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The last time potty-mouthed skate punks Frenzal Rhomb released an album—2011’s Smoko at the Pet Food Factory—Julia Gillard was Australia’s first female Prime Minister.
Since then, the Labour and Liberal–National Coalition parties have dragged themselves through enough mud to rival the political infighting of the early 70’s, Obama stalemated his way through a second term as U.S. President, and now an elderly, billionaire internet troll with a Cheetos dust tan and bird nest hair piece sits in the White House. What a bloody mess. If anyone can save us from the impending doom and gloom of a shitty 2017, surely it’s the dude’s behind bona-fide gems like Russell Crowe’s Band, We’re Going Out Tonight, and World’s F***edest C***. Speaking with lead vocalist and all-round, top bloke Jason ‘Jay’ Whalley, Hysteria Magazine got the inside scoop on the band’s forthcoming album, returning to the production team of The Blasting Room in Colorado, and what the essence of democracy is really all about.
HYS: Hello Jay! How are you doing?
JAY: Ah, I’m currently putting out the washing. And I’m thinking about maybe vacuuming the car.
HYS: These are all very domestic functions, Jay.
JAY: I know [laughs]. It’s kind of punk in a way. I’ve got a rare day off from doing anything today. It’s nice. It’s actually why I was pursuing an alternative lifestyle, in the first place. For days like this. They don’t happen often enough.
HYS: Awesome. Let’s dig into the new Frenzal Rhomb album that’s coming out this year. Now, I don’t have any details on this new record at all. All I know is that the band recently got back from Colorado for the recording sessions…
JAY: Yes. It’s enveloped in a shroud of secrecy [laughs]. Well, it’s finished and it’s good. It’s really good. It’s going to come out and it’s got lots of songs on it. I think it’s got 20 songs on it. Initially we were thinking that was too many, especially when you got a snare drum going ‘crack crack crack crack’ for like half an hour. But yeah, it goes for about half an hour. Maybe 34 minutes, 35 minutes. Maybe even 36 minutes. I haven’t checked. I think I’m in that period where I fluctuate between thinking it’s the best thing ever recorded, and being completely wracked with self-doubt [laughs]. But, no, I think it’s pretty good.
HYS: In terms of the process behind this album, have you guys been writing this new one for some time now?
JAY: Well, if by ‘some time’ you mean about ‘five years,’ then yes. We have been writing it for some time. It’s always a process with us these days because, I mean, we all live in different cities. It’s kind of, you know, we get together to play shows and that’s pretty much it. So, yeah, whenever we kind of book shows we try and book a sort-of demo session around that wherever we are. Sometimes we do it in Melbourne where Gordy lives, and sometimes Adelaide where Tom lives, or I’ve got a studio up in Sydney. We do a fair bit there and we’ve managed to whittle it down. I think we ended up having about 70 demos all up, and whittled it down to a cool 20.
HYS: Wow, that’s a lot of material. How did you guys do the ‘whittling’? How does that happen? Do you just listen to something and go, “Nah, that’s shit,” and move on to the next one?
JAY: Well, most of it… is awful, so… [Laughs.] It’s quite easy to kind of put it in the trash icon on the laptop. But no, we actually have a very, um… sadly democratic process in the band. You know, I personally think it should be more of a ‘benevolent dictatorship’ but unfortunately, we live in a democracy. So, we send around the list and a sort of audio playlist of all the demos, and then we basically vote for our favourite songs.
I think we’re going to call it: High-Vis Garden Party. And it’s going to have, like these big blokes in high-vis, sort of sipping tea, with like monocles and playing croquet and stuff. But, in the background, it’s also the apocalypse
[ Jay Whalley ]
I think there was enough songs that got kind of three or more votes, so it’s the band plus our manager and um, say out of five people, it’s like, ‘Yeah, whatever has three or more votes gets on there automatically, and then everyone gets to pick two wild cards.’ You know, the song that you can’t live without and they’re the songs where, you know, everyone’s just looking at each other going, ‘You’re a fucking moron, mate, if you think that that song is good.’ Everyone’s got at least one song on there that they don’t like, so I feel like that’s fair.
HYS: I feel like that’s a good compromise. You guys can all kind of quietly seethe about it, but still have all the ones you agree on.
JAY: Yeah, definitely. I feel like that’s the essence of democracy: it’s just being vaguely unhappy [laughs]. So yeah, that’s pretty much the process and then I think that allowed then for a couple of extra songs, that we might put on some kind of voter-thing somewhere. For, you know… the Ethiopian B-side.
HYS: That’s interesting. When you guys went to record at The Blasting Room studio in Colorado, with Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, did you already have those songs pulled together, or did they provide some input as well?
JAY: We tried not to leave any decisions to the recording time, because it’s always a bit fraught if you leave it to the last minute. So, we still try and demo everything and we’ve known Bill I guess, on and off, for a long time and he sort of knows that we’ve been a band forever and that we’ve kind of got it dialled in a bit I guess, like as far as arrangements and stuff. I remember the last record we turned up and he’s listening to the demos, going like, “I mean, really, what am I going to do? Cut this 10 second guitar solo in half?”
HYS: I guess that same democratic process you mentioned is essentially the foundation of what Bill and Jason get to do in their studio, in terms of working through demos with a band, making sure that they can kind of pick the right ones, and that everyone’s happy to kind of pull the album together?
JAY: Yeah, pretty much. Our songs were pretty trimmed down anyway. He’s [Stevenson’s] got a good ear for melodies and harmony, so he had a little bit of input into that stuff. But mainly, those guys know their shit so well that they’re really good with getting great performances out of you, and Bill can be quite brutal, especially with vocals. I was there for like seven or eight days, sort of singing, and after pretty much every line, he’d be like, “That’s flat. Do it again. Ah, fuck my life! Oh my god! Fuck! Do it again. Oh fuck! It’s flat. Do it again!” It’s kind of good for me, because normally I have to do that myself.
