On a scale of smelling an old roach to Iggy Pop with Molly Meldrum on Countdown ... How baked are you right now as we do this interview?
Brett Jansch: Was just up the road with WOD and the crew at the Dumb Punts house, epic time. Had a mad family Mexican feed then smoked a couple plackys with Danny, semi-off plackys lately. But our buddy Dunnas has always got the sickest glass bongs to rip. Plastic ones are pretty crook, can’t beat 'em join 'em though ay. Watchin' ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ at the moment too.
Danny Beausa: Well I over cooked this chook in the oven til it was charcoal the other night so....I'd say twice as cooked as the chook.
Having seen you guys play alongside Cosmic Pyschos not so long and popping on stage during their set to slam a few beers, can you see the importance and longevity of a punk bands influence despite the incongruities of youthful messages spoken by older men?
BJ: Just because you have lived for a while doesn’t just make you an old man, and dudes that have been in bands for ages are probably stoked to always push away the cardboard cut feed up ya arse stuff of life, so I think its epic when people can put out what they want to say at any age and if that can cross over to a different generation then hopefully it’ll get its own new spin on it and trickle down to the next.
DB: Fuck yeah if you don't look back at legends like the Psychos, Grinspoon, The Living End and Frenzal Rhomb than ya pretty fucking lost about knowing where Aussie punk is about.
The first time I saw you guys was when you supported FIDLAR at Oxford Art factory and it was a brutal show. Having seen the change of pace and lifestyle of the FIDLAR, were you mindful of this when entering into the recording process of your 2nd album?
BJ: We were getting these epic sandwiches from this joint next to the studio so we were eating well and drinking heaps of water from the water cooler and eating olives. Mick would go down there just before close and get free crackling and we made the first mini bar mike smash hit rap video there too.
DB: Nah we aren't ever really mindful of shit when we do it so just kept just being us but seeing how they changed their sound to keep it interesting for them without fucking over their original fan base was sick so took a bit away from that.
Zach Carper of FIDLAR produced your new album, what did he bring to the table that really shines through on the new record?
BJ: Zac would make these weird colouring in little kid art things and take us to the Salvation Army and we would have to get a dress or nice blouse and wear them in the studio so we always were pissing around and laughing and shit so we never let and negativity blow out while we were recording so as a group we were always trying to do what was making us stoked on the songs. We made him sleep in the laundry for a few nites but then we went to this other palatial house and he won dice and got to get this psycho big room with a spa to himself.
DB: He fucking loves lots of weird shit / sounds so we were always dabbling and throwing in cool structure changes but other than that he brought a huge level of nuclear activity.
What was it that you really wanted to achieve with the album and what is it saying about you guys right now?
BJ: We wanted to make a record that was all killer no filler. Just a bunch of songs that slam thru and you can set a watch too, and although lyrically on paper they could be a yr. 9 student’s holiday diary but the simplicity allows open interpretations to the songs. We wanna write a good set up ya know and we aren't shying away from wanting to always go bigger, and I think we have a record that really holds together and there’s something in it you can really sink your teeth into.
DB: We just wanted to make our sound and write solid songs. So I guess we gave a hundred times more fucks for this one cos to us our mates like Violent Soho and DZ DEATHRAYS are putting out such tight music that we didn't wanna be the cunts not delivering.
Having met some weird and wonderful characters on the road can you share any particular gnarly stories?
BJ: We always get people we know or have just met jump in with us on tour. Some mad Texas weed smuggler, some guy we didn’t know piss 2 beds at once in the tour bus last month, some now really great friends, friends like our buddy Wes. We all went to go on a holiday to Hawaii before an American tour, but BC and I didn’t get our passports back from the US consulate so we didn’t make the holiday. Danny was standing at a servo over there somewhere and this dude like cut over the road and skidded into the servo and cruised up to Danny and was like, "yo, I'm Wes man I know ya band yeah Dunies and shit" and he was like, “man if we were in San Diego I woulda given you an ounce of epic weed”, next week first show of tour was at San Diego and bam, Wes was there and hooked Danny a sick sack of weed in the toilet. Then we were gonna our RV but Wes said he could drive one so then he just like flicked his life for 2 months and drove our van and would sell our merch and bandage Danny’s feet, buy BC socks so Mcfoot couldn’t thrive and save our lives and shit, honestly the best dude we ever met out of nowhere. He's actually about to come out to Australia for our album tour. Fuckin' can’t wait to see him!
DB: One time Brandon from FIDLAR had to piss in this tiny booze bottle til all his piss was gone but he filled the bottle up in a second and the rest just had to keep flowing over his hands and pants. That was pretty funny. Also this crazy homeless dude in some mid-west town in the US called "Tank" carried a tennis ball on the end of his staff and would make Chewbacca noises to us for hours, which was pretty memorable.
What is on the horizon for Dune Rats in 2017?
BJ: Hopefully a sun each day comes up from the horizon and the world doesn’t get nuked and we can all enjoy another nice year of life together. Now I'm unstoned, I had to think too much. You Scott Green?
DB: Probably a few beers, few bongs and a few more beers.
