With new End of Fashion dates for August, Justin Burford explained to Noise11 how he evolved out of The Sleepy Jackson to form End of Fashion and the crossover when he was in both bands simultaneously.
Justin said, “End of Fashion only came about because I was doing lots of solo, indie gigs around Perth inbetween The Sleepy Jackson tours. I had always been a songwriter. That’s how Luke (Steele) and I became friends through our shared interest in songwriting. I was doing lots of these acoustic indie solo gigs. I had been doing that for almost a year. Something switched on in my head. I got approached to do a gig and I thought ‘I’d like to do this with a band. Give me five minutes to see if I could put a band together and if I can I’ll get back to you by the end of the week’. So I put a makeshift band together that was basically The Sleepy Jackson without Luke. I needed a name and the name End of Fashion had been in my head for a while. I grew up listening to lots of Depeche Mode and End of Fashion means sort of the opposite of what Depeche Mode means. That was our first End of Fashion gig”.
Justin’s time as a member of The Sleepy Jackson was smothered by the lack of creative output he was allowed. “We were recording the first Sleepy Jackson record and it was put to me that I should be more interested in pursuing my own band instead of being in that band because of how songwriting was going to work. As pragmatically as possible I was made aware that Sleepy Jackson was not going to be my creative avenue. So I took that on. That was fair. I had started this other thing. End of Fashion had been kicking on as a side project for a few months at that point and I went ‘with much respect I’ll bow out and do this other thing that means more to me.’
Watch the Noise11 June 2025 interview with Justin Burford of The Sleepy Jackson:
Tour Dates:
Friday 15th August – The Brightside – Brisbane, QLD
Saturday 16th August – Crowbar – Sydney, NSW
Friday 22nd August – The Night Cat – Melbourne, VIC
Saturday 23rd August – Jive – Adelaide, SA
Saturday 30th August – The Rosemount – Perth, WA
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE11.com’s newest interviews and special features on YOUTUBE and updated regularly. See things first SUBSCRIBE here: Noise11 on YouTube SUBSCRIBE
Follow us at https://bsky.app/profile/noise11.bsky.social
Comment on the news of the day, join Noise11 on Facebook
