Drunk Mums are the Melbourne-via-Cairns five-piece making a racket all over town. Masters of the live show, bearers of possibly one of the best band names ever, with haircuts that make all the cool girls swoon. We had a chat with them about feeding crocs in Cairns, putting titties on their album cover and calling ‘Straya home.
My favourite Happy illustration ever is by CeeLo
HAPPY: You guys moved from Cairns to Melbourne, how do you find the difference between the two cities? Last time I was in Cairns I got to feed a croc, so it’s got my vote.
DRUNK MUMS: It depends what you like to do. If you like being stinkin’ hot, being a tradie and having 3 kids, then Cairns is your place. If you like being able to do something different every day and being able to watch some of the best bands on Earth then Melbourne is your place. Look, Cairns is great and beautiful and all that but it’s a tourist town, you don’t get nothing done if you’re a band. Feeding crocs is great until they bite off your arm. I stayed there a while trying to get a scene going there but everyone is listening to John Butler and smoking doobies, no-one wants to hear our racket. Young people move away so they don’t turn into a hippie or a dude taking steroids beating up people in da clubs.
HAPPY: How did you make the jump from playing local shows around Melbourne, to being recognized nationally? Did you have to work hard for it or was it a natural sort of progression?
DRUNK MUMS: Hardly working or hardly playing? We do work hard and we have our manager James Young to thank as well. He owns Cherry Bar and countless other great music venues in Melbourne. He said that he wasn’t going to manage any more bands but he fell in love with our haircuts. Don’t go thinking, “oh yeaaaah they have a manager that’s why”, we have played our fair share of gigs. Bloody heaps mate! A lot of them were interstate too.
HAPPY: I know you probably get asked quite frequently about the iTunes-banning-of-your-record incident, but I’d like to know more about the actual photograph used? Was it taken in the flesh? I like it a lot.
DRUNK MUMS: Yeah Dean and Jake went to a strip club rolled out the dollars and took some photos like a straight up gangsta. They were so into the idea of tits on the cover. Constantly talking about going down to St. Kilda and handing over $100 to anyone willing to get their gear off. It ended up somehow being way classier than that don’t you think?
HAPPY: There is something about your sound, and your aesthetic, which is quintessentially Australian. Unlike heaps of other bands who seem to sort of shy away from the Aussie stuff and try to globalise their sound, would you say it is a source of inspiration to you?
DRUNK MUMS: I think globalize is the wrong word. Being a part of what culture we do have is important to us. What we play is who we are, we aren’t trying to be something that we are not. A lot of people seem to play what they think people want to hear. The difference is we play what we want to hear. That’s how rock and roll should be.
HAPPY: The energy of your live shows is always intense and wonderful. Do you get wasted beforehand to lose any inhibitions or do you reckon it’s a better call to play sober?
DRUNK MUMS: We do get pretty drunk. It’s not because we are nervous though. We just like getting drunk. It wouldn’t justify the name if we were sober. We have played a lot of daytime shows and it’s really different because we’ve only had a coupla, not 234567890987654345 beers.
HAPPY: There are so many incredible emerging bands coming out of Australia at the moment, and you’re playing with a bunch of them on your upcoming tour. What are your favourite bands to watch live?
DRUNK MUMS: The Kremlings from Geelong are a great spectacle. Look to be honest, I hate what is coming out of musicians today. If I listen to modern music it is usually pissed off and intense because that’s what seems real. If I listen to popular music from the past it seems to have way more dignity and I don’t think that is because I am looking at it from a nostalgic point of view. I think it’s because as I said before, music today is so much more fabricated than it used to be.
HAPPY: Whats the best gig you’ve ever played?
DRUNK MUMS: It’s hard to pin point that. There have been times where I get a massive natural high and think to myself! “SHIT YEAAAAAAH, LIFE’S THE BEST!!!” and other times when I think we could have done waaaaaaay better and then someone would come up to me and say it was the best gig they have ever seen. Supporting Guitar Wolf was a pretty cool achievement as I listened to them a lot when I was younger and they have the best stage presence. How about I say it hasn’t happened yet! It’s not just up to us! We want everyone to get involved and have fun!
HAPPY: And the worst?
DRUNK MUMS: The ones where the crowd looks like they are at an awkward family Christmas dinner staring at you confused and look like they could shit and wouldn’t even notice… Hell! Everyone could shit and they wouldn’t even notice the smell.
HAPPY: Lastly, what makes you happiest?
DRUNK MUMS: HONESTY! BEING YOU! BEING ME! SATAN!
Drunk Mums have been captured in all their glory by the wonderful CeeLo. Filo-Aussie, Sydney based graphic designer and illustrator. Humanitarian, dog-lover and art, music and hip hop dance enthusiast. Check out his Facebook or folio site for more info.
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