Yeah well in our lyrics we talk a lot about
the ocean and the sun and good times
etc etc. We have had a go at surfing, like
when we’re on the road some people
will wanna take us out and laugh at us.
We’ve had a surf at Byron, at Cooly and
Wollongong. I stood up the time I had this
10ft foam board with three fins but then
another time they just tried to give me
this fibreglass short thing with one fin and
I could barely even fuckin just paddle
out on it. I wasn’t scared, more just
embarrassed, looking like a goldfish flying
a fucking helicopter all over the place.
What are some or your passions then –
are you avid environmentalists, keen
economists or what?
Umm what am I? We like friends and we
just like doing shit. We are DIY. We’ve been
an independent band for a long time so
we love making video clips and doing it
all ourselves.
What about world affairs?
The big world stuff upsets me a lot of the
time and I feel like I can’t do anything so
I guess I’m more of a local politician in
that I just be the best person I can in my
community and where we can actually
change something I’ll be incredibly
active, which is the local live music scene.
I’d love to be one day just some incredibly
rich person with the power to make things
really cool.
I can see the headline now ‘Paddy wants
to be the next Bono!’
Ah no way. (laughs)
So the album has just come out and
debuted at #3 on the ARIA Albums Chart
plus it made Triple J’s feature album of the
week – what are you hoping for with this
one?
It’s already done really, I couldn’t care
less because I know that me and the guys
have never put so much effort and heart
into anything else in our fucking lives. I
mean we’re really proud of everybody’s
input into it. I think it’s pretty special and I
think if other people understand that then
that’s the bonus.
What’s with the kittycat on the cover?
We were just really stoked with it but
it was an accident. We’d just finished
recording the album. We’d spent a
month up in the hills in Byron at a studio
called Rockinghorse and we just had
a great time – it was the most luxurious
experience we’ve ever had recording it
– it actually was a land of pleasure. You
know what it’s like, it’s lush and beautiful
and real magic. It was in Federal up in the
hills. It’s really nice and the best place to
record because you get away from it all.
But before that we wrote all these songs
in the house in Sydney and we rehearsed
and got incredibly tight and then we went
up to the hills and basically had a lot of fun
– you know what I mean? And after that
we were all pretty wired and incredibly
soulfully rejuvenated. Dylan hadn’t seen
his mum in a long time so we dropped in
at his mum’s house on the Gold Coast.
We just rocked up at his mum’s place
pretty wired and he sat down and the
kitten pretty much just jumped on him
and then his mum took that photo. Also
another surprise was Dylan’s brother, who
he hasn’t seen in years, was also there
and you can see Dylan’s brother in the
reflection in the sunglasses. Dylan’s family
is actually from New Zealand so they
haven’t had that many reunions. The
photo actually got put up on the internet
and I said take it down because that’s a
fucking album cover.
So it was totally unpretentiously posed –
just a natural shot?
Yeah that’s why