REDRO REDRIGUEZ & HIS INNER DEMONS // Managing Masculinity

Redro Redriguez & His Inner Demons are straight up rock ‘n’ roll. Pure, unadulterated rock ‘n’ roll.

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In the two years between releasing their first album Easy Magic and the brand new release Denim Daddy, it’s been rehearsals, gigs, and ideas for the Melbourne outfit. Frontman Redro Redriguez has spent a lot of time working out what it is he’s wanted to say. “We recorded it very quickly,” says Redro, “A lot of energy in the studio, a lot of anger in the lyrics, social commentary and, in most of the songs on Denim Daddy, it’s fairly angry, but we’re trying to be uplifting at the same time.”

The anguish to be experienced from Denim Daddy comes from a place you’d not ordinarily think of–misplacement of masculinity. Judging by the album artwork, middle-aged men, bearded and beautiful and clad in denim of all shades, Redro Redriguez & the Inner Demons look like they’re having the time of their lives. “I wanted to project a lot of positive masculinity with it,” explains Redro. “I think it’s a difficult time for men—it’s a difficult time for women as well—but I wanted to project a different idea, of blokiness, I suppose, as a positive energy.

It’s not been a hard time for Redro personally but he had an opinion he wanted to share through the medium of music that he felt was otherwise going unnoticed. Incidents like the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon in Melbourne reaffirmed Redro’s concern for the perception of men. “I just felt for men, things like the Eurydice Dixon murder, there was a lot of anger toward men and there’s sort of a lot of men trying to find their place in the world that’s changed around them.

I think it’s a difficult time for men—it’s a difficult time for women as well—but I wanted to project a different idea, of blokiness, I suppose, as a positive energy.
[ Redro Redriguez ]

“If you’re in your 30s and 40s, the ideas you grew up with about what a man is and what a man did in his community have changed, and that is a difficult process to grapple with. It’s very easy to take on the idea of masculinity as a negative trait, or energy, or way of being, or basically get thrown in with rapists and murderers and politicians when there’s also a positive force as well.”

The murder of Dixson happened well after Denim Daddy had been written and recorded, but the event had a resounding effect over social media with many discussions gravitating toward the role men should play toward prevention of further such incidents. It leaves a lot of men with a sense of displacement, unsure of their role in society and of their value. Men in their 30s, 40s, even 50s, might not understand their place or what they’ve done wrong according to current social conventions because they’re just doing what they know, which, up until about ten years ago, was a social norm. These issues, sometimes the underdog of socio-political discussion, Redro has found a way to give them a soundtrack and make himself feel better about a lot of things. “It was definitely about projecting a positive energy about masculinity–that would sum up what I was trying to do with the cover and a lot of the themes on the record–a lot of the themes tackle toxic masculinity as well, [about] the bad arse, but there’s also a song which doesn’t take a particular position but speaks from the position of a man who’s lost his wife and children in a divorce. Those are things we’re tackling.”

At Redro’s upcoming launch shows, while these directions, messages, and experiences presented in the new set of tunes are something he hopes will be met with equal measures of understanding and thought as well as enjoyment, ultimately he knows most people will only scratch the surface. “From reports back, people seem to enjoy it no matter what gender they are,” says Redro, “I get the feeling a lot of the time our audience don’t really listen to the lyrics,” he says laughing.

“The lyrics are there because I feel they’re important, because I get a lot out of them. I think lyrics are valuable but I don’t expect people to think the same way I do.”