As summer accelerates into view, it’s once again time to start scouting for an appropriately potent warm weather soundtrack. Melbourne band Drunk Mums' self-titled debut album fits the bill nicely.
The rambunctious young rockers are a fresh, energetic mix of garage and Aussie pub rock with the faintest whispers of punk sensibilities, evidence of their eclectic musical grounding. As guitarist and vocalist Dean Whitby informs me: “We all come from different musical backgrounds. I kind of grew up with more psychedelic music and really like Brian Jonestown Massacre and 13th Floor Elevators and then Adam grew up with The Angels and sort of a bit more punk side to it and then Jake grew up with AC/DC and a bit more blues... so it just all kind of mashed together.”
For a band with such varied influences, their sound is surprisingly succinct. “We try and keep it nice and Australian and simple and not too echoey, all the bands now sound really echoey. There’s lots of delay on everything, but we try and keep it kind of classic, lots of rock n roll.”
That classic rock'n'roll approach also extends to the band’s preternatural affinity for controversy. The recent film clip for the band’s first single 'Rubbing Your Gums' would prove to be a harbinger of the outrage extended to their inaugural album cover. The offending image was banned from Facebook and saw the band lose their spot as a featured release on iTunes.
“When we decided on the album cover, the naked elderly stripper… we were thinking about an album cover for so long and we drew up a bunch of pictures and we were nearly happy with some of them, then we just decided that we just wanted to do something a bit more yuk. Something a bit more in your face so like when someone buys the vinyl it's just a big pair of haggard titties looking at ya. I think when we decided that, we sort of came into the understanding that it’s obviously not going to be available in some places or marketed in some places and considering like, how kind of gross it is, it's done alright. The only main problem we had was with iTunes… they were gonna feature the album until they saw the album cover.”
Contrary to the outward appearance of Drunk Mums’ debut, the album inside is a vibrant audio offering with an indubitably bright future. “It's 11 short, funky, fast, tight songs, good fun… Lots of great singing, lots of energy and it's pretty loud. Yeah, I’m stoked about getting it out,” says Whitby.
“We were actually gonna do an EP… and we realized we had that many songs, we were recording it all live, all in one day so we were gonna do a 6 track EP and then we just kept recording, and we recorded 12 songs and they all sounded so good we kept them all except for 1, just 'cause it was a little bit of a different genre sort of thing, so we ended up with an 11 track album. Pretty accidental really.”
The band are currently embarking on their first official tour of Australia, a long-awaited, hard-earned goal which Whitby hopes will be the beginning of further Drunk Mums rambles.
“So much work goes into these things, it’s hard to make it happen but once you’re doing it you don’t look back.”
Drunk Mums is available now.
written by Olivia Wilbury
Drunk Mums Tour Dates
Thu Oct 4 — Alhambra Lounge (Brisbane)Sat Oct 6 — Heyday Festival (Cairns)
Fri Oct 12 — Rocket Bar (Adelaide)
Fri Oct 19 — The Grace Darling (Melbourne)
