Getting Dumber ProfileResisting echo chambers, algorithms, and intrusive AI tools in our pockets gets harder by the day, since they increasingly permeate everything.
It’s not out of character for social media to offer bad news, leaving people doomscrolling. This clashes with the fundamental punk ethos of individual freedom.
Getting Dumber isn’t just a band name; it’s a mantra-like call to action to be imperfect in this world that’s eroding the process behind being human.
“You nailed it,” the band’s guitarist and songwriter Alan Burgs says, affirming my interpretation. “You can spend so much time stressing and overthinking shit. Is it gonna make you happier?
“Probably not. You gotta focus on yourself, drop out of the nonsense for a little bit.”
This tuning out from the noise of modern life’s absurdities to protect your mental health is channelled in their debut record, Stop Wasting Time!, released on September 9th.
The band bring their transportive power-pop-punk rock to new heights with rock ‘n’ roll, ska, and folk sensibilities. It’s a zippy, engaging near-half-hour of urgent rock with equally important conscious messaging.
It took some time to get to this point. The Getting Dumber band began in 2022 with Burgs and their other guitarist and songwriter, Andrew Shaw, but the origins go back earlier.
They played as a folk punk duo over a decade ago. Both stepped back from Perth’s local punk scene once Shaw started a family. Then, a few weeks before COVID, Shaw watched a documentary on the cult American emo band Jawbreaker and felt inspired to start a band again.
The two got their old friend Robin Bray on drums, and in true COVID fashion, all the rehearsal studios closed. “We spent the next six months talking about the band, rather than doing anything for it,” Burgs recalls with a laugh. It’s modern life’s weirdness in action.
Since the world’s reopening, they’ve had a couple of EPs under their belt. About a year ago, they invited another longtime friend, Giles Lowe, to play bass, which rounded out the group to a quartet.
“We needed a bigger sound with two guitars,” Burgs explains. “Giles hadn’t had much to do with the punk scene for 20 years or so, and we dragged him back into it.”
The thrill of re-entering this musical space, even as a middle-aged man, hasn’t been lost on Burgs.
“I’ve been part of the Perth punk scene since I was 16 years old, playing in bars and punk bands,” he says. “I realised when I had a gap between bands, there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.
“I feel everyone needs a community outlet like that – whether it be music, art, or sports – just something that gets you out with different people out of the house.”
Their new record is full of firsts. Many melodic riffs drive the songs, and instruments like trombone, pedal steel guitar, and cowbell add to the spectacle. Burgs also approached songwriting with a newfound thematic cohesion.
“I’ve had these self-imposed punk rules on myself about how a song should be written, or what music I should be putting out. We threw all those rules out the window,” he muses. “Whatever we want to do, we’re going to do it and put it out there. Doesn’t matter – no idea is too dumb.”
You can hear that variety immediately. The opener A Love So Little has more muscle behind its breakneck riffs, mirroring its passionate refusal of a shallow relationship.
Brainrot Bop features raw power chords as the band’s gang vocals stress that excessive screen time rots people’s brains. Play It Safe follows a dream about quitting the punk rock scene to work on a farm, or in other words, trading a risky, fulfilling life of creativity for easy but mundane stability.
Burgs and the others still making this music is a cause for celebration. He explains that the album is broadly about “trying to stay in touch with your human self” and “finding stuff that truly moves you.”
“Plastic is a big theme on the album; it comes up a lot,” he adds. That discussion begins when we discuss the skate-punk belter Microplastics In The Balls Of My Heart, which confronts big corporations’ unethical valuing of profit before life.
“AI and what we’re going through now is kind of the new plastic,” Burgs explains, echoing what many creative artists think about it. “It’s this big magic thing we think is gonna fix everything and the Earth’s problems, and then we find out years later that’s not at all what it’s done. It’s added to our problems.
“We’re just sitting on a mountain of shit we can’t get rid of now, and it’s making us sick and killing us.”
The album title itself also sums up the band’s philosophy: Stop Wasting Time! “We’re all wasting a lot of time these days doing absolutely nothing,” Burgs says. “Most people sit on the couch on their phone, console, or whatever – no problems with that – but try to put something out in the world.
“Try to put a little love or creativity back out there; everyone’s capable of it.”
Hopefully, people will listen to the band’s eager encouragement. Getting Dumber are further launching it at their first-ever headline show at Perth’s 459 Bar on September 25th. The support acts include indie punks Surf Shop Cops, classic punk devotees The Points, and the emo alt rock outfit twinbloom.
“We love all those guys. We’re so stoked on all the bands. We just want to fill a room with our mates and have a good time,” Burgs raves about the upcoming gig. “We’re looking forward to playing regular shows again.
“It’s been a few months off for us, so we’re just keen to hit the stage, do what we do, and do the thing that makes us feel human.”
Rocking out is that thing, and they’re incredibly keen to share it with the world, in person, with other humans. That’s where its impact will be felt most.
Getting Dumber’s Stop Wasting Time! is out now, with tickets to their upcoming launch show on sale now.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
