It is the evening after Poubelle International's third anniversary, and I am arranging chairs in the band's practice studio with a witty, hyper Ben McCarthy. He has just arrived at the interview from his day job as an industrial designer and his mind, he says, is in 'a million places at once'.
Four chairs are now in a circle on the floor amid a clutter of amps, cables, instruments and music stands. 'It's like a weird, very small Alcoholics Anonymous group,' the Sydney-born singer and guitarist quips through a neat moustache, without interrupting his stream-of-consciousness chatter.
It's an odd joke - easy, but worth making; amusing, with an edge. Which is almost exactly how you might describe Poubelle's music.
The band formed in Hong Kong in 2007 after a few late-night jam sessions at Senses 99 - a no-frills hangout at the other end of Wellington Street with crumbling leather sofas and a drum set on the second floor. 'We started practising [in the studio] and it evolved pretty quickly. We wrote two songs and booked a show and then all of a sudden it was on,' says McCarthy. He and drummer Johan Persson are two of Poubelle's three original members. A new bassist, Zane Stroud, joined the group earlier this year.
The boys landed their first gig through The Underground music showcase at the Cavern in May 2008 (hence the anniversary).
'In the first year, we got a lot of attention because there weren't many [musicians] doing what we were doing' says McCarthy, 'There were lots of rip-hop bands and some metal bands, but not so many party rock bands.'
