‘If It Sucks, Turn It Up’ is Dune Rats most adventurous musical statement yet. It finds them evolving their sound and honing their melodic instincts across a diverse range of styles, all delivered with the energy and infectious humour that is unmistakably Dunies.
“We wanted to make an album that throws you around a bit, like you are being washed around in the surf,” Dune Rats singer and guitarist Danny Beus says. “We’re five albums in now so we knew it should be a record that shows all the different sides to the band.”
The album ranges from the full-tilt energy of If It Sucks, Turn It Up to the summer dancefloor daze of Solar Eyes and the razor-sharp pop-rock hooks of Be Like You and Paper Cuts.
As with their two previous albums, If It Sucks was recorded at NSW rural studio The Grove with Scott Horscroft, producer of classic Australian recordings for bands like Empire of the Sun, Silverchair and Birds of Tokyo.
The latest Dune Rats single Cheapskate is a song about friendships, the kind of bond that glues a band together as tightly as Beus, drummer BC Michaels and bassist Brett Jansch.
Danny says: “Even when we are apart we still speak on the phone every day. In 13 years you can become completely different people and a lot of bands dissolve because they just can’t keep that internal friendship going. Cheapskate came out of us spending a lot of time touring in the US. There’s this weird world where the rich kids from Hollywood are hanging out with the skate punks and all the kind of people we know because they have such a better time there. As you are growing up you might think having money and sick cars would be the cool thing, but really the coolest thing is hanging out with your mates at the skate park. You can’t buy that. We think the song is like the album, an eclectic smorgasbord that still sounds like Dunies.”
If It Sucks, Turn It Up came out of another watershed moment, when the band went to Los Angeles to try working with co-writers for their third album. They soon discovered that wasn’t for them. What they did get from the sessions was a song summing up some of their experiences, as well as a title for the new album.
“Our label has been saying for years, ‘You should put out that song’,” Danny says. “We didn’t feel like it belonged on our last album but this time we were throwing around so many different kinds of songs it fitted the vibe. Maybe some people will think some songs suck, but we love them all so we will be turning them all right up anyway.”
Rich Kid Rehab is another song that came out of their observations of LA. Danny says: “That’s not criticising people who definitely have issues, it’s more about people doing a week of rehab and using it as a marketing ploy to try and sell records.”
High Roller on Dope is the band at their most frantic. “BC’s the main songwriter there, Danny says. “He was in a casino in the UK and saw someone selling cocaine at the blackjack table. As soon as he got the money he would throw it down and make a bet, this cycle of getting money and losing it. We knew, this song has to be intense.’’
The band has learnt over the years not to write off an idea too early because they never know which one is going to work. They worked on writing the new album in the relaxing surrounds of a farm in northern New South Wales, with just the dog and cows for company.
“One of the records BC had been listening to was Unit by Regurgitator, which I loved when I was a kid too, an album with a lot of different styles. We realised, you can have something that’s dreamy and dancey next to a song that’s punk. What became paramount for the album was that all these songs were a little different to each other but could fit together.
“BC and me were trying to lose our beer bellies so we would go for a run. One day when we got back Brett was sitting at the workstation with a drum loop going. When I did the vocal I was trying just to feel it, not overthink it or do what people expect Dune Rats to do.”
That hypnotic groove became the foundation for Solar Eyes, a song that works on the dancefloor, on the radio, at a festival or in a sweaty club gig.
Danny says: “If you listen to our early EPs there was a stoner pop vibe there too. When we finished the song we thought, ‘This could trip some people out.’
“We knew by releasing a song like that it’s going to make the next 13 years epic because people can’t just put us in a box. It allows us to go on and release all kinds of songs.”
STREAM / DOWNLOAD DUNE RATS – ‘IF IT SUCKS, TURN IT UP’ HERE: https://s.disco.ac/bwzohieqhowc – OUT NOW
