Frenzal Rhomb are Australian music titans. They’ve been serving up a brand of politically charged, but suitably irreverent punk rock for over two decades now. And they’re at it again. With a new best of album We Lived Like Kings (We Did Anything We Wanted) having been released on the world, the band is headed out across Australia for a ‘by request’ tour, which should be interesting. I was lucky enough to chat with guitarist Lindsay McDougall ahead of the tour.
I feel like given your status as an Australian media legend, I don’t really have a right to interview you. Do you wanna just ask yourself questions and I’ll print the answers?
(Laughs) I would have no luck asking myself questions! That was the best thing about working at Triple J – learning how hard it is to interview people. Seriously, up until then I look back at some of the interviews Jase (Whalley) and I were in and I’m just embarrassed. I feel so sorry for those people, we put them through hell! And especially then, before it was so easy to find information on the internet about everything that everyone is doing…
Yeah, that does make things easier. But feel free to give me a hard time…
Sure, well you’re from Adelaide. That’s pretty embarrassing for a start.
Touche. I mean, Jay Weatherill.
Well, unfortunately, we got Mike Baird, so we win that one.
So We Lived Like Kings (We Did Anything We Wanted) was released recently. Were you at all surprised by its performance on the charts?
We’re constantly surprised that anyone gives a stuff about it. (Laughs) It’s a testament to people’s short memories that every time we do something, they forget that we’re not that good and sorta go, ‘Yeah I remember those guys! I think I got stoned once listening to their music so I’ll go and give them some more money.’
Well, that’s how most bands operate, isn’t it?
Well, it’s the only reason we survive, I’m pretty sure. But yeah, it’s very nice to go to these shows and see multiple generations of Frenzal Rhomb fans. From the grizzled old salty punk rockers standing up the back, to the ridiculously young. We still get people angry at us because we don’t do all ages concerts. I’m thinking, ‘You are too young, you should not know about us. There are so many other bands you should be listening too, and probably do I guess.’
Is there an element of social conscience there, I mean should young people really listen to your stuff?
Gosh no. It’s less social conscience and more good taste really.
I feel like punk’s had a mini resurgence lately. Joey Cape and Mathias Farm expressed similar sentiments to you in regard to the age of the crowd. I know people my age are hungry for that really good music they heard as teenagers…
Yeah, I’d say it’d be just general dissatisfaction with the way your lives are heading. You’re yearning for a time when things were simpler. When you didn’t have that mortgage, when you didn’t have to do 14 interviews a day for the AU Review to make minimum wage.
Well actually, I’m a volunteer…
God, that’s unheard of. But yeah, these things do come in cycles and people certainly are into that late 90’s music again now. I mean Joey’s out here all the time. And just like clockwork in the last month, Superheist and Killing Heidi have got back together.
And The Superjesus have released new music…
Exactly right. It’s like we’ve been lapped and people are already onto early 2000’s stuff. It’s funny being part of nostalgia when really it just means you’re kind of old. But it’s fine, I’m okay with that.
Were some records better than others for you guys?
Well, we always cared about the records. We always have such a good time doing them. When you listen back to all the different albums and it brings back these memories of all the producers we’ve worked with. I mean Bill’s (Stevenson) got so much experience having been in The Descendants and Black Flag. The thing about working with Bill and his crazy little sweat shop production line punk rock recording studio is that he’s just so good at making fast music sound good. They’re experts. It helps that the guys recording it have been in punk bands longer than we have, so they know about that stuff.
So what inspired the by request tour idea?
It’s just really the fact that we… Actually no, I’m just gonna tell you the truth. It’s because five minutes before we go on stage every gig, we are sitting there looking at each other going, ‘I dunno, name another song’. We honestly can’t ever think of 25 songs to play. So this time we’re like, ‘Fuck it, the crowd can do the work.’ We’ve done enough, we’ve written the songs. So you guys can put some effort in now!
I remember your set at an Adealide Uni O’Ball back in the early 2000s which was themed around an Australian Idol piss take called Australian Fuckwit. I assume this tour will possess the same poignant hilarity?
I think so. The thing I remember most about the Australian Fuckwit tour is that we didn’t actually play many songs. We spent most of the time having our songs judged by a bunch of our mates that we put on stage. But we always mix playing the songs as fast and as well as we can with talking a lot of crap in between. The last time we played The Gov, I remember in between songs it was the standard in between songs banter and also, ‘Please can you stop stealing my pedals’. Adelaide has a fairly lax approach to property rights, I guess.
Our prisons are full for a reason…
Yes. (Laughs) But yeah, the shows will be wonderful and I’m sure there’ll be far less pedals stolen this time. I suppose the guys in the band, we don’t see each other enough to ever hate touring. We just love it. We’re still shocked that we get to jump around like idiots with our mates and play songs that we really can’t believe we’re still allowed to play.
I always ask artists about the origin of my favourite song of theirs. That was a bloody hard job this time around. I threw my neck out in the process.
It’s really a race to the bottom with our songs…
(Laughter) Anyway, I decided on “War” from Shut Your Mouth. Where’d that little gem come from?
I gotta tell ya, that’s probably one of our least favourite songs. It was written in a haze of alcohol fuelled late 90’s nonsense. I remember when we got it back from the producer it had a keyboard on it that we don’t remember playing. The video clip is some horrible combination of us wearing stupid army clothes and my lounge room being destroyed by edible paint. I’m actually in my lounge room right now and if I look up to the roof there are five splotches of that paint that is still there from that video clip 16 years ago. Which testament to how burned into memory that video is, and how little I clean my lounge room…
I now have to apologise for bringing it up because it’s clearly quite a painful memory for you…
It’s okay. Most of my Frenzal memories are painful in a nice way.
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FRENZAL RHOMB AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
September 2nd | Max Watt’s, MELBOURNE
September 9th | Cambridge Hotel, NEWCASTLE
September 10th | Manning Bar, SYDNEY
September 17th | The Gov, ADELAIDE
September 22nd | Prince of Wales, BUNBURY
September 23rd | Margaret River Football Club, MARGARET RIVER
September 24th | Amplifier, PERTH
September 29th | Miami Tavern, GOLD COAST
October 1st | Crowbar, BRISBANE
November 18th | Club 54, LAUNCESTON
November 19th | Brisbane Hotel, HOBART
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