"I’m Still Down With Jesus, Fuck Yeah! I Fuckin’ Love That Bloke"

“Oh, mate! I met Richard Kingsmill today,” Gang Of Youths bandleader David Le’aupepe says, adding, “It was so sycophantic, but I used to listen to him when I was, like, 13 years old!” The Positions, his band’s debut album, was granted triple j Feature Album status and, as such, Le’aupepe had to record sound bites describing the inspiration behind each track. This must have proved challenging given that the album is autobiographical in nature and was written about Le’aupepe’s relationship with a girl who was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Le’aupepe entered into this relationship, which spanned four years, when he was only 18 years old. “I have trouble talking about certain aspects of the record because of its intrinsic intimacy with my life.

“There’s a part of me that wants to sort of be overly serious and overly careful with the subject, but another part of me, like, I don’t wanna take it to the extreme of being so reverent that I sorta lose part of my personality when I talk about it… I’m just irreverent and I don’t really know how to maintain that sense of decorum,” he admits. Le’aupepe is a manic-fast talker, drops frequent and unexpected F-bombs, and is also a self-confessed “fuckin’ totally, like, former Ritalin-imbibing ADHD [sufferer]”.

So is Le’aupepe ready for the probing questions? “I used to hate interviews, and hate having to do any of this kind of press stuff, until I stumbled across the realisation of like, ‘Who the fuck am I to sort of lord my notorious privacy over anyone else?’ Like, I made a decision to do this with my life and this is one of the things that comes with it. The more I act like a cock about it then I don’t really deserve to have anyone listen to my music. This is, like, the best thing about music, especially in this country: there’s a totally fucking democratic process between artist and consumer and I don’t wanna negate that by acting like a dick about it. So I just kinda wanna be honest and totally cool about it.”

‘"Who the fuck am I to sort of lord my notorious privacy over anyone else?"

Despite Le’aupepe’s openness about the inspiration behind this album, he’s already found evidence of misinterpretation. “I don’t really read reviews, ‘cause reading shit about you – positive or negative – influences your sense of self-perception no matter how strong you are… [But] one particular review that I read was talking about how the record’s about, like, the problems one faces in high school, which is hilarious but a ludicrous assertion.

“I don’t wanna castigate this person personally or anything, but it was just sorta strange: there is material out there if you dig, like, even on a superficial level,” he laughs. “It was weird. That was sort of annoying and I think the misinterpretation of the themes of the record played into how this person received the music.”

Fortunately, most of The Positions reviews have been glowing and Le’aupepe is quick to stress, “Critics are important. It’s important to agitate and we need people to agitate us, like, that’s the symbiosis of what we do as creative people: we have others who critique. It’s only when critiquing turns into criticising, like, criticising somebody for no fucking reason other than to denigrate them for your own sense of self-satisfaction… They think it’s cool to fucking shit on people and I understand that – I’m no different to anyone else, like, I shit on people all the time because I’m petty [laughs] – but even I have my limitations. You know, like, denigrating someone’s art and their life’s work is kinda harsh especially if you’re only doing it to bolster your own, like I said, masturbatory ego fantasy.

“Music criticism’s fuckin’ important and there just needs to a balance. Like, I loathe the sentiment that, ‘[Puts on a douchebag voice] Oh, music critics are all fuckin’ cunts,’ you know? Like, ‘They’re all fucked in the head!’ I loathe that sentiment because we need people to keep artists accountable and to inform consumers. And even though there’s a little bit of a corrupt side to what music criticism is, like, we need it as far as I’m concerned… We need fucking dialogue; it’s whether or not that dialogue becomes healthy and part of a broader healthy conversation.”

Given his impressive vocabulary and articulate turn of phrase, Le’aupepe’s runner-up career choice comes as no surprise. “If I wasn’t a musician, I’d always wanna be a writer,” he reveals. “Music writers are important. I grew up listening to music that I was told about by music writers and music journalists, you know? Like, listening to triple j or watching rage or reading copies of Uncut or the NME or whatever; that’s how we as consumers will be able to receive it and, as a music fan, it’s important to have music writers – I love you guys!”    

"I was a lonely, weird, disaffected kid growing up in fucking, like, evangelical Christianity and I turned to music as another salvation, you know… It’s a cliché, but you find solace in this artform."

Reflecting on the breakdown of the relationship on which The Positions is based, Le’aupepe reveals, “I sort of had to cut ties with her. Yeah, I needed to do that. It was a really sad, fucked-up relationship toward the end and, um, I just wasn’t really prepared to be in that environment anymore.”

When asked what songs/albums by other artists he leaned on for comfort during these tough times, Le’aupepe offers, “The Monitor by Titus Andronicus was fucking monumental to me, the Easter album by Patti Smith, ah, Let It Die by Feist was a huge one at that time for me.”

As a youngster, Le’aupepe discovered “all this fuckin’ great music” through “goin’ to the library and borrowing, like, discs and tapes and stuff… One of the first things I ever borrowed from the library was the first Ramones CD. I grew up in Western Sydney so it was a fuckin’ big deal for me to find this recording”. And he rated the band so highly that he needed to get the T-shirt. “I had a Ramones T-shirt and an AC/DC T-shirt that I used to cycle ‘round and wear to youth group,” he recalls. “I think in Sunday school I used to wear all black, that was, like, a thing I did... All my heroes as a kid were evil, satanic rockstars. I grew up in a Baptist Church and all my friends thought I was this demon spawn ‘cause I liked rock music. I used to skateboard and, like, sprain my ankle doing stupid shit and, I dunno, all my heroes were the evil people – it was great!”

