Having spent the years since their 2015 debut album The Positions building an increasingly large following, the Sydney boys have revealed they’ve got a sophomore record on the way, dropping the first track last night on triple j’s 2017 with Richard Kingsmill.
They’ve just wrapped up their run at this year’s Laneway Festival this past weekend, but wasted no time dropping into the triple j studios to chat about what we can expect on the new record, due August 18, and the meaning behind its title, Go Farther In Lightness.
“The idea behind it stems from this existential battle I’ve been having since The Positions,” frontman Dave Le’aupepe explained. “I went through a huge year-long writer’s block so this whole song was actually […] me pretty drunk in a room in LA lamenting the idea that somehow the God I’d been told to believe in my whole life not only didn’t exist but, if he did, [he] really didn’t give a rat’s arse about me or anybody else.”
“It’s about me persisting in my savage spirit of enquiry, trying to figure out and examine my life,” he added, “it’s about me fearing that I’ll become docile and apathetic and scared and I don’t want to do that.”
They also announced an even bigger move: the one they’ll be making from Sydney to London, due to the band’s guitarist Jung being an American citizen and not being able to secure a long-term visa in Australia.
“The reality is none of us want to leave Sydney but we just don’t have a choice,” Dave explained, “because we’re not going to let our boy flounder around in some American city by himself. We’ll have to be back all the time because our parents are here, our families are here, Australia is our home. It’s still the best country on the planet so there’s no way we’re going to leave it permanently.”
A reassuring answer then, and hopefully the guys can make the most of the somewhat-forced move and hit it big in the UK.
If you missed the new track being played last night, you’ll only have to wait a few more days for the tune to make its way to our ears once more on Thursday.
