An indie pop, alt country collective from Perth, led by songwriter-musician Brad Birt, Drab Liberties' music encompasses themes as broad as social issues, environment, and reconciliation, plus life's everyday hassles and pleasures alongside childhood memories.
Their current release, titled 'This Town I Used To Call Home', came to life after Brad had returned to Perth, after a decade living in Canada, and reacquainted himself with the local landscape: colonial Australia, fluctuating identities, and skewed memories that muddy the past."Memory is a theme in my songs. We can be quick to forget and selective in our recall of events," Birt says. "Sometimes if we dig into those memories, there are other stories also present and it's not always pleasant, but we have to level with ourselves.
"One way indigenous peoples' resilience is reflected today has to be the Uluru Statement from the Heart. An invitation to pursue reconciliation together is a gracious posture."
Set for release on 3 February across all major streaming platforms, 'This Town I Used To Call Home' is currently available on Bandcamp with all proceeds raised in January and February to be donated to the Aboriginal Legal Service.
What's the elevator pitch for your style of music, songwriting?
I grew up listening to Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys, and then played in punk bands. The kind of music I'm drawn to write is somewhere in the middle: literate, longing and occasionally rockin'.
The level of creative freedom you find making your own original compositions, is that the passion that feeds your music?
I'm a songwriter. I play other roles, but the work I try to do is write songs. Some songs are ok, many are terrible, but that's the work. I wrote my first one at nine years old and I'm still trying to write just one good one.
When you write/ release a new song do you have certain hopes or outcomes listeners will feel, take away from your creations?
For the most part I love the entire process of writing, recording, releasing and performing songs – seeing a song through its whole life.
I'm curious to see what happens when they're released, what it's like to play them solo or with the band. Maybe the greatest compliment is to hear they've helped articulate for others something they're experiencing or figuring out but maybe haven't got their arms around yet.
Are you constantly collating ideas for songs, with a folder of songs at various stages of completion?
Songwriters write songs, so I try to write as much as I can. I scribble down lyric fragments, hum nonsense into my phone, build arrangements in Logic and sometimes sit down and write whole songs on a guitar.
I'm finishing demoing and writing the next batch of songs, and trying to figure out if they fit together more coherently as an album or if they're a series of singles or EPs, or something completely different. The tunes are a bit different to 'Magical Thinking', the EP we released in late 2021.
When it comes time to turn a song from an idea into a body of music, do you have a standard technique/ process, or as songwriter are you confined to when the creative juices flow?
Mostly I work on guitar and play with chords and melody first, with lyrics following once I figure out what I'm feeling or what the song is saying to me.
Other times I'll play with constraints – start with piano or a beat just to mix things up. To me this is sorta like sneaking up on a song because they can be slippery suckers. I try to show up pretty regularly to do the work, rather than just wait to feel creative, but there's definitely times where it happens more easily and others when it's a grind.
Who are your musical, lyrical influences?
My biggest influences range from Nick Cave and David Bazan to Frenzal Rhomb and Dolly Parton. Lately, I've been on a diet of Fontaines DC, Tyler, the Creator and I'm kicking myself for only discovering Jordie Lane in the last year or so.
Your newest single is titled 'This Town I Used To Call Home', a song about colonial Australia and reconciliation; what inspired the lyrical direction of the song?
This song started a couple of years ago when I moved back to Australia having lived in Canada for the previous decade. That was a reintroduction to my 'home' culture and some of it was pretty challenging.
Fortunately, I had some colleagues, including Aboriginal people, who were committed to reconciliation and there were some helpful chats and experiences on-country, which inspired the song. I also find the Uluru Statement From The Heart to be such an expression of grace, poise and resilience.
The different musical components that bind the song together; did the instrumentation and sonic tones you wanted to achieve come easily or was it a song that required a bit of crafting to arrive at the finished product?
Chords and melody came pretty easily for this one, and I wanted to keep the arrangement quite simple and direct.
It did take a few months wrestling with lyrics and to be honest I was making changes in the recording session and still sometimes wish I could play with them a bit more.
Given Australia's history, the song's subject matter can be a divisive topic of conversation; for those on the other side of the debate, what do you hope they can draw from your song that can inspire having an 'adult' conversation about a theme that affects all Australians?
When I read things like the Uluru Statement it seems like a very thoughtful, heartfelt and fair expectation. Australia seems to have a very short memory for a country that was basically founded by boat people.
I'm not sure what the other side of the debate is – although it's probably been the last couple of hundred years – but I reckon if people checked out the Uluru Statement and put themselves in the shoes of Fanny Balbuk or Yagan and his family that might be a bit of a starting point. And then reflect a bit on how you and your family came to be in Australia.
Without being too glib: most of us are like kids who've walked into the middle of a movie and are wondering what's going on. We, myself included, are probably well-served to listen and reflect a bit.
Proceeds from the sale of the single of Bandcamp (Jan-Feb) will be donated to the Aboriginal Legal Service; how valuable is such a resource?
I'm not associated with ALS, I just admire the work they do as an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation advocating for the rights of Aboriginal people and making available free access to legal services.
The systemic injustices involved mean the deck is often stacked against Aboriginal people, and the work ALS does helps to make things a little fairer.
The rest of 2023; do you have any EP or album projects in the works? Live shows planned?
I have about 14 songs done, but I'm sitting on the lyrics a little longer and tinkering with the arrangements, but I hope to have another release out towards the end of the year and some band shows to accompany it. People can track along to our sparse Instagram account for links to shows and so on.
Let's drill down a little into each member of your band; who is involved and what does each bring to the table that makes Drab Liberties tick sonically?
Paul Wood (Red Jezebel, Ghost Hotel) was a real collaborator on our 'Magical Thinking' EP and engineered and mixed it at Tiny Music, and he plays bass and sings BVs in the band as well. He's such an easy collaborator and fun live presence. He has an album of his own due this year under Paul Francis Wood.
Tara John (Joni the Moon, Lucy Peach, WA Badass Gospel Choir) is brilliant on keys. She's so talented and has to dumb it down to play these songs – and for that we're grateful. Tara can play unfeasibly tastefully or fire up an organ that shakes your cavities. I love the way she tells stories in how she plays.
Jonathan Brain (Schvendes, Closer) plays lead guitar and sings too. We played together in another project about 15 years ago and have picked up where we left off with Drab Liberties. He's a really gifted guitar player and exceptional singer as well. Most people come away from our shows asking who plays guitar.
We've also had my brother Jules Birt playing drums, but he's pulled the 'chute for this year. So I guess this is an open call to drummers who might be interested in joining us.
