The Panics

The Panics
The Panics November 2008, Melbourne, Australia
Background information
Origin	Perth, Western Australia Australia
Genres	Rock
Years active	2002–present
Labels	LittleBIGMAN Records Dew Process
Website	Official website
Members	Jae Laffer Drew Wootton Myles Wootton Paul Otway Jules Douglas

The Panics are an indie rock band originally from Perth, Western Australia, and currently based in Melbourne, Victoria.

The band started out while Jae Laffer (then known by his actual first name, Justin) and Drew Wootton were still at high school in Kalamunda, an outer suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Laffer and Wootton met on their first day of school.

"You just look at someone and go, alright; you can be my friend, you have the same haircut as me". - Laffer

They added Drew's younger brother Myles on drums, Paul Otway on bass and Jules Douglas on slide guitar, keyboards and vocals soon after. After being spotted playing at the Inglewood Hotel by Happy Mondays' Gaz Whelan and Pete Carroll, following Happy Mondays' Perth performance at The Big Day Out in 2000, they were the first signing to the UK-based label LittleBIGMAN Records, a label set up by Carroll and Whelan.

"Yeah well that’s what’s been really cool about us and the label is that it was just the fact it was new for everyone and we weren’t just another band that they were adding to their roster. It felt really exciting to be part of a label that seemed to have really good ideals and be run by guys who certainly have their heads in the right place and are pro-artist as opposed to pro-money and I truly believe that. And it’s just good to have people who believe in you and playing for a couple of years it’s very rare that anyone comes along and wants to help you without wanting to take your money straight away and all that kind of thing. It’s just nice when people come along and go “we love what you do and we’d love to help”. And to have someone like the guys that run our label getting us gigs and getting us exposure, it’s like a massive weight off our shoulders that’s for sure. And also we’re really relieved to not have to go through the probable years of sending out demos hoping for replies trying to sweet talk people and suck up to people. It’s nice to straight away be our own little community and just start making records." - Laffer