Everyone’s favourite Tasmanians, Luca Brasi, celebrate the release of their new album, The World Don’t Owe You Anything.
“We discovered a few years ago that we perform much better if we just make fun of each other and have a really good time rather than stressing about it too much. We thought afterwards, ‘we hope that wasn’t too loose,’ but everybody said they had a really good time.”
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That’s Patrick Marshall, guitarist and one-quarter of Tasmanian rockers Luca Brasi, describing the acoustic performance the band played in Melbourne on the release day of their new record (which I attended and reviewed here). Whilst the show was, in fact, pretty loose (everyone lost track of the number of impromptu covers played), the boys were celebrating for a good reason. Their sixth album, The World Don’t Owe You Anything, was two years in the making and is now out. I caught up with Marshall to discuss the record, the band’s upcoming Good Things appearance, and how the lads have managed to be a band for 14 years.
“Judging from people I’ve spoken to (about the album), they’ve liked it, so that’s a relief,” explains Marshall, who claims TWDOYA is his favourite Luca record. “I think we’ve leaned into every song as an individual track. In the past, we’ve tried to make a cohesive vibe for the whole record, which perhaps lacked a bit of variety? For this one, with a faster song like Habits, we really tried to step that up and turn it into the song it is, and for The World Don’t Owe You Anything, we tried to make it heavy and counteract it with the quieter moments. I think it’s a more interesting listen.”
Luca Brasi have a penchant for plucking Melbourne darlings to produce their records. Previously working with Darren Cordeux from Kisschasy on their last few releases, the group pivoted to Ben Stewart of Slowly Slowly for album number six. “We wanted someone who could be heavy-handed with the song structures, and Tyler (Richardson, Luca’s singer) had been working with Ben on his solo record and was really into what he was doing.” Marshall explains that the album’s first single, Party Scene, was sent to Stewart as a trial, “we were really into what he did with it, so from there it was like, yep, just do the whole record.”
Stewart’s touch took Luca’s 80% finished demos, drastically changing them in some cases to create the versions that appear on the record today. A good example is the second single and title track, says Marshall. “That was a song that Tom had written, and it was a great song as it was, but the main riff was actually the bridge, and Ben turned it into the chorus you hear today.”
Luca Brasi will join the massive Good Things Festival lineup alongside Fall Out Boy, Limp Bizkit, and Devo later this year. “We constantly still pinch ourselves when we are on some of these lineups, and we get to meet our heroes,” explains Marshall. “If you had told me when I was in Year 10 that I’d be playing a festival with Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday, I would have said, ‘what are you talking about?’ It’s insane to think about.” Marshall catches his disbelieving laugh to mention that the key is not taking it all for granted. “We really try to appreciate it for what it is. We also have to cut out all the fat and nonsense on stage and try to keep the energy up.”
Marshall mentions that fans can look forward to an album tour from Luca Brasi early in 2024 as the band continue their consistent and impressively long career. “We’re very conscious that we have been a band for this long, and we’re not going to be a band forever, so you never know which record is going to be your last. So we put everything into everything we do. That’s why we got Benny on to do the record, to make the absolute best record we can.”
Luca Brasi’s sixth album, The World Don’t Owe You Anything, is out now, and tickets to Good Things festival can be found here.