HYS: Well, that’s what you’re paying him for, right? To pretty much tell you how shit you are, so you can make it better?
JAY: Yeah, pretty much [laughs]. But you know … It’s not meant with any malice. I’m pretty sure anyway. I’m about… 70% sure.
HYS: In terms of lyrical content Jay, Frenzal have always taken a fairly ‘light-hearted’ approach with your music. What themes are you digging into on this new record?
JAY: Um, we traverse the lyrical spectrum, if there’s such a thing. There’s one song that Lindsey wrote called Cunt Act, and it’s like my perfect song. It kind of goes from the completely ridiculous, to the very political within one verse, where I’m talking about the demise of the unions, and then the very next line is, “When you roll a seasoned ham/And a stack of tomato cans/Just after they’ve been stacked/Cunt Act.” I’m like, “Fuck. It’s so good.”
HYS: I think that encapsulates almost every conversation I’ve ever had with my mates. It’s typically heated, political discussion, which quickly descends into insults and stupid shit. So, you’ve kind of wrapped it all in together there.
JAY: [Laughs.] Yeah, there’s a lot of that on this record. You know, I can’t really tell because I guess the demos were sort of from three or four years ago, and then one of them was from the week before we went and recorded. So I don’t feel like there’s any kind of particular lyrical theme. I’m just trying to even think of, you know … Fuck, I don’t know. Stupid shit, political shit.
How like sometimes, I’m in the playground with my kid, or the park or something, and I see some guy and I’m like, “You could either be in a band, or you’re about to rape my kid.” So, you know, we’re kind of spanning a few different topics there.
[ Jay Whalley ]
I think we’re going to call it: High-Vis Garden Party. And it’s going to have, like these big blokes in high-vis, sort of sipping tea, with like monocles and playing croquet and stuff. But, in the background, it’s also the apocalypse. There’s a song on there that I wrote with just that kind of idea, of people that have the very best intentions for their children. Like all everyone really wants to do, is like look after their kids and get food and pay their bills and do all that stuff. But there are a lot of people, especially in Australia, where they just go to work, you know, especially in the mining sector, where what they’re actually doing is destroying their children’s future.
And so, there’s this kind of dichotomy I guess, and there’re also songs about how sometimes you can’t tell the difference between someone that looks like a hipster and like a paedophile from 1973 [laughs]. How like sometimes, I’m in the playground with my kid, or the park or something, and I see some guy and I’m like, “You could either be in a band, or you’re about to rape my kid.” So, you know, we’re kind of spanning a few different topics there.
HYS: Frenzal have always been outspoken on issues like Australian politics, veganism and animal rights, and with the world now sitting in a very precarious and fucked-up state, do you feel compelled to bring any of that uncertainty and animosity into Frenzal’s music Jay, or are you dialling it back and trying not to make it too serious?
JAY: I don’t think there’s really any intention to do either. Because of the process that we have for picking songs… I mean, I kind of write lyrics from a range of different reasons or whatever, and then at the end of the day, a song will get picked if it’s good or if it’s kind of got some merit, and it could only be good because it’s got a rad middle bit or whatever. Or because it’s kind of catchy, you know? And then other songs, it might be only good because of the lyrics and stuff, but I don’t know. We try and just make sure that the songs are sort of strong, and hopefully, have decent enough lyrics so they’re not all completely stupid, or they’re not all completely earnest, and so we have a pretty decent balance on there.
HYS: With Frenzal having been a band for 25 years now, you’ve definitely seen and accomplished a lot in that time. Looking back on where the band is now, versus when you started out, do you think the Frenzal Rhomb of 2017, is different to the Frenzal Rhomb of ten, or even 20 years ago? And if so, why? What’s changed?
JAY: Um, I think more people come to our shows now, than they did in the first ten years. Yeah, I don’t know. The shows are actually mental. We just finished that ‘Best Of’ request-only tour…
HYS: Which was awesome by the way. I managed to catch the Brisbane show, and it went off.
JAY: Aw, thanks man. Yeah, I wasn’t psyched about it at first thinking like, “Aw fuck,” you know, all that nostalgia stuff kind of shits me. Like, dudes just getting me in headlocks, going like, “Mate. I fucking saw you at the fucking ‘96 Big Day Out…’ Or whatever, like that was the best time of their entire life. And you know, I can see coming in like where, you know, this was fun. Isn’t it? Isn’t this fun? But the tour was actually great, and it was really nice to see all the good will that we’ve generated in the community over the years. For some strange reason, people seem to really enjoy it and it kind of means something to them? I guess, when you grow up with something it has some sort of emotional meaning or something… Fuck, I don’t even know what I’m talking about…
It’s very nice. I’m always very grateful I guess, that people still give a shit about it to the extent that they’ll, you know, get up and throw themselves off the stage. Actually, at the Sydney show, I was sort of in the middle of singing one of the songs, this guy sort of sped past my head and I put my head up and I looked at him, and I’m like, “Hey, you’re a dad from my son’s school” [laughs]. I sort of called him out, like, “This is going to be awkward at assembly time.” It was like world’s colliding.
HYS: [Laughs.] That’s awesome. Well, thanks for talking about the new record today Jay, and I’ll let you get back to your washing.
WHALLEY: [Laughs.] Awesome man. Cheers Owen. I’m a bit bummed that it’s going to take so long, because we sort of finished it now and all of a sudden, it’s not going to be out until kind of April I think, and by then I’ll be totally sick of it. I’ll be doing interviews going, “Yeah, yeah, yeah; whatever. It’s good. It’s great. It’s fucking great.”
