“When we’d go out, and we’d get tanked, we’d be walking down the street. And one night I just started singing,” Lucchesi explains about the origin of Best Night, and belts out: ‘This is the best night of my life/Is this the best night of your life?’ to demonstrate. “It became a little mantra. If the night was going well, we’d just sing it and it’d be better.” The situation sounds like ‘crimping’ of Boosh fame, and I mention we have a Bin Night song in my house, which Lucchesi thinks is marvellous. “I thought, what has been the best night of my life? I thought back to this one night in Lagos – it’s like the Byron Bay of Portugal. I was there with five or six of my mates,” he says. The trip involved a few sundowns of heavy partying and one eve the guys found themselves in bare feet on the hot sand in front of a DJ playing some “Afro-Cuban” beats. “We just ran up. It was dusk. We started dancing and I looked at [bassist and brother] Luca [Lucchesi] going nuts, man. This whole crowd was forming a circle around him while he was just dancing, and it was mad.” Among other references, Best Night’s lyrics also mention something lame Bono said during a U2 show Lucchesi saw and a prank phone call made from Lagos to Australia, and it’s all accompanied by cracking drums and Lucchesi’s honeyed sax. “As funny and as throwaway as some of those lyrics may seem, I stewed over them for ages. It’s really hard writing words to a melody that’s already there; it’s a lot easier the other way round,” he says. The song’s other parts derive from “influences that are really dear” to the band, with guitarist Nick Lam’s sound inspired by MJ’s Black Or White (“I don’t want to start saying it’s an ode to it, and get done like Men At Work did”). The result is a romantic and joyous gambol, absolutely perfect for our gradually warming weather.
On the subject of writing the album, Lucchesi agrees with drummer (and second brother) Dan’s sentiment that there was a concerted effort to worry about no one’s opinions but the band’s own. “We haven’t ever really changed the way we want to do things, but with this [album] especially we just said ‘You know what? Fuck it. We’re just going to do exactly what we like, and if people love it, great. And if they don’t, then at least we love it.’ And I think that’s a really good way to approach everything. [It’s] definitely us trying a lot of new stuff.” Dan Lucchesi is responsible for most of the tracking and producing duties, and Marc emphasises the incredible amount of time and work that is going into each little component of the forthcoming record.
And it’s not just the tracks: the singer has spent hours hand-stencilling the band’s new logo (designed by the “great dudes” at Symphonic Pixels) onto CD sleeves, and the day before our interview the Lucchesi brothers and Lam were filming for the Best Night clip. Lucchesi describes a torrent of tropical themes, games, motifs and contributors towards the pile of footage the director is currently editing. “I think it’s going to be our best [clip] yet,” he says excitedly, but carps that it’s tough to be peak excited in every shot, considering the filming schedule. “In a live show you’ve got to stretch it out,” he explains, “but with this they make you do ten takes of the same fucking thing. I understand how Hugh Jackman feels when he’s filming, you know, Wolverine.” If you’ve seen the clip for Roller Disco you can agree that Lucchesi has crazy stamina for this stuff (if you haven’t seen it, do so immediately).
The foursome plan to attend SXSW for their second time in March next year, and the album is due to be released just after the trip. “For once in our lives we have a plan in place,” Lucchesi laughs. “When the album comes out, it’ll be a really big tour. Hopefully Europe! I would like to get a bit of Europe in.” Currently independent and bursting with their new direction, this week’s single launch is the perfect chance to party with the boys before they jettison into their starry future.
BY ZOË RADAS
