Luca BrasiTen years ago, young Tassie rockers Luca Brasi were at a career crossroads.
In the seven years since forming in St Helens, they’d released two well-received albums – Extended Family (2011) and By A Thread (2014) – and built a strong fanbase around the country, but hadn’t yet reached a point where the band was going to be sustainable moving forward unless they somehow took things to the next level.
With this added pressure in the back of their minds, the four-piece attacked their third album If This Is All We’re Going To Be (2016) with total conviction, determined that – if this was indeed to be their last roll of the dice – they would at least make the album that they wanted to make, one that summed up the band to them and did justice to their years of hard work and sacrifice.
And it worked. The rousing collection connected with fans old and new, If This Is All We’re Going To Be pushing Luca Brasi into the ARIA charts for the first time – peaking at #18 – and they were soon playing to rapturous crowds of rock devotees all around the country, selling out headline shows and unveiling their powerful live wares at festivals like Laneway, Falls, and Splendour In The Grass.
As they prepare to embark on a national tour revisiting If This Is All We’re Going To Be for its tenth anniversary – bringing to an end the brief hiatus that they undertook in the aftermath of sixth album The World Don’t Owe You Anything (2023) – frontman Tyler Richardson is effusive about the album’s importance in the Luca Brasi narrative.
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“Man, it just felt like it connected at the time,” he reflects. “It did a lot of things for us that we hadn't done. It opened a lot of doors. We did a lot of cool shit, and we met a lot of cool people.
“And then recently we were talking about how we haven't done any shows for a long time – there’s been a hell of a lot of water under the bridge and stuff going on in our own lives – so we said, ‘Let's go celebrate this thing!’
“And people seem to still care about it, so that does affirm for me that it was a special time, and this is a really lovely reminder of what it was.”
Richardson admits that the traction gained in the wake of If This Is All We’re Going To Be felt like years of collective hard work coming to fruition.
“We'd done so much legwork going into this record, just to try and get some kind of following,” he continues. “We’d done a lot of touring – you know, it was never massive or anything – but that album was the one that started opening doors, like we started playing festivals and started to headline bigger rooms and to go overseas and stuff, so it felt like the hard work was actually going somewhere.
“We'd been a band for getting close to eight years at this stage, and it was kind of at the point where we were, like, ‘Fuck, if this record doesn't really do what we want it to, then all this hard work's kind of just not really going anywhere’, and that was fine because we just wanted to play shows. But then it just sort of went zoom and kicked off for us, so it felt like a really lovely time.”
Having recorded the album down in Hobart studio Red Planet with producer Jimmy Balderston, Richardson admits they knew they’d made a strong album even before it started resonating hard with the rock public.
“We thought that it was definitely a step forward,” he explains. “We definitely knew that it was going in the right way, even though it was a different direction. It sounded different than what we'd done – it was a much bigger album, we spent a lot more time on it.
“I know we killed ourselves in the studio, which we had the luxury to do because we were just like, ‘Let's just fucking throw everything we can at it!’ And it felt like a cohesive record – more than other ones had done – so it felt like we were in a better place for sure.”
Richardson himself also dug deep from a lyrical perspective, conjuring a personal batch of songs with a clear existential bent, using themes of distance and isolation as a metaphor for more internal struggles.
“As much as we were figuring out the sound sonically – what the songs should sound like and what a Luca Brass song sounds like – I was doing a lot of figuring out in my own head I guess about what the hell was going on,” he ponders. “You know, reflecting on what I want and what I don't want – what's the point of everything? – you know that existential thing, like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’
“But it's so funny I look back at those little things – like I'm trying to figure this out and that out – and then 10 years later, you're still thinking the same shit you were back then! Nothing's really changed; I haven't got any more answers than I did. I'm still pondering exactly the same shit as I bloody was back then, so I've got no answers for poor old 28-year-old Richo!”
In the wake of If This Is All We’re Going To Be, Luca Brasi were suddenly sharing stages with international bands like Alexisonfire and PUP – as well as a swag of their Aussie contemporaries – but achieving their dream and reaching the next level on the industry ladder did come with its own new layer of stressors and pitfalls.
“When we were touring that record, we were touring a lot,” Richardson recalls. “We'd end up on the same festivals all the time as The Smith Street Band, as Gang Of Youths, as Camp Cope, Violent Soho, Dune Rats. We did so much touring through 2016 to 2019, I guess, with those bands. We were just everywhere together; it was a really cool time.
“But at the same time, we were juggling really hard from a broader perspective. Every band has to deal with that friction between real life and your job, and then trying to be in a band as well. But because we were touring so much, the job thing becomes less, because you can't fucking go to work as much. And with that, it means you need money to pay your rent.
“I think that's where the problem is for so many young artists, like, trying to balance being able to live and fucking eat and pay your rent, but then giving something the time it deserves, which no one really gets the chance they should get, I don't reckon. Because reality is such a real fucking thing – you gotta be able to pay the bills.
“But that sudden success – compared to beforehand, anyway – did change things a lot because we had to make sure that we were on the road more, that we're doing things properly, and that we were better organised too, so that we could actually come home with enough money to live on until the next time you go away or the next time you go to work. It's an artist's curse, man.
“We always tend to make it work, but it definitely changes when you reach that next level. I think now we all live different lives, but we are lucky enough now to be able to go on tour again and do things a bit more on our terms, so that's a really lovely spot we're in now, too.”
Despite their existential bent, there’s a rousing nature to the songs on If This Is All We’re Going To Be, and an overarching sense of positivity and hope, which helped them connect to such a broad and diverse fanbase.
“I always wanted to write songs that were exploring whatever the emotion was, but always hopefully a bit more hopeful as well,” the singer admits. “That was always a spin I wanted to put on it, which we kind of nailed, I think.
“But that meant trying to put in some big sort of choruses too – some hooky parts that reminded me of the bands that we always loved – and I did definitely notice that when the songs started getting played on the radio, and the shows were getting bigger I was watching the crowds connect with those bits for sure – it was definitely something you notice as the record came out.
“In terms of inspiration, there's a bunch of American bands that we just always were obsessed with as kids. Hot Water Music being one especially – they were heavier musically, but always had these big, soaring choruses and really strong vocal melodies.
“Bands like Hot Water Music and another band that we loved at the time, called Polar Bear Club, just did that so well. Great songs, always making sure they had strong lyrics, but with big sweeping choruses, and that was something we were trying to do. That was our experiment with that album.
“We still play four or five of these songs off this record most times we play a show, especