If there’s one thing Dune Rats love, it’s having a damn good time and what better place than on tour with your best mates, plenty of beers and copious debauchery.
We were lucky enough to chat with the sufficiently cooked three piece ahead of their massive gig at the Enmore with their best buds, DZ Deathrays and Violent Soho. The boys let us in on some nuggets of narcotic wisdom, moments of mischief and the bright future of the Dunies.
“Know your drug, know your rights.” Wise words from one of Australia’s most punk of punk bands. Dune Rats went on to disclose even more pearls of wisdom
HAPPY: Hey fellas, thanks for taking some time out, looking forward to the gig tonight?
Brett: Fuck yeah!
HAPPY: Any preparations?
Brett: You’re looking at it! (points at many beers)
HAPPY: How’s it been touring with DZ Deathrays and Violent Soho?
Brett: Like a big family in a ball, rolling around the country.
Danny: Yeah, it’s not really been like a tour at all, if I’m honest. We’re just sitting around having beers most of the time. Usually by the last show, a lot of bands get to know each other but we were mates from the beginning. It’s gonna be shit not touring with em.
BC: We’ve toured with them both before as well. DZ’s was our first tour ever n around 2013. We all started in Brissy.
HAPPY: I bet you’d have to sleep with one eye open!
Brett: Nah, they’re not like that. They probably sleep with one eye open with us around though! (laughs)
Danny: I’m probably the biggest heckler of them all.
HAPPY: What’s been the best story so far?
Brett: It’s hard to say, not much has happened!
Danny: Getting to have our own banner for the first time was cool. We call it Eric. (get it!)
Brett: So do DZ, but theirs is a bit smaller so we call it Eric Junior. Ours is just a fat wad.
HAPPY: Oh, so you’re trying to outdo them?
Danny: Nup, we just naturally do it. Boom! Did you hear that DZ?!
HAPPY: Are Sydney crowds different to those in Brisbane?
BC: We’ll find out tonight!
Danny: Fuck knows! Adelaide’s sick though, they have it so far. Those cunts just fucking went HAM. From doors open til doors close.
BC: A dude smoked a bong in the audience and just threw it up at us!
Danny: Yeah! And this dude threw us like a 50 of weed AND papers!
HAPPY: Sounds like a pretty good deal.
Danny: Great deal.
HAPPY: Let’s talk about your videos. How have none of you died yet?
Danny: We stay out of it (laughs). If you look closely, we actually have stunt doubles.
HAPPY: Do you still feel the effects of the Red Light Green Light shoot?
BC: Uh… yeah dude.
Danny: If you’re gonna do that many bongs, just make sure you do heaps of ecstasy, balance it out, like any diet. Just know your drug. (laughs)
HAPPY: More recently, your video for Bullshit featured some pretty raucous antics and an appearance from the cops. Was that for real?
Brett: They didn’t come in. Private property. Know your rights!
BC: Know your rights, know your drug.
HAPPY: Bullshit is a pretty easy song to figure out the meaning of. Did you have anyone in particular in mind when you wrote it?
Brett: It’s about our mates…
Danny: However people wanna take it I guess. It’s heaps of different shit, because we all write lyrics together.
HAPPY: That’s pretty different. Most bands seem to have just one person doing it.
BC: Zac from FIDLAR said we should write a song with the kind of words that we say that he though were different… I dunno…
Danny: He’s just good at bringing out things that are different and that sort of thing. We would always say that this was bullshit and that was bullshit so it just sort of worked. We’d come up with a line then someone else would try and make a better one and so on.
HAPPY: Do you ever try and say something with your lyrics? Do you ever feel like getting a message across?
Brett: Ah, yeah what was it that magazine said about us? (asks manager)
Answer: “The album sounds like a bunch of 8 year olds who’ve just smoked a few bongs and listened to Anarchy in the UK.”
HAPPY: I guess that answers my question! Did that make you upset?
Danny: Not at all! It was hilarious actually. The person who wrote it was in a room with us once scabbing ciggies off everyone. They’re a good person though. (laughs) We don’t read the good ones and we don’t really read the bad ones either but that one was a funny one. I think one of us must’ve fucked their significant other and if we didn’t, he sort of wrote it like we did.
HAPPY: Were you expecting or aiming for this level of success?
Brett: We just wanted to make at least 150 bucks a show and live off Centerlink. Still haven’t hit the mark. (laughs)
Danny: I think just being a band together for 4 years is the best thing in the world, you know. We haven’t had to work jobs for the last few years, and I hope we never do. It’s just a good living.
HAPPY: It’s pretty tough being a band these days. Do you miss those day jobs?
Danny: I miss the money that came with it. That’s the only thing: you have to be willing to be the poorest mother fucker ever if you’re in a band. I’d hate to be in a seven piece or something. Don’t get into music if you wanna make money (laughs)
HAPPY: What made you get into music in the first place?
Danny: Like we said, just have beers, have fun with your mates. I mean, if someone asks you to do something, make sure you’re getting paid. Unless it’s charity of course. Don’t get me wrong. But if you’re in a band and you’re gonna do a show, try and make as much money from it as you can so you don’t have to work another shitty job. We’ve all worked call centre jobs just to keep doing it, so yeah.
HAPPY: What has influenced you and your music over time?
Brett: We’re not so much influenced by other people’s music but definitely the way they operate their band and shit. Violent Soho are sick like that. They prove they’re a real band by taking it seriously while having all that fun, they’re not fucking about.
HAPPY: Do you ever get burned out on tour? Surely you’d be tired from bouncing around stage night after night.
BC: I dunno… I wish teleportation existed so I could dip home for a night or two in bed then get back on tour.
Danny: It’s true, sometimes on tour you think “I wish I was at home.” But after a couple of nights back home, you wish you were on tour. It’s sick; I can’t think of anything besides touring I’d rather do besides laying in bed watching Netflix.
HAPPY: What do you guys plan on doing when you’re back from the tour?
BC: Try not to get a labouring job!
Brett: Digging some holes and building some fences in Melbourne or some shit.
Danny: Yeah, and write some music.
Everyone: yeeeah
HAPPY: What’s next for Dune Rats?
Danny: We’d love to have an album out by the end of the year. The album so far is feeling like a sick album, because we haven’t had to write up too much in the studio, more so in our own time.
Brett: Zac (FIDLAR) has been the kick up the bum we needed.
Danny: Yeah, he’s all about embracing our weirdness. If it’s weird, just fucking do it.
HAPPY: Kinda like Dalai Llama, Big Banana, Marijuana?
Brett: Yeah, exactly. In America, they call it Dalai Laaama, Big Banaaana, Marijuana (in American accent), so it doesn’t make much sense to them at all.
BC: To be fair, we were smoking a record amount of pot at the time. (laughs)
HAPPY: No kidding! Well, thanks for chatting to us fellas, I think that’ll do it for now.
