How long have you been living locally? What suburb are you in?

John and Erica’s house (Riot Baby HQ, where we rehearse and record) is in Northcote, and we have been here for about three years. Other members live in Fitzroy North, and Parkville.

What do you love about your home town/suburb?

The music! In the before times there were five or six places just on High Street that had original live music seven nights a week. Everything from jazz, folk, pop, metal, punk, classical, community-music, world music, and everything in between and melding them all together. Our special treat on a Friday night after a long week of work/school was often to wander down to Open Studio, or the Wesley Anne to have dinner and a pint and catch some live music at a family friendly time. Matinee gigs at the Northcote Social Club were another favourite!

What genre of music do you generally play? 

Super heavy punk, but for kids. We get our inspiration from Aussie kids books and all the pub bands we like to go and see with our kids.

Are you a solo artist and/or do you play with a band? Would you like to list them?

Our members are:

• Cat - Lead vocals/keys/ukulele

• John - Guitar

• Daniel - Bass

• Cipta - Drums

• Erica/Ginko/Zadie - Backing vocals

  Daniel and Ginko also play with Wadaiko Rindo, John and Erica play in Gamelan Dananda, and John plays in The Cambrian Explosion and Kahlua Breeze

Where is your favourite live music venue to play locally?

Our plans for world domination have been disrupted by the pandemic, so we’ve only played The Old Bar (twice) so far. We love jamming in local parks too! Look out for us in All Nations Park or Edinburgh Gardens.

Once things open up again, we’re looking forward to booking gigs at 303, Open Studio and the Thornbury Bowls Club. We’d love to play the Wesley Anne, but we’re probably too loud ...

Where is your favourite live music venue to play in world-wide?

If we could pick any venue in the world to play, it would probably be the Northcote Social Club. That, or the Preston-Rezza Bowls Club for the Reservoir Stomp… 

If you could play with any other musician in the world, who would it be?

Ooh … tough one … Probably Moody Beaches, or Hearts and Rockets (who we played with at our first show! Lucky us!). Coincidentally, they all live in Darebin too

Some artists have part time/full time jobs when they are not gigging – do you have one? (and do you want to share it?)

Zadie’s a toddler (an important job), Erica and Ginko are in grade 2, Cipta’s an international toy impresario, Daniel’s a mad scientist, Cat’s a science writer and editor, and John works in energy policy.

What hobby have you taken up during isolation? (eg. baking sourdough!)

Recording our album! We were lucky enough to get some recording sessions in before the first lockdown, and one in between lockdowns for a special iso-themed track: Playground. We didn’t know it was about to be so relevant again!

What are you looking forward to doing again, post COVID-19 restrictions?

Play music together, go and see some live gigs, and hit up a playground ...

What has been your favourite thing about isolation?

Lots of time to practise? And we get to spend more time with our kids.

What has been the hardest part about isolation?

Home-schooling, and not hanging out with our friends. Every kid in Riot Baby is an only child, so that’s been really hard on the kids and the parents

If people want to learn more about your music where can they head to?

We’re most active on Facebook, but you can follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter if that’s how you roll. You can buy our recordings at Bandcamp!