At the climax of 'Snakes', closing track from Amyl And The Sniffers' latest record 'Comfort To Me', singer Amy Taylor spits: "Worked at the IGA, now I'm a famous c....".
It's that level of contrast and blunt polarity that listeners can expect to find all over 'Comfort To Me', with the group taking on more intense themes than ever while maintaining their signature sense of belligerent humour while carving deeper into a powerfully irreverent sound.Album opener 'Guided By Angels' sets the scene with a brooding post-punk atmosphere, storming the gates with the energy of a locked-down Melburnite punk band teeming with power to burn.
Sitting down to chat on the heels of Melbourne's recent earthquake, guitarist Dec Martens explains further. "Gus is super into post-punk, very Aussie post-punk. And he wrote that bassline."
"A lot of good Australian post-punk bands influenced me a lot, like Total Control, Constant Mongrel, EXEK," bassist Gus Romer confirms.
Regarding their fame, Amy's not exaggerating. The band finds themselves favoured by some of the world's most relevant artists in punk and beyond, with Taylor having recently collaborated with champions of Swedish post-punk Viagra Boys on their surreal cover of recently departed John Prine's country classic 'In Spite Of Ourselves'.
Recent accolades include the encouragement of actress and musician Juliette Lewis, who considers the group to be "single-handedly bringing punk back".
But despite the band's cultural importance and worldwide reputation, to get anything done under the gruelling Melbourne lockdown conditions of October 2020, Amyl And The Sniffers had to improvise finding loopholes to work on their record.
"Obviously we had a lot more time to write, since we weren't touring. So, we ended up writing over 20 songs. Then when we got to the recording process, we were able to be in a group together because we had a film permit," Gus says.
"PHC [Films], who've been making our videos, came in and filmed the whole process so we were able to get the recording done.
"I dunno, it was weird, because that was the only social interaction we had. Because we all live together as well. It was a very f...en odd time."
Thankfully the group were able to surmount the suffocation of our times to breathe life into 'Comfort To Me', an album which persistently burns to inject vitality into a weary world.
"So we recorded with Dan Luscombe [The Drones, Paul Kelly],” Dec continues. "He produced the album. When we demoed the album, he put in different suggestions about structure of the songs. That was his input I guess.
"And he would just, for me, tweak the guitar tone here and there, which was good. Not worrying about how my guitar would sound.
"But I think a lot of how the finished product came out is from it being mixed by Nick Launay [Nick Cave, IDLES, Arcade Fire].
"He's quite a progressive sort of mixer, and he even altered some of the song structures too. He sort of mixed and then post-produced, rearranged it.
"All the sonics are just the way he sort of interpreted a lot of what we said we wanted from it."
The record sizzles from start to finish, yanking listeners through its paces with lyrics ranging from the sacred to the profane, often funny and profound in the same sentence.
'Don't Fence Me In' touches on topics of illusion and challenging the binaries of our temporal world, featuring the lines: 'My body's just a body and my name's just a name / I want to be part of everyone and everything.'
One of the most potent, itching sensations of the record is the yearning necessity for liberation from red tape, from oppression, and from the shackles of existence itself.
Existential themes meet the political on the album's heaviest song 'Capital', which features the lines: 'Australia's burning. . . You took their kids and you locked them up' and 'I love feeling drunk on the illusion of meaning.'
"That was a nice organic song that came out." Dec explains. "With the lyrics, it was during the bushfires, which were hectic a couple of years ago.
"I think Amy had, you know, frustration with the government being useless f...heads. She took a lot of inspiration and a lot of anger and frustration out towards them."
While in some ways a remarkably dense and raw album, 'Comfort To Me' also sees the band at their most musically hook-focused yet.
Production tweaks aside, the record's relentless undercurrent of power owes itself to the chemistry between drummer and multi-instrumentalist Bryce Wilson, Gus and Dec, creating seismic foundations for Amy's expression.
Tracks like single 'Hertz' splutter with riffs to spare, where 'Choices' finds itself tied to the mast of a thumping, gated drum pulse.
"Personally, all I really care about is getting the music piece finished," Dec says, "and a lot of the time, we don't really hear Amy's lyrics until pretty much when we do pre-production and demoing of the album.
"And then she changes them again sometimes, and it's written in the booth. We all shared the same experience during lockdown, but Amy really lyricised it."
A year on from recording, the band yet again find themselves needing to postpone shows and touring due to pandemic conditions. "We've got a livestream coming out on October 5th, and possibly UK dates in November. We'll have to see, every day it changes."
Despite interruptions, things have never looked better for Amyl And The Sniffers. When asked what comes next in light of their number two spot on the ARIA charts (just behind Drake), the band responded light-heartedly.
"World domination. Four ARIAs. . . It's looking good. That bastard Drake. . . I'm a certified hater man [laughs]. . . We'll take anything. Hope to see you soon."
'Comfort To Me' is now available. Amyl And The Sniffers play The Princess Theatre (Brisbane) 8 October.
