After releasing their debut record, ‘The Positions’ in April, Gang Of Youths are gettin’ all dressed up to hit the road.
Kicking around together since 2012, the Sydney lads have garnered a groovy following from critics and fans alike, and with the release of ‘The Positions’ it appears what has already started for them seems only set to grow.
Gang Of Youths frontman Dave Leaupepe is very good at saying a lot without saying much at all. His voice slouches down the phone and talks of all and everything, including, at times, his music. “I might say something too controversial and then you might feel compelled to write it and then we’d all be in trouble,” he says, and pauses. I was trying to turn that into a joke but it didn’t work.”
Once we get past his rather dreadful sense of humour, we slowly wind our way towards discussing the new record. When he does talk of his music his voice speeds up and the words run into each other, his nervous excitement spilling into his speech. “Goddamn man, when you make something that actually means something,” he says, “I mean this is not our platform, we don’t have any right to be here. We turned up one day with our balls in our hands and said ‘right, it’s our turn’.”
As he talks, Leaupepe seems caught between his total adoration of the medium he works in and the consequential attention received because of it, although he does now and then speak more softly of the act of communication between artist and listener.
The songs on ‘The Positions’ were written by Leaupepe over years spent in a relationship with a partner who was diagnosed with cancer, and his candidness in discussing the subject is utterly commendable. “Authenticity is subjective, it’s in the eye of the beholder,” he says, “but if I can led some credence to what I’m saying by being authentic then I’m gonna do it.
“It was interesting, to have to compartmentalise three years of pain and suffering into something small and digestible. These songs are about cancer and the girl that I was with and I wanted it to be sad and helpful and if people can connect with the person behind the recording then that helps with the humanity and the exchange between consumer and artist.
"And people like it, they sing it back to us. To create music that is artistically apt and heard makes all the shit we go through worth it. Ten out of ten, highly recommend, would do it again.”
After waxing lyrical in such a thoughtful way, Leaupepe will then revert on himself and settle comfortably into a different tangent, that of his total lack of comfort with the surrounding circus associated with becoming a favoured musician. “When you find this insurmountable version of yourself that you can't control, it’s a fucking behemoth that screams all over the cyber network and you’re just at a loss with no way to control it.
“I mean, you can have a selfie but let me finish my food first – do your 35 Instagram followers need to know I’m eating a burger? Let me finish my goddamn food first.”
Writing the songs for the record in a kind of limbo between Australia and the United States, Leaupepe is cautious to attach much importance to his sense of place when penning lyrics. “Do you mean like when Hemingway wrote different things in Africa than he did in Paris? I don’t really like the idea of time and geographic location really changing what I’m writing.
“I try not to derive too much influence from where I am, because if I did the whole thing would sound like an upstate New York or Nashville record – preferably it would be upstate New York because if it sounded like Nashville I might as well as written a Kenny Rogers cover record.
“It was, I think, more reflective of the time and the complete shit-shell of a person that I was turning into. I suppose it was more an illustration of pre-marriage breakdown and post-marriage breakdown.”
Now with a new record to flog, Gang Of Youths will soon kickstart their latest tour, playing shows up and down Australia. Leaupepe is raring to go. “Where are we playing?” he asks, “I think we start touring in August.”
Despite this rather shaky knowledge on his own comings and goings, Leaupepe does seem ready to hit the road. “I love playing live, it’s my lifeblood. I used to be incredibly nervous, I would vomit violently before I played – but after ten years you get used to it. I didn’t used to always enjoy touring, at least I didn’t until this last one, but now I feel like a useless blob if I don’t do it.”
The interview is closing down, my phone’s running out of battery, and Dave Leaupepe needs to keep watching season two of 'Orange Is The New Black'. “Quick,” I shout, “what’s your pick of the record? What’s your one song?”
“‘Kansas’,” he replies without hesitation, “because I made it in my underpants. Because it’s my three-minute version of Lou Reed. Because I was at a stage where I was miserable enough to be creative, but hopeful enough to inject some hope into this song. Because it’s something that people don’t really see coming from me, because I’m six foot two, ninety-eight kilos and listen exclusively to black metal. Because I like songs that are explicit but are in many ways incredibly vague. ‘Kansas’, that’s my answer.”
Written by Eva Phillips
Gang Of Youths play the Maroochy Music and Visual Arts Festival 22 August. Gang Of Youths tour starts in Canberra 5 August. Then the band play Falls Festival and Southbound this summer.