We’re picturing piercings as well. “I’ve got a nose piercing now, but all the piercings and tattoos came in my early 20s. I’m 23 now so they’ve all come about in the last three years. I always dressed like I was trying to be somebody else in that regard and I always wanted to be, like, Lou Reed or someone – or Bruce Springsteen! I always wanted to look like that, I guess. I think I was living vicariously through my clothing in terms of, like, sheer confidence ‘cause I was a really shy, nervous, awkward, acne-ridden teenager. I was a weird fuckin’ teenager.” On how his parents felt about the way he dressed, Le’aupepe commends, “They fuckin’ loved it! My parents are awesome. I would’ve been a difficult child to raise: I was always in trouble a lot and, like, the ADHD thing – I was coping with that – and I was always getting kicked out of class, or suspended and, yeah!

“It was super fucking weird, man, because my parents were, like, hardcore evangelical Christians: so as long as I was cool with faith and cool with Jesus and whatever they were fuckin’ totally open to me express…” [Le’aupepe accidentally hangs up on me.] We crap on for a bit, Le’aupepe’s forgotten what we were talking about but, when prompted, he continues: “As long as I was being responsible and a kind person, as long as I was being, like, a decent human being [my parents] didn’t give a fuck! My parents are the best people on the planet and we didn’t have a lot of money, so my mum saved up for ages to buy me my first electric guitar ‘cause I fuckin’ begged her for it. Like, I saw someone playing the guitar – maybe this was at school.

“I mean, I was a lonely, weird, disaffected kid growing up in fucking, like, evangelical Christianity and I turned to music as another salvation, you know… It’s a cliché, but you find solace in this artform.”

Le’aupepe says he “grew up on a healthy diet of black metal, Wilco, Pavement, Tom Waits and The Simpsons”. And Peter Gabriel? “Holy fuck, I love Peter Gabriel,” he gushes. He discovered Genesis before exploring Gabriel’s solo back catalogue. “I hate Phil Collins because I love Genesis – you can print that, ‘Fuck Phil Collins!’ Ok, there are things on this planet I fuckin’ hate, like, unequivocally: watermelon, cucumber, capsicum and Phil. Fucking. Collins… The only good thing that Phil Collins did was have a really talented daughter [Lily Collins]. She’s an actress; the only fuckin’ good thing he ever made. As soon as [Phil Collins] stood up from that drum kit and started singing Genesis – that was fuckin’ Nagasaki, man. 

“I love Peter Gabriel, like, one of the songs on the record is pretty much a direct rip-off of Sledgehammer-era,” he laughingly admits.

"The homophobic fucking garbage of picking and choosing parts of the Bible – I’m not really into it."

Album cut Poison Drum documents a time when Le’aupepe felt somewhat isolated from his church. Where is he at with his faith right now? “Oh, I’ve never really shifted, eh? I don’t fit in at fuckin’ church and that’s cool. I don’t go to church ‘cause I think it’s bullshit and I don’t wanna make nice, polite Christians feel uncomfortable. Um, but I’m still down with Jesus, fuck yeah! I fuckin’ love that bloke. My issue with Christianity and still my hesitance to be considered part of the ilk, even though I totally am, [is] the denial of science, the denial of facts, the association with idiotic, right-wing bullshit fascist separatists, you know? Like, the homophobic fucking garbage of picking and choosing parts of the Bible – I’m not really into it, I think it’s fucking garbage and I’m uncomfortable being associated with that. To me it’s a countercultural movement now, what traditional Christianity is, and I think it’s counterintuitive and it’s anti-intellectual for the most part. But at the same time, yeah! I’m fuckin’ down with Jesus.”

Le’aupepe’s passion for what he does is palpable and he is also a dedicated music fan who declares, “I’m into all sorts of music”, before bigging up Tkay Maidza (“fucking majestic, like, that girl’s smile and her whole energy is intoxicating”), Milwaukee Banks, Thundamentals, Jackie Onassis, Joyride and Baro as ones to watch within the current crop of Aussie hip hoppers. Still on the subject of hip hop, Le’aupepe opines, “Especially Australian music fans’ perception of authenticity can be a little bit skewed at times,” which leads us on to a discussion about Iggy Azalea. “Women have always been on the back foot in fuckin’ rap music and hip hop, they’ve always been objectified and fuckin’ victimised or, you know, there’s always been, like, a sexual violence thing as a gesture towards it and now at least there’s some women embracing the sexuality – and embracing their power and their influence – in the hip hop community. So it’s not just Missy Elliott fuckin’ like firing shots now, there’s people like Nicki Minaj, Azealia Banks, Iggy Azalea – Iggy Azalea’s not, like, some artistic genius, but at least she’s fuckin’ giving it a shot, eh?

“We sat next to her in Los Angeles once and she’s very nonchalant, and she’s very sort of polite, and she was interacting with her fans and they thought she was really cool. And she’s very sweet and very pretty, and just sort of seems normal. She wasn’t uppity at all, but, I mean, I didn’t interact with her at all. But, like I said, I’m kind of a big fan of any woman showin’ us how it’s fuckin’ done, you know, and that’s why I’m really into Arch Enemy as a metal band. I haven’t really listened to enough Courtney Barnett, at all, I haven’t invested any time into it just because I’m lazy, but the fact that she’s at the forefront of Australian artists, um, Australian exports, that’s a fuckin’ huge deal for me. I think it’s fantastic.”