This Is It

When he's not busy running his indie label, RIP Society, or working at Repressed Records, Nic Warnock sings songs he writes and plays guitar in Sydney DIY four-piece Bed Wettin' Bad Boys, alongside his younger brother Ben, bass player Joe Sukit – who also plays in RIP Society labelmates Royal Headache – and self-styled “makeshift drummer” Doug Gibson, who joined the band after they'd released a debut 7”, Nobody Else, which they followed with a second vinyl EP, Best Band In Sydney/Worst Band In Sydney. Now comes the debut album, Ready For Boredom, recorded live in the studio in two days.

“There's never really been any plan with this band,” Warnock admits. “We never really thought much about the future, I guess. I mean, I remember we used to talk about, like, wouldn't it be awesome to do a demo cassette, and one day we should do a seven-inch, and that would be the dream. And I remember we said one time – this is before Doug joined – I reckon this band has got one awesome LP in it and then that's it; we've got one good record in us. But I already know we've got another really good one in us.

“I guess we have a plan in terms of how we want our band to sound at the time and the type of songs, blah blah blah. We don't have that typical careerist trajectory that I guess a lot of bands that do something like go on an album launch tour probably have. I feel the record and the songs we've written are very considered, equal parts considered as it is organic and kind of intuitive. We all spent a lot of time thinking about rock'n'roll and the process of recording and guitar sounds, and how we thought it would be appropriate for the record to sound, and we threw around so many reference points in the whole mixing process.”

Those reference points for Ready For Boredom, produced by Melbourne musician Tom Hardisty from labelmates Woollen Kits, were as diverse as, on the one hand, Brian Eno's 1974 album, Here Come The Warm Jets, and, on the other, legendary Oz punks X's 1979 album, X-Aspirations, but of course it sounds like neither.

“The initial idea that I had of the band,” Warnock continues, “was a lot more maybe subversive and tough and kind of like 'fuck you', so initially, when writing some of the riffs and stuff” – while the songs are credited collectively, the general rule for Bed Wettin' Bad Boys is whoever sings the song is the initial writer – “they had a little more of that aggressive mentality in mind; something a bit more angsty. But then when we all started playing them together in a room – this is a year, year-and-a-half ago for a lot of them – I just realised that wasn't appropriate; I had a lot more to say. It was important to say something a bit more personal and revealing… I guess these more intimate observations rather than the outward frustrations with individuals or society, 'cause I have no problem venting my frustrations with society in everyday life. I guess it's more those introspective things that I need this band to kind of help make sense of.”

For Bed Wettin' Bad Boys, it's about what they're saying in their music, not their look, their 'pose' or their name. “I think we're kind of inherently uncool in a way, like an un-ironic rock'n'roll band. I feel like everyone's really trying to convince everyone that they're really clever and special and unique, and in essence, we're kind of saying we're not.”

Bed Wettin' Bad Boys will be playing the following dates:

Friday 1 February - The Square, Sydney NSW
Sunday 3 February - Newcastle NSW (venue TBC)