The surge of garage and punk has been bubbling in the bay of Melbourne for a while and is quick becoming a tidal wave sweeping across our fair city. Like most waves, it’s built on a sense of community with bands like Drunk Mums and Clowns driving it and bringing in their wake other acts like Mesa Cosa and Mighty Boys. That community has grown to include the whole damn country, a fact which becomes all too evident while on the phone to Drunk Mums guitarist and singer Jake Doyle as our conversation becomes drowned out by some excessive background noise. Further investigation sees Doyle explain the house’s band room has been taken over by Mesa Cosa’s front man Pablo Alvarado, Tristan from the now defunct NSW band The Nugs, and Alejandro Ylich Ramirez Alcazar from ACT band Fighting League.
“It’s definitely caught on,” Doyle comments. “Everyon’se getting into garage and going into punk and discovering harder stuff they generally wouldn’t listen to, which is good. That’s what we’re being influenced by. Everybody loves UV Rays. [They’re] definitely one of the go to bands from Melbourne.”
Signing a management deal with the well-connected Cherry bar co-owner James Young last year seems to have helped cause a spike in the trajectory of Drunk Mums’ career. Their track Plastic is receiving national airplay and the first show of their current tour spruiking their newest single Nanganator at Blurst of Times Festival saw punters ripping down stage fences in hysteria. Despite the growing popularity, Doyle is still well aware music is never going to be a huge breadwinner and a conversation with The Meanies’ Link McLennan gave him some confirmation of that. McLennan made his own reservations clear about living off music in a recent Beat interview with Patrick Emery when he spoke about his fears of ending up in a gutter when he’s 70.
“He [McLennan] already spoke to me about that at this Sailor Jerry pop-up bar in Sydney at the Cross,” Doyle recounts “I asked ‘What do you do?’ And he said ‘Fuck all’. It wasn’t really a turning point for me but at the moment I’m definitely setting my goals at earning a hundred grand a year. It definitely won’t be in music because who’s making a hundred grand a year in music? I spoke to DZ Deathrays and they reckon they give themselves an allowance of a hundred bucks a week.”
The days when one genre took over the airwaves are gone due to the mass onslaught of information and a never-ending stream of new bands. All you can really hope for now is that your music causes something to stir in the listener, giving them a place to lose themselves away from the greyscale of life. At a time in Australia where politicians seem proud of their ignorance and relationships are more about convenience than meaning, the time seems ripe for dedicated shit-stirrers like Drunk Mums to make their stand for the disillusioned to gather around.
BY RHYS MCRAE
