Last time Andrew Cox, from Melbourne rockers The Fauves, spoke to scenestr, the band had been working the hardest they had in years.
The band had played anniversary shows for their third and fourth albums, 'Future Spa' and 'Lazy Highway'. They also released a compilation of their first two EPs, 'Faematronic', which has become a sign of success for their hard work."One night, [Wally 'Meanie' Kempton from record label Cheersquad] sent me this link to some sort of independent alternative inverted-commas chart and 'Faematronic' was number one. It's our first ever number one record after a fashion," declares Andrew.
"We saw him a couple of weeks later at our show and he said it sold 57 copies," he laughs. "So, kids, you really don't have to sell that many albums to get number one on the alternative charts these days."
On top of these victories, The Fauves have capped it off with their thirteenth album, 'Tropical Strength' (out this Friday), and are hitting the road with Custard for a tour throughout November and December.
'Tropical Strength' arrives five years after their previous release, the double album 'Driveway Heart Attack'. Recording 'Tropical Strength', the band decided to do something different to what they've done before: recording overseas in Bali.
"We just wanted to do something markedly different to the way we've been recording for so many decades," he says. "It was in a fairly unprepossessing part of the outskirts of Denpasar. It was refreshingly free of Australian tourists, let' put it that way.
"They kept real civil studio hours; they didn't want us working past 5pm when we'd usually go well into the night. Got to relax the rest of the time. We came back with Bintang singlet tan lines, braids in the hair, henna tattoos. The whole package," he laughs.
The album's lead single is the Cox-penned 'Un-Australians'. As expected from the band behind 'Understanding Kyuss' and 'Don't Get Death Threats Anymore', the single is filled with caustically humorous lyrics, taking aim at such targets as former Prime Ministers Scott Morrison and Robert Menzies, sporting hero Don Bradman, and whatever 'Australian values' are, all over a catchy, new wave bounce. "I mean, it's just that great term," Andrew says of the title.
"Anytime that somebody does something that a certain section of society doesn't agree with – generally quite often the politically conservative side – they're branded as un-Australian. It's a way of trying to divide us. There's a strict set of rules that privileged older white males tend to prescribe or lay down, and if you step outside of those rules, you're 'un-Australian'.
"That's what the dilemma I was wrestling with in the lyrics, apart from also just wanting to really write something that would. . . not that those sorts of people would probably ever hear the song, but if they did it would really annoy them," he laughs. "I wanted to be as annoying and obnoxious as I possibly could in the writing of those lyrics."
Across the album, Andrew and co-vocalist Phil 'Doctor' Leonard grapple with melodically rich songs about cool girls working at the music store, travel, and the terrors of aging, the latter featuring on the morbid 'If You Love Me'. "The story is made up, but I've hit an age where you start going to more funerals," he says.
"It's not the lightest of topics, but I like the idea of writing age-appropriate material. I think it's cool to be getting on to 60 and still being in a band, but I don't think it's cool to be moving on to 60 and still pretending to be 20 in your lyrics.
"Like, I want to write about things that matter to me at that age, and if you trace The Fauves' history you can see that. You go back to 'Future Spa' and we were writing about being Australian kids, and now we're writing music for people in aged care homes," he laughs.
At the end of the year, The Fauves will be hitting the road with Custard, who will also be touring behind a new album. The tour will be the first shows for The Fauves in 2024, after ending last year with a pair of mammoth anniversary shows where they performed two classic albums in full.
"It's not something I want to do too often, playing 30 songs at a gig. I don't know how Bruce Springsteen does it," he laughs. "It's just a good excuse to play a show when you're a band who's been going as long as we have and don't have as many records. There's always an anniversary of one of your records."
Maybe there'll be a 20th anniversary show for 'Tropical Strength'? "Well, I’m 57 now, so 77. I'm touching a lot of wood here. It's a law of diminishing returns. We're going to be hoping for a lot of good luck to all still be standing and able to play instruments in 20 years' time, but who knows? Who knows where medicine will be at that stage? They may have found a way to just keep guys in indie rock bands alive forever," he laughs.
'Tropical Strength' is out 1 November. Pre-order it.
Custard with The Fauves 2024 Tour Dates
Sat 9 Nov - Crowbar (Sydney)Fri 15 Nov - Republic Cafe (Hobart)
Sat 16 Nov - The Gov (Adelaide)
Fri 22 Nov - The Prince (Melbourne)
Sat 23 Nov - Live At The Bundy (Gippsland)
Sun 24 Nov - Theatre Royal (Castlemaine)
Fri 29 Nov - The Baso (Canberra)
Sat 30 Nov - The Marlin (South Coast)
Fri 6 Dec - Milk Bar (Perth)
Sat 7 Dec - Mojos (Fremantle)
Fri 20 Dec - Miami Marketta (Gold Coast)
Sat 21 Dec - The Princess Theatre (Brisbane)
