MITCH Irwin wanted to run away and join the circus.
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Instead, he founded The Pits, an act which fuses punk, swing, and oom pah pah sounds into a high energy musical performance.
“I was just sick of being in the rut of working nine to five,” Irwin said.
By day, Irwin sells bearings and the job is “better than it sounds”.
“So it was like a running away to join the circus kind of thing,” he said.
The Pits are now gaining attention and will soon release their debut recording, The Greatest Show on Earth.
Irwin said the band was difficult to describe due to an unusual array of influences.
“One of our big appeals, and one of our drawbacks, is we are hard to pigeonhole,” he said.
“Trying to describe it to people, it sounds like crazy circus music.
“It’s an eclectic mash and I like to think we make it work.”
Irwin plays guitar and writes the songs, Matt Probert is on trumpet, Boyd McCormack is on trombone, Boden Pobjie is on vocals, Tristan Lacey is on drums and Josh Brown plays bass.
“We try to bill it like a cabaret act,” Irwin said.
“Obviously we are a band, so we play songs, but we do jokes.
“Banter with the crowd, there is a fair bit of back and forth .. choreographed dance moves. We try to get that crowd participation.”
The band formed in 2017 and has been building a local audience ever since.
“The crowd is definitely getting bigger, it’s not just our friends and families coming along now,” Irwin said.
“We are starting to get randoms and faces we don’t recognise, and singing along to the songs as well.”
The band plays original tunes.
“But we sneak in, mid-song, a Queen song or something as well,” Irwin said. “So we might play the heavy part of Bohemian Rhapsody in the middle of one of our songs.”
The Greatest Show on Earth was recorded at Tommirock Studios and Queen’s multilayered sound influenced they way it was made.
“I’m a big Queen fan. Instead of one guitar track we will have 15 guitar tracks and five trumpet tracks,” Irwin said.
“It’s very layered, but we still have that punk element in there, where it’s hard music.
“There are parts where it sounds like a New Orleans band. It’s always a big sound.”
The recording will be available on CD and across all digital platforms.
The have also released videos for the tracks, Salt and Killer.
It will be launched at the Lass O’Gowrie Hotel on October 5.
