44th Time Lucky

"44th Sunset aren't really that original,” begins 44th Sunset's bio. “There, I said it.” At WAPPA – where lead singer and guitarist of the band, Nik Thompson, studies composition – originality is king. “Everything's about the next thing that no-one's done,” says Thompson, and he argues this can interfere with the process of simply making good music. “A lot of the time it's actually sacrificing the music that you like,” he says. “You start focusing on originality rather than your own aesthetic.”

Even really distinctive bands like Arcade Fire are re-envisioning something that's already been done, Thompson points out. “It just seems like a lot of indie rock bands are all claiming that they've revolutionised music,” he says. “I just write music that I wanna play and I wanna hear... It's not super-original – it's indie rock, indie pop music – but it's just what I like.”

At 18 years of age, Thompson is already a veteran of the Perth music scene. He and his bandmates started gigging when they were 15 and still needed their parents to chaperone their gigs. “It wasn't just coordinating the band, it was coordinating the parents as well,” Thompson says. “Mum still comes anyway, so it doesn't really change.

“The first show that we played, when I was 15, was in front of some old guys in front of TAB machines all yelling at us to stop interrupting their gambling. We didn't have tuners or anything like that so we just tuned to each other onstage. So when we felt like things were getting a bit out of tune, I'd turn around and to the bassist or the other guitarist and be like, 'Hey man, throw me an E'… It was so bad. The lyrics were like, 'I woke up and there was bubblegum stuck to my head'. You know, trying to be hardcore.”

Three years on the band are finally allowed to buy a drink at the venues they play. And they've progressed a lot in that time. Their single Caesar is getting triple j airplay, they've recently released their first EP, Boa Constrictor Hat, and they've just returned from their first tour, playing support for Sydney band Jinja Safari.

“It was kind of interesting, the cultural difference,” Thompson says of their interstate shows. “I didn't think that people were actually different from state to state. We had only played a few interstate shows before, none in Melbourne… Melbourne crowds are very super-cool. They don't really want to do much. They just stand there, and if they were allowed to smoke cigarettes, they would.”

Adelaide was where the action was. “Adelaide was crazy,” Thompson says. “It was awesome. It was the best crowds I've ever played to. They just totally got into it, which was weird because they don't even know any of our songs except for Caesar… we were climbing the speaker stacks and shit.”

The band are well known for their energy and spastic dancing. Thompson says he likes to get people annoyed during his shows, or at least riled up. He'll jump off the stage and get in people's faces, grab drunk FIFO workers and demand they dance with him – so far without consequence. “I don't know why I haven't been beaten up yet,” he says. “I'm not a big guy. I'm a tall, skinny streak of misery. It's not like they're intimidated by me.”