I wanted to enter last year’s Department of Rock, so I asked three friends in my branch to start a band and compete in the competition. They separately declined for various reasons, but perhaps I had planted a seed, as I asked them again this year and they all said yes!
I met Sam when he replaced me in a work team many moons ago, and we later discovered I knew his wife from the old Phoenix Bootlegs days (how Canberra!). He’s currently the bass player for The Rain Gauge, with my old Faux Faux Amis bandmate Darren Atkinson (even more like Canberra!). We’ve been talking about working on something together for a couple of years now, and this competition proved the nudge we needed.
Emma, Marivi and I were all working in the same team last year. Emma picked up the guitar nine months ago – one of the first times we talked we realised we were both at the same Badly Drawn Boy concert in 2003 so I knew she had good taste. And Marivi used to sing along sweetly to Ariana Grande at her desk. I collected and filed that away for later use!
So Sam and I were somewhat old hands, but neither Emma or Marivi had played in a band before. My feeling was the easiest and fun-est music to play would likely be that sweet spot between garage rock and soul – which purely coincidentally happens to be some of my most favourite music in the world! Our set soon coalesced, comprising renditions of Dusty Springfield’s Spooky, The Gories’ Sister Anne, The Detroit Cobras’ Cha Cha Twist, and The Jesus & Mary Chains’s Sometimes Always. The latter, a duet, marks my first time singing and playing drums at the same time – something I wasn’t even aware I could do prior to this band!
We rehearsed weekly for a couple of months, splitting our time between my place and Redsun Studios. Emma and I also went on a reconnaissance mission to the Department of Rock heat the week before our own – the mixture of polished and not-so-polished performers was reassuring.
Our heat was a blast, with a stacked crowd from work who had come to cheer us along. They laughed at all my banter, and immediately clapped along or sang when implored – it was a tremendous boost to our confidence. We held our own against some other great bands, and miraculously the judges deigned to send us through to the semi-finals! It’ll be interesting to see how we fare at the semis, but just performing this gig was my goal – everything else has been icing on the cake.
It’s nearly two years since I answered James Montgomery-Wilcox’s request for a drummer for a ‘glam rock’ band. Initially nameless, we quickly morphed into the Transit Dolls.
We’ve now done over a dozen gigs, spread across the Pot Belly, the Irish Club, and Smiths Alternative. That number would be higher, but we had some trouble keeping a bass player. We are now on our fourth bassist(!) – and best – Stuart Mitchell.
James’ songs for this project are short blasts of pub and punk rock – there’s some Sweet and David Bowie influence in there, but also the New York Dolls and maybe even a little Angels. James spent years as a bassist so writes with groove and rhythm in mind, making all the songs super-fun to play! My partiality for ‘pocket’ drummers – like Al Jackson Jnr, Nick Knox, or Phil Rudd – fits well. I try and keep the songs flowing as much as possible, only adding fills as another hook.
It’s the first time I have been a sideman and not the band leader – or at least co-songwriter – in a band. I’ve been determined to be a good ‘hang’ more than anything – to show up on time, prepared to play and up for anything. And as I suspected from the off, it has levelled up my drumming – my speed, my fills and vocab, my confidence – in ways just practicing at home never could. Plus I love playing with James and Stu – we’re having a blast!
The above video for You’re Mine is maybe the quickest I have ever filmed and edited – shot after practice on Wednesday, edited on Thursday, and up on Friday!
LUKE: Nick and I have been involved in several long-form (think multi-year) art projects of late, with a bevy of collaborators, including a full-length Babyfreeze album. This has been fun and rewarding stuff, but I grew to miss the immediacy of our earlier projects. Working quick and dirty is our preferred mode, and one that we both excel at. With that in mind, I suggested to Nick we do a short and sharp challenge – write and record an EP and shoot videos* for it over the course of a single weekend. Of course, this isn’t exactly what transpired, but it gave us the framework and impetus to create Life’s The Best.
