Album Walkthrough: Luca Brasi break down their fifth album, Everything is Tenuous

Header image by Nick Green.

When it comes to album number five, bands often need to shake things up a little bit. It's important to prevent your sound from getting too stale; too same-same after years - a decade even, assuming a new album every two years or so - of releasing music, even for those acts that evolve and grow with every record they create.

Luca Brasi, the much-loved Tasmanian group who made their entrance back in 2011, provides a good example of this. The four-piece have become staples of Australia's rock scene since their foundation 12 years ago, moving forward with every release to the point where their last record - 2018's Stay - was their most successful and adored yet, pushing the group to the highest echelon of Australia's rock world and the long-standing talent it has cultivated throughout its history (a legion Luca Brasi is all but cemented in for the rest of their career).

When it comes to their fifth album, however - the today-arriving Everything Is Tenuous - Luca Brasi are breaking the mould and doing something new, ensuring their trajectory continues upwards and they continue to blossom following the success of Stay three years back. Everything Is Tenuous was born from the inactivity spurred by the coronavirus lockdowns, in which the four-piece - finding it difficult to get into their usual recording format without flirting with restrictions - instead decided to bunker down and record on their own; their first attempt at self-recording an entire record.

Self-recorded and almost entirely self-produced by the group (with aid from Kisschasy's Darren Cordeux, that is), Everything Is Tenuous is Luca Brasi at their most intimate and potent, showing a new level of the group's songwriting without the added influence that outside collaborators can bring. It's undeniably Luca Brasi - at the album's most vigorous moments, Luca Brasi feel as charged and energised as ever - but a lot of the album is underpinned by Luca Brasi looking inwards, and exploring the inner workings of their lives through acute songwriting that allows it to shine.

"Using songs is a great way to get it out there, stuff that is hard to say, but that you always mean to," says frontman Tyler Richardson on the record, out today via Cooking Vinyl Australia. "A lot of the record is about the fragility of life, I've been thinking about how a lot of things stay, a lot change, and a lot just completely disappear. I don't necessarily think any of the above is bad, there's zero you can do to change it, but all the same, it's on my brain a lot. Everything really is tenuous and sometimes a lifetime feels like a lifetime, sometimes a lifetime feels like a second."

It's a really rich and charming album that shows another facet of Luca Brasi, and as they dive deeper into the things that fuel their band and their individual personalities, we thought we would leave it up to them to explain the record's inner meanings and themes. Take a dive into the record below, and underneath that, read a track-by-track walkthrough from Tyler, which strips apart the album's creation one song at a time:

Never the Right Time

This song is an ode to that constant thing I find of never calling or stopping by to see my friends/loved ones when I should; not even to say anything, just to check-in. It’s a nod to the excuses, the missed opportunities, the times you’ll never get back unless you go for it. No one is here forever, celebrate them.

Dying to Feel Alive

You know that feeling where you could easily attempt to rest on your laurels and feel like you’ve done enough for the day/week/year? I often feel like that but go to bed feeling shame, I love stacking my plate sky high and stressing myself out it seems. Even if it’s not important, I’ll find a way for it to freak me out so that I can’t sleep and just stress instead. Sometimes that everyday routine/drudgery is just too much and you feel burnt out; dying to feel something new and exciting.

Tangled; Content

I feel like this one says it all in the song, there’s a few moments that you kind of think you’ll never forget; the ones you hold onto. Bloody love those, they help get you through. I know what I’ll remember best.

Led Astray

You go through patches in life where you feel like it’s you against the world, I’m sure we all do. I find it sometimes feels goddamn impossible to break that cycle, then it’s times where you see something that makes you feel like all is okay again. The world is a harsh bastard when it wants to be, then the next moment all feels okay. I’ve been starting to realise it’s sometimes more about how I react to what is happening to me, not actually what is happening to me. Still, sometimes I just have to say fuck it and drink a stubby while I walk the Marley round the block.

This Selfish Love

Taking a moment to appreciate what’s good and what actually matters in life, time to forget the rest and all the bullshit that actually can just fade into blackness if you let it. It’s near on impossible at times to be mindful; sinking into oblivion is wonderful if we can let it happen.

Restless

When I start to break all this down, I feel like a real sook sometimes. I guess I use writing to express my thoughts and make myself feel better by breaking down my ideas/experiences. Restless is about wondering when it’s gonna get better in those low stages of life. It always has for me, luckily and it always will; I know that, and I have to hold onto it. I got a hell of a team on my side and I’m beyond fortunate in that.

The Truth

I’m sick of seeing my friends die, enough said. I miss you all so much.

Remiss Of Me

I feel like I’ve got a bloody good lot in life, no matter the shit my brain tries to trick me into believing is real, I reckon I’m so lucky. This is a nod to that fact, I’ve got so much in life, that a lot of people unfortunately do not. As Tony Soprano said “Sometimes I go round in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind carries me across the sky”.

Everytime You’re Here (I’m Gone)

I owe my friends and Alix the world, I never tell anyone enough what they do for me, but I literally owe them so much. I hope they know how much it means, how much I need them, bit of an attempt to maybe give them a bit of a reminder.

Sea Sick

I spend so much time inside my own head trying to unpack stuff, generally with very little success. Although I guess as I am getting older, I’m starting to realise how quickly life passes as the years go by and that’s something I am really becoming more aware of. You never get the minutes back.

Follow Luca Brasi: FACEBOOK