“I’m scared,” FIDLAR’s Zac Carper says about the band’s imminent tour with Dune Rats.
“Those guys are true rockstars. True Australian rockstars, which is, like, a subgenre of rockstar.” But if you know anything about FIDLAR, you know Carper has nothing to be scared of.
The band, whose name stands for Fuck It Dawg, Life’s a Risk, have been tearing up the scene since 2009. Despite building their career off songs about booze, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll – songs with names like Wake Bake Skate, Cheap Beer, Cocaine and 40oz. On Repeat – Carper says they’ve reigned it in since then.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
“Bro, hangovers [now] last so long and don’t even mention cocaine. If I do one line of cocaine, I’m fucking done for a week,” Carper says.
Dialling in from a “ninety-degree” Los Angeles, Carper appears fresh-faced, with sun-drenched hair and a well-kept smile. Sitting in front of a whiteboard plotting out his next album, Carper seems miles away from the uncouth rapscallion he was in his 20s.
FIDLAR, also made up of guitarist and vocalist Elvis Kuehn and drummer, Max Kuehn, are on the precipice of releasing their first new album in five years, Surviving the Dream. During this time away, the FIDLAR boys began to explore other ventures.
“Honest truth, I was writing songs for other people – rock music, alternative, hip-hop stuff. It all started during the pandemic. Most people were sheltering and I did that for two months, but then I needed to work and the only people that would work were DJs and rappers. So I dove headfirst into working with DJs and rappers.”
After spending two and half years doing this, Carper eventually came around to the idea of making another FIDLAR record. There was just one problem – he was all out of ideas. “I had just used all my ideas up on other people. In hindsight, I should have probably kept some of those ideas for myself.”
In a strange turn of events, the album’s title stems from a conversation Carper had with a cowboy.
“During lockdown, I went somewhere in the South – I think Texas. This cowboy asked me ‘How are you doing, man?’ and I said back ‘Living the dream’. Then I asked him how he was doing and he said ‘Surviving the dream’ and it just blew my fucking mind. It has a negative connotation and a happy thing to it. It trips people out, especially younger people.”
Equipped with an album title, Carper got to work, crafting songs in a slightly unorthodox manner. “Usually, I’ll write the songs with a ukelele or guitar and get the basic structure. Then I’ll write lyrics and record it. Then I won’t listen to it for two days, listen to it again, then delete it and record another. I’ll do this like five to seven times per song.”
If it’s any good, Carper will then bring the song to the rest of the band and ask, “How do we make this go off live?”. The sound forged on the new album is a slight departure from their previous work. “I go off inspiration and YouTube,” Carper says.
Wanting to push the band’s boundaries further, he even tested out a shoegaze sound on the song Low. “I would just type ‘shoegaze’ into YouTube and then try and mimic it in my own way.”
Given the five-year gap, one can’t help but wonder if FIDLAR are somewhat apprehensive about releasing new music. In speaking on this, Carper offers, “When we first started, Spotify was not a thing. But I still went ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to be making money off of my music other than shows and merch.’”
“It’s human nature to want more numbers,” he continues, “but it’s not like we’re seeing any more money. I also don’t even listen to my music. It’s not really for me.”
In anticipation of the band’s upcoming tour with Dune Rats, Carper tells me the last time he was in Australia, he nearly got in a boxing match with a kangaroo: “I was at Brett’s place and it tried to fight me, so I just started to run away.”
As our interview winds to a close, I ask Carper what he has planned for the rest of the day. Despite an imminent tour and album release, he admits he’s already seven songs into the next record – a record he hopes, will “piss people off”. Spoken light a true rockstar.
Keep up with FIDLAR here.
