Aussie modern day rock legends The Basics are currently celebrating the release of their stunning new album The Age Of Entitlement which came out last week and they should be celebrating as this is potentially the band’s best record yet.
A culmination of inspiration from each member’s crazy experiences over the past six years (since the last LP – 2009’s Keep Your Friends Close) the trio have been knee-deep in other Gonzo-style adventures – Schroeder put out a solo EP Patience In The Face of Control, before moving to Kenya with the Red Cross; Tim Heath toured and recorded with his Spaghetti-Grecian mariachi band ‘Blood Red Bird’; and Wally de Backer pieced together Making Mirrors under the Gotye pseudonym.
To mark the release of The Age Of Entitlement, bassist Kris Schroeder has given us a track by track run down of the stories behind the album. Check it out below and of course if you like what you hear – pick the record up via www.thebasics.com.au or at least follow the band on Facebook.
Whatever Happened To The Working Class
“Starting the album with this song was contentious, to say the least. We’d scored a big run with The Lucky Country on 2014’s EP, but it had framed us as now being some politico-band with a chip on our shoulder, which for anyone that knows us personally goes against the “don’t take yourself too seriously” approach we’ve always had. You see, these songs – The Lucky Country, Whatever Happened To The Working Class?, Time Poor – were intended as social rather than political commentary, and if you look at the lyrics beyond the words ‘big business… politicians’, it’s pretty evident that the finger is pointed firmly at us as Australians – what our priorities are, what we value, how we treat ourselves and others, and how those things impact on our identity.
So, yeah, this song is really a question to the average Australian about what they value most – fighting for what is right, or just settling for what satisfies us right now? How much is your soul, and the soul of our nation, really worth? They’re big questions, and whether-or-not to start the album with this stuff was a tough decision, but ultimately it felt right (and it was our mastering engineer, William Bowden, that actually convinced us of this).”
A Coward’s Prayer
“Probably the last song to be written and recorded, though going back through my Voice Memos the pre-chorus was actually an idea floating around since at least 2012. A Coward’s Prayer is a song for all of us that have lingered in the wrong relationship for too long, but have been too weak to initiate a break-up, and have opted for the cowardly measure of allowing a relationship to fester from within until such a point that the other person has had enough. And this isn’t done out of malice – you truly do wish them well, and think that they’ll be better off without you, but there are many mixed feelings of guilt and regret and wishful thinking mixed up in there. It’s an awful song, really, written by an awful person – me. I’m the coward (Noel Coward).”
Roundabout
“More songs about breakups; that really seems to be our thing. What sounds like probably the happiest, boppiest song on the album came out of likely the darkest space – in the weeks following my breakup with singer-songwriter Ayleen O’Hanlon (hello, mate), I was really, really down. That proper depression down where everything is tunnel vision. Wally, my best mate for over 10 years, was obviously very concerned about me and in true form invited me down to write some songs together, trying to inject some light into the darkness that was clouding my mind.
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Funnily enough, I’d invited my brother Nathan down that same day, and it was actually he who came up with the initial groove, which Wally and I built on as the sessions rolled on. This – or maybe I’m Not A Woman At All – is notable in that it’s probably the last song Wally’s actually finished and recorded, because everything from “Making Mirrors” was already done and ready-to-go, and I think it’s some of his best work.”
Time Poor
“One of the easiest and fastest songs that’s ever come together, I can remember waking up one morning and the news was on in the background with some lowest-common-denominator spin on some issue, followed by puff piece on The Block or some crap like that. And here I was lying in bed, thinking “what the hell have we become?” – mindless automatons shuffled between a fear of change and the consumption of crap, no time left to stop and think – “I haven’t got time for that!” is the catch-cry of our times. And is the media helping us overcome? Not really… not when there’s a buck to be made! I got up, sat down at the table, and out it came… “Poor ‘time’, it gets blamed for everything”. Yikes, even just writing this paragraph makes my blood boil. Haha.”
Good Times, Sunshine!
“I love how many people have given Wally credit for this song, saying how “Gotye” it is. Haha. It was all part of my master plan! It came together in three distinct sections, a bit like how John Lennon describes the writing of Happiness Is A Warm Gun, but with the recording of “The Age of Entitlement” in full swing I realised that Wally really hadn’t written anything new and people were going to miss his voice. So, as with a bunch of these other songs, I ran back over my Voice Memos and came across these snippets which I pieced together into a song that he could sing to make me and everyone happy. And I think it works! And I’m pretty stoked that I’ve managed to imitate his style so accurately.”
Every Part Of Me
“Still misses you every day, Ay… I don’t really want to go into this song. I think the lyrics and the vibe get the point across just fine. I feel sad just thinking about it. But I am happy it’s out there.”
To Think Of You
“I really never thought much of this song at all, and it was Wally who, after hearing a demo I did in 2012, encouraged – and ultimately helped – me to finish it. It’s a pretty straightforward ballad, and was written as something of a ‘goodbye’ to a friend from the American Peace Corps I’d made in Kenya who became very ill and was never able to return due to the APC’s strict health guidelines.
