“Having eight members in your band is always going to be a benefit when you first start playing,” he says, “because you have a wide support network of friends who are genuinely interested in that sort of thing, who are willing to come down to support us. Our friends were really a huge help in getting people down to shows early on, but it also showed that other bands would be more inclined to play with you because you were able to bring people.
“We’re also really lucky to have, because we were friends and neighbours, support from Drunk Mums helping us get shows,” Mulligan continues. “[Other bands] that started at the same time, WOD and Dumb Punts, the three of us played together a lot and helped each other out in making a circle of interested people who were into that Australiana garage music. I guess we were lucky to fall into the social circle that we did.”
As the band garnered more attention, some bigger questions needed to be asked. For instance, one of the risks run by taking a satirical approach to their music is that some people will take the joke seriously, which both of the band’s vocalists have come to understand. To help give us a broader impression, Mulligan explains the band’s song construction process.
“Well, there’s references that we’ve made in the music that work with bands down here,” he says. “Having such a big band though, it can be a, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ situation most of the time. Most of the songs have been written when some members have been absent. That being said, no one member has to be present for a song to be made. Everyone contributes.
“Lyrically,” he continues, “most of it gets done by the two singers who contribute the lines to the content. But thematically, since the songs were only meant to be heard by the social circles I was talking about before, I personally – and I think I can speak for Baz [Travella, vocals] as well – didn’t think too much about the correctness of them or what would be thought outside these circles, because it just didn’t cross my mind. It’s not a position I’ve been put in before. Moving forward now, there are songs we don’t play anymore because I’m not particularly proud of them and other people aren’t proud of them for various reasons, and sometimes lyrical content is one of them.”
However, it’s not all negative. Even though some listeners might’ve mistaken Mighty Boys’ sarcasm for seriousness, Mulligan clarifies the perspective the band writes from. “Thematically, the music comes from experiences of growing up with privilege,” he says. “It’s all tongue-in-cheek and it’s not meant to be representative of our thoughts. It’s satire and having a dig at people who actually think that way. The issue is inevitably people will think that is how you feel. Those are your thoughts that you’re earnestly putting forward,’ and when you realise that’s the case you sometimes have to cut and run.
“It’s been an issue that we’ve thought about, Baz and I, and moving forward we think we can be a little more clever,” Mulligan adds. “We can be smarter about the way we write things and make them, while equally confronting and comedic, less cheap and obvious.”
The obvious question that now emerges is how the band’s changing approach will effect further works. Mulligan says they won’t make the same mistakes twice. “I think there’s five songs written post our previous record that we play live now. As a band we think they’re proper songs. They’ve taken way longer to write, and they’ve got more interesting arrangements and more considered parts. Lyrically, I think they’re stronger because there’s narrative to them.
“We’re really proud of them,” he adds, “and we want to make our next record something that’s considered and the way that we want to sound. The first record was finding our feet – a lot of the songs on that first record we wrote specifically to play shows. So it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”
Now for a bit of pub trivia: since the source of the band’s name has, until now, been un-Google-able, Mulligan explains that it isn’t actually a declaration of masculinity.
“Well, Baz has probably got the most fight in him,” he says, “but the band is named after a Suzuki ute that tries to be blokey but isn’t quite there… it’s extremely small. There happens to be a Mighty Boy dealer around the corner from my old work, but when it comes to actual might in the members, there isn’t a lot. We’re a pretty placid bunch of guys.”
BY THOMAS BRAND