For my part, I envisioned something guitar-heavy – the instrument we both have the most experience playing – and for it to be an opportunity to finally record my drum kit. Again, it didn’t go down exactly as planned! SONGWRITING TIP #1: follow the muse and do what you have to in service of the song.
We set aside the first weekend and then both struggled not to write anything ahead of time. The plan was simple – we would set the timer for 45 minutes, go to opposite ends of the house, and write. After the timer went off, we’d then play for each other what we had written. Rinse and repeat.
The first couple of times went almost identically for me: 10-20 minutes of utter panic, followed by landing on an idea and then chasing it down for the remaining time. 45 minutes is a koan – both a lot of time and not a lot of time!
The first song I wrote became Learn To Love You. By our self-imposed rules, I failed on this first attempt – I only came up with the bassline, drums, and vocal melody, running out of time to bed down any lyrics (apart from the opening line, ‘gotta sweat it all out’, and the ‘I could learn to love you’ refrain). Nick offered to take a crack at the remaining lyrics overnight and show me when he returned the next day. I gratefully accepted! SONGWRITING TIP #2: Always break the rules before ruining a song.
The second song I wrote became Night Off From Love. After writing a fast-paced up-tempo number, I decided to go in the opposite direction and craft a ballad. I started with the chords and what I thought was a 5/4 rhythm – turns out I was just playing a janky 6/8. My time management fared better but was still a little off – I managed to wrote the chords and a vocal melody for both sections… but only the lyrics to the first verse. Again, I handed it over to Nick to finalise overnight – what a good system for me!
We had so much fun on these first two sessions, we decided to throw caution to the wind and round out the day with a third. I finally cracked the code on finishing a song in the time limit – Blubbering Mess was the result, a no-nonsense garage rock belter. SONGWRITING TIP #3: Sometimes (most times?) simplest is best.
One of the other album cover mock-ups
The remainder of this weekend was spent testing and tweaking arrangements. It became apparent quickly that if we were going to record live drums especially we were going to need longer than one weekend to get everything done. We booked in a second weekend to record as much as we could.O
At the start of the second weekend, with six songs in hand, Nick suggested we do one more 45 minute session, to give us eight songs – closer to an album than an EP. For this final session, I started with the lyrics first – which is typically how I write, at least starting with a title or hook – and smashed out the entirety of It Don’t Work Like That No More, even including a bridge! We then got down Nick’s vocals and some other bits and pieces – basically enough for me to continue on my own to add instruments and build out the arrangements.
It took a few weeks to finalise the songs – some of this was spent writing drum parts and then recording my drums for the first time. The drum sound is pretty muddy but I learnt a lot and have already developed methods for a cleaner sound next time. SONGWRITING TIP #4: Treat everything as a draft.
The ‘live instrument’ aesthetic I’d envisioned remained for some songs, but we mostly ditched guitars for synth, and by the end, I was back programming midi and drums – full circle back to Babyfreeze J
This is the first time I’ve sung lead since Faux Faux Amis broke up in late 2018 – in that band, I’d leant on a very gruff ‘rock’n’roll’ bark when singing, almost like adding a distortion pedal to my voice. Part of that approach was to mask some of my vocal insecurities (I actually love the sound of my voice but struggle with pitch). For this project, and others going forward, I consciously decided to ditch that and sing in more of my natural register. Frightening – but fun – stuff!
So, what are my highlights?
1. Nick’s fantastic chorus for Night Off From Love, which tied the rest of the song together and elevated it to Classic Songbook status.
2. The solo on Teenage Atlantis – I wrote it on guitar and then played it using Massive’s default sound (I agree with Louis Cole, it sounds great).
3. My drumming on I Am Your Child – we digitally sped this up drastically to see how it might sound. When we liked it, I then had to learn to drum it at that speed! Very proud of this single take.
4. Rifle Through My Clothes – perfect song meets the most effortless arrangement of the album.
*Making videos quickly fell off the list of things to do, but I reckon we will do at least one before putting the album to bed!