I lived hours away from Nairobi, and she even further, and we were close friends stuck out in the bush together. And it was actually during a visit to Australia that all this stuff went down, and I never got a chance to say goodbye. I did end up seeing her one more time in the US about a year later, but it was weird and could never have been the same. But Kenya was a much lonelier place without her there. Anyway, I guess it’s a love song, but even now I’m really not sure.”
Ashleigh Wakes
“One of Paul McCartney’s lost gems is a song called ‘Another Day’, which was released as a single around the release of “Ram” – and like The Beatles’ own singles, was not included on the album itself. As such, it’s mostly been forgotten, but it’s an absolute killer piece of pop. This is my attempt to write a similar song – the theme is similar (every day life), the (hopefully) surprising chord structure, and yeah… I dunno if it works, but it’s one of my favourite songs to listen to on the album, and would make an apt theme song for a 90s-style sitcom.”
Tunaomba Saidia
“I’ve mentioned living in Kenya, where I worked with the Red Cross. I was placed about 100km outside of Nairobi, though it might as well have been 1000km because the roads are so bad that one time it took me 10 hours to make the journey (traffic, weather, accidents, wow – everything was against us that day). As such, I spent almost all of my time in my rural town of Machakos and the local Kamba culture which was at its heart.
This song serves partly as a tribute to the Benga music that is 99.9% of what you hear (certainly from live bands there), and partly as a bridging piece between our understanding East African culture as Australians, and the reality. It’s no secret that most of the fear of asylum seekers that is exploited by certain elements of the media and less-scrupulous politicians derives from a simple lack of knowledge about Africa, its people, its political situation – I mean, how many times have we heard people think that Africa is a country and not a continent?
In any case, I was hoping this song (and we even travelled to Kenya to do the filmclip) helped shed a little bit of light on what the place is really like, and bring some warmth back into the discussion. I don’t know if it’s worked – gosh, we didn’t even get played on Rage – but I know the guys we worked with in Kenya appreciated.”
Hey Rain!
“The one cover off the album, Hey Rain! was written by a Mr. Bill Scott, though the version we are most familiar with is from Dave de Hugard’s ‘Magpie In The Wattle’ LP which Tim had on cassette. When we went on our For Girls Like You tour around Australia, we spent a lonnnnngggggg time driving between towns (there was one week we did 48 hours of driving and 15 hours of playing, across the top end), and this cassette was one of the few that amused us along the way.
On one particularly sweaty afternoon in Kununurra, we decided to learn this song – I can’t really remember why, I guess we were bored? – but it has now been a mainstay of our set, and my gosh – it has brought many a grown man to tears. I’m really glad we recorded this proper version of it in the studio, my only regret is that Mr. Scott himself never heard it, but I hope he approves.”
Feels Like Love
“Again, mixed feelings about this closing the album. I actually hated my vocals on this track, and had always hated them every time we’d tried recorded this song, which dates from 2007. One of the reasons the vocals are so washed out and echoey is that I just couldn’t stand what I sounded like.
Otherwise there’s not much more to this song to me, it was kind-of written off-hand for a girl (that went nowhere), but one thing always brings a smile to my face – the line about “your spirit shrine” is a tribute to the on-going argument between Wally and myself about what Robert Smith sings in the bridge of The Cure’s FridayI’m In Love (he maintains the line is “to see your shoes and spirit shines”, which makes sense, but listen carefully and the word sounds more like “shrines”).
Anyway – song. Album. Done. Enjoy!”
The Age Of Entitlement is out now, visit www.thebasics.com.au to pick up your copy.
Upcoming Tour Dates
Sat 10 Oct – Elsewhere Festival, Maitland NSW
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsElsewhere
Tue 13 Oct – Melbourne Festival, Melbourne VIC
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsMelbFestTue
Wed 14 Oct – Melbourne Festival, Melbourne VIC
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsMelbFestWed
Thurs 15 Oct – Transit Bar, Canberra ACT
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsCanberra
Fri 16 Oct – The Basement, Sydney NSW
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsSydney
Sat 17 Oct – The Triffid, Brisbane QLD
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsBrisbane
Sun 18 Oct – Salt House, Cairns QLD
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsCairns
Tue 20 Oct – Grace Emily Hotel, Adelaide SA
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsAdelaide
Wed 21 Oct – Gap View Hotel, Alice Springs NT
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsAlice
Thurs 22 Oct – Railway Club, Darwin NT
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsDarwin
Fri 23 Oct – Roebuck Bay Hotel, Broome WA
(Tickets via “The Roey” Reception)
Sat 24 Oct – Fremantle Town Hall, Fremantle WA
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsFreoSat
Sun 25 Oct – Fremantle Town Hall, Fremantle WA
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsFreoSun
Thurs 29 Oct – Fresh On Charles, Launceston TAS
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsLaunceston
Fri 30 Oct – The Waratah Hotel, Hobart TAS
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsHobart
Sat 31 Oct – The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsCastlemaine
Sun 1 Nov – Grand Hotel, Mornington VIC
http://tinyurl.com/BasicsMorno
