“It isn’t based off a particular incident,” says Jake Robertson. “I just think it’s funny when you can tell that the journalist put in less effort for their slagging piece than the garbage that they’re reviewing. Everybody gets no stars.”
Robertson has admitted in previous interviews to “ly[ing] through his teeth”, so maybe he’s having a laugh when he speaks of the ridiculously quick writing period behind the group’s brilliant new record. “It was a piece of piss to write Band Of The Future,” Robertson says. “Like two days to write, one day to record and one day to mix master.”
But maybe he’s telling the truth. The group have a grubby DIY crudity all of their own, and one can imagine a song like Mr Right or Struck By Lightning being written quickly, on the fly. It’s unsurprising then that Robertson argues the group’s writing style is suitably stripped back. “[We] think of shit and make it rhyme,” he says. “Our songs are usually too easy to need help with writing. Try and play one, it’ll take you 15 minutes, max.”
The band were formed but four short years ago, almost on a whim. “[Our first gig] was at the Waiting Room in Brisbane, 2012,” Robertson says. “We had two practices.”
Robertson is in a number of Australian acts – he also plays in the self-described “solid but forgettable” Hierophants, amongst others – and has a strong musical pedigree. “First time I ever played live was either in my dad’s band, belting out Wipeout, or in my brother’s band playing Paranoid,” he says. “I was eight. I killed it.”
That kind of natural ability is prominently displayed when the band perform live. Ausmuteants are a heavy-touring outfit, and are relentlessly prolific – they’ve released something every year since 2013, and have played shows in all corners of the country. Isn’t maintaining that level of output exhausting? “It gets exhausting for anybody around us having Shaun [Connor] talk about Net Runner, Marc [Dean] talk about fashion, Billy [Gardner] talk about food and me talk about comic books,” Robertson says.
Ausmuteants have a very simple approach to playing gigs, and never overthink the fine art of the live performance. The band members have an attitude towards crowds that involves no pretence or remove, and they integrate themselves fully with their audience. “Eh, [crowds] are just people like you and me bud,” Robertson says. “They can dance or they can stand or they can sit or they can leave. Prefer the first two to be honest.”
Ultimately, Robertson is energised by the live scene around him, and has a strong connection to the ever-burgeoning Australian music circle he finds himself smack bang in the centre of. “[The scene] is great,” he says. “There are plenty great bands putting out stuff independently. I don’t think the Australian music scene that I identify with is defined by genre and is mostly conscious about gender balance in live music, thanks to people telling it like it is.”
An interview with a band who wrote a song about shitty music writers ending on a positive, upbeat note? That doesn’t feel right. Luckily, a more satisfying conclusion comes when Robertson is asked to “Tell something he’s never told a music writer before.” The musician’s response is swift. “Nup. Up ya.”
BY JOSEPH EARP