More mock-ups!
NICK: It’s funny seeing Luke write that I made his life easier, writing chunks of lyrics to songs that he started. This is yet another project where I mostly just write a vocal and chords and then Luke has to do almost all the hands-on producing and arranging. Don’t get me wrong, I provide strong briefs and takes such as ‘the drums should sound too fast for the rest of the track’ or ‘this is feeling like those backing tracks that guitar students use to solo over and I like that and we should make it even more that’.
I was more than happy for the production and arrangements to end in a mid-fi kitchen sink space, and particularly glad we got to have some nicely scuzzy drums before Luke works out how to record them cleaner. We blew out the single-weekend idea to the equivalent I guess three weekend’s work, knowing that that’s all it takes for Luke and I to make a record that we like is almost scary.
The first thing I came up with in the first 45 was the main hook for Teenage Atlantis. ‘Love and death destruction on the sea floor’ with a melody and chords. If I had longer to work I would probably change those words to something less restrictively specific, so it’s good that I didn’t have time. The melody had 50s rock vibes so I built out a lyric about being an Atlantean prince who is fated to prevent an apocalypse, but blows that off to take his girlfriend on a date.
I Am Your Child is me trying to emulate my favourites songwriter Johnathan Richman, his lyrics have a warmth and openess but also an off-ness, the sense of a brain that is tacking in a slightly dangerous direction. The line ‘I Am Your Child’ felt very in that pocket and then I just leaned into hectoring second person, which I just love as a way to do pop lyrics. Cracking how to make this one work (the guitar chords were pretty bland on their own) was probably what showed us that the record was gonna have plenty of synths.
Mock-up #3
The Slow Collapse is a repetitive shanty which Luke brought necessary wonkiness to, it’s basically a Magnetic Fields song now and look that’s a favourite band of mine. My friend Max describes it as ‘quasi-futuristic military love cult guru’ which makes me feel pretty seen. Writing these up I realise I’ve gone HARD on the second person actually, I clearly love an Instructional voice.
Rifle Through My Clothes is the one I wrote on the second weekend after suggesting we do one more each. It tumbled out really quickly and it’s the best one I wrote for the record, one of my favourite songs I’ve ever done actually. A lot of that is Luke taking it from the jaunty country swing that I wrote it to a synth lighter-swayer, I never would have imagined it like this and it’s perfect. Lyrically it’s the latest in my endless procession of Mortal Dread songs, that will keep coming until one of you sorts out immortality once and for all.
For years I’ve wanted to call a band Life’s The Best, I was always imagining a sort of Australiana post-hardcore thing with that name but it actually works better as a name that celebrates Luke and I and our 20-plus years of making songs together. Because irony’s for cowards and Life actually is The Best (that’s why I don’t want to die ever).
I think the idea for the cover shoot (Luke and I standing soaking wet) was mine, but it was Lou and Violet McGrath aka Luke’s family who got to enjoy throwing the water on us. Like the cover shot this record is us making something Good with our most available resources, it feels like a consolidation to then work out how next to stretch ourselves. Maybe we will consciously overstretch ourselves with an unhinged music video idea.
I approached Coolio Desgracias about doing a quick EP to keep busy in the first few weeks of lockdown. He jumped on the idea, suggesting we model it after Champion Sound – both of us working separately, spitting over each other’s beats. We immediately hooked in, a fun no-stress exercise smashing something out ahead of the long-gestating Northside Swag Unit EP (more on that next time!).
Needless to say, Coolio’s beats were awesome. For my production, I sent him a handful of beats with samples chopped from records from my last trip to Japan – consider it the latest Lion’s Mansion instalment – and some of my recent raids on new mecca Championship Vinyl. Coolio has an inherent distaste for ‘keyboard beats’ so I sent him my most Madlib-esque flips. Though my favourite track ended up being Nonsense Rhyme where I mixed 60s psychedelic rock with my own trap production, an arrangement idea I took from Pusha T’s Come Back Baby.
