or a number one single.

You mentioned the differences between here and the U.S; do you think the band is perceived differently here in Australia than back stateside?

No, it’s just different markets man, I mean the whole blues and roots thing is bigger here than in the States, back there it’s the bigger processed sound that’s popular. It’s different markets and different tastes and we wanted to be part of that market doing the big rock ‘n’ roll sound so we went to where that music was, I’m sure when the time comes to do a blues and roots record I’ll move back.

That on the horizon is it, a tour with John Butler?

Yeah man, I’d be down with that.

So tell us a bit about the new record Tri-Polar, where was it recorded?

It was recorded in L.A.

And did you have a producer wish list going into the project?

Yeah we chose the Rock Mafia, they did the first record we did in the States Dressed Up As Life, we got them to do it, they just have a great little studio with really good gear and they know how to work it and we just did our thing.

And now you’re out on the road again, you’re here with Nickelback, how’s that been?

So far it’s been awesome man, I mean we’re all members of the Commonwealth so there’s a level of comradery that you get, but yeah, they’re really cool, they’ve got it all worked out, they treat everyone, the band members, the crew, everyone like family, it’s just a really good vibe.

You mentioned the big processed sound that’s popular in America, that over blown pro tools rock sound, that’s what the band is chasing now eh?

Well yeah, you realize when you play these big shows that those are the sounds the resonate with the fans and that’s what works best so that what we tried to create.