Single Focus: The Mercy Beat - 'Sex Funeral'

What's the song about? To me it's about guitars, bass, drums and vocals rockin' out – but I'm a simple bloke. To the other guys who wrote the lyrics and sing in the band it's about the occasional sexual misconduct of footy players and the apparent greater concern, at least in the media, for whether it will affect their club matches rather than whether or not the guy is a complete dick.

Is this track from a forthcoming/existing release? This track was recorded with Tom Larkin (Shihad) at Studios In The City (Shihad, High Tension, Calling All Cars) late last year. At this stage it's being released digitally as part of a three-song digital campaign. This is the first cab off the rank of what we're calling our triple A-side. Ideally we'd love to be giving these songs a physical release – whether it's a limited vinyl pressing or as part of a greater album – but obviously you've got to gauge your successes in this industry so until this looks to be a viable option we'll continue trying to get our head above the waves with digital releases.

How long did it take to write/record? We did the pre-production and recording of the three songs in six days, which certainly isn't the shortest time given to this process but it's far from a long time. It's actually far from an appropriate amount of time but what are you going to do as a self-funded band? Sex Funeral wasn't going to be recorded in these sessions, but we showed it to Tom on about the third day in the studio and he thought it was the go so we ran with it. We'd had this song floating around for a long time. We'd played it live for about a year and then dropped it from our sets. We just hadn't quite finished it properly. With Tom's fresh ears it took just a little tweaking and we feel it's come up a cracker. It's definitely back in the live set as one of our 'go to' songs.

What was inspiring you during the song's writing and recording? The whole process was just great. We're a Brissy band and the studio is in Melbourne. It's always exciting to be away in a different city working on this kind of project. It somehow makes the whole process feel bigger, more serious, and perhaps even lets you fool yourself that you're a big time band, doing the big time shit like the real cats do – and you've got to let yourself get lost in that even if just for a moment!

In all seriousness though, it did feel a little like: “Right? So this is how the big guys do it.” It was the first time we'd worked with a producer and we were certainly stoked to be doing the project with Tom. His engineer Ben is a dude and a master at his craft. Brunswick is a great, vibrant area and the coffee from the café literally attached to the back of the studio is brilliant. We lived it up and had a ball. The whole process was inspiring. We finished the last guitar tracks at 3.45 in the morning while we were holding up the cab that was waiting to drop us straight to the airport for our flights home. It was down to the wire.

When writing the songs we're cooped up in a shitty, hot, stinky jam room so the inspiration definitely has to come from within – although maybe it's this environment that fuels our writing.

We'll like this song if we like… Cowbell. There's nowhere near enough cowbell in today's musical landscape – particularly in the hard-rock landscape. It's like peanuts with beer. It's becoming rare to get them these days with people all worried about trace elements of urine and so forth, but when you get that bowl of nuts with your beer you're sorted. There's no way you're not happy. So enjoy the cowbell, I give a 'no urine' guarantee. That's the drummer's answer to this question. I suppose you're looking more for a “if you like The Bronx” or “if you like Helmet” or whatever then you'll like this song? Sure. Those guys are relevant references. If you like them then you're likely to dig Sex Funeral.

Do you play it differently live? Now we do. After signing up to the Tom Larkin school of this is how you tweak an average song and demand that it deliver the goods – rock'n'roll goods.

Will you be launching it? We're heading south later this month to launch the song with a live presence in Melbourne on Saturday 23 March at the Retreat with The Sinking Teeth.

For more info see: themercybeat.com