As a rapper, I knew I needed to put myself into a box. My rules for this project were 1. No standard hip-hop flexing, slang or ebonics, and 2. No stream of consciousness – every song had to have a story.
Firegolds, Part One is a 1920s mob vignette, about a young buck’s first day bootlegging and the bloody outcome – crime doesn’t pay, kids! The ‘part one’ is a nod to the fact the song abruptly ends at its most climatic moment. There’s definite flavours of A Prince Among Thieves, especially my roping in of Nick to play a between-verse radio announcer and Coolio to play a heavy!
Tierwater Blues saw me riffing on the first chapter of T.C. Boyle’s A Friend Of The Earth. I was so taken with the imagery and premise I started trying to turn it into a song before I finished the chapter. Consequently, both stories start in the same place and slowly deviate. The wizened voice I adopted was character-acting, reflective of Boyle’s aged, ornery protagonist. And yes trainspotters, that is an interpolation of Prince Far I’s classic UnderHeavy Manners in the chorus!
Lone Wolf & Chillcame about differently – I heard a flow before I had a concept. I quickly got it down on my phone, vocalising a mixture of nonsense words and broken Spanish. The Spanish felt natural as I was hearing an open vowel sound on the end of most of the lines. At first I thought I might even try writing the rhymes in Spanish, but when my thoughts turned to what other languages have similar phonotactics, Japanese came to mind. Pretty soon the couplet ‘Back in Edo / Ogami Itto’ came to me and the rest fell into place. I definitely would like to write more like this in future.
We both finished the tracks quite quickly – Coolio crushed it, listen to him go full Chali 2na on Get Your Boat On! – but getting the cover artwork delayed it somewhat. The first artist fell through and while I was organising a second one, I suggested we do one more track with both of us rapping on it to tie the project together. Day In, Day Out was the result – I provided the chop and Coolio provided that killer hook, which still gets routinely stuck in my head.
Day In Day Out was the only song to make reference to the lockdown – we saved the rest for the cover. I asked Gustavo to draw us as The Big Lebowski and Mad Max, a la:
I also suggested he draw us in the Fortress of Solitude, another reference to lockdown. And lastly, we called the EP ‘For The Good Of The Realm’:
Behold – Faux Faux Amis’s video for our cover of Stenxh’s You Know.
The track was intended as part of a compilation of acts on Early Music covering each other. That album never eventuated, but we pushed ahead and finished our version earlier this year. Catherine suggested You Know and I loved the idea because it’s so far removed from our typical sound. We take several liberties with the arrangement – in particular, returning to our straight-ahead punk leanings on the coda. Catherine delivers a towering performance on lead vocals; however the true MVP is our multi-talented drummer Darren Atkinson. Not only is this the first recorded piece we have with Darren on the skins, but he also produced the track, arranging and performing most of the instrumentation in the blissed-out second section (and contributing some killer vocals at the end). Plus, he let me loose on the melodica – something few producers have been game to do before! I love the texture the melodica brings, lending an ethereal atmosphere to the song.
A track with such an otherworldly vibe required a matching video. There are very few ways to up your production values without spending any money, but one is to make use of any exotic locales you might come across. So far, I’ve filmed an episode of One Pot Punk Rock in New Zealand, and the Faux Faux Amis’ video Holiday Inn in Brooklyn. For this clip, I took my camera out on our first night in Marrakech, exploring Jemaa el-Fnaa square.
The square is surreal, a swirling carnival of snake-charmers, games of chance, musicians, monkeys, colourful characters, eateries and throngs upon throngs of revellers. Anywhere else would hold an event like this as a yearly festival, but here it happens every day. The camera was a magnet for hustlers and touts, but I just pinballed around all night, swept up in the dazzling and disorienting sights we witnessed. I double-downed on the kaleidoscopic feel by mirroring the footage (also effective at obscuring my shaky camerawork). Between the track and the video, I feel it’s the most psychedelic thing we have done yet.
Lick Nuke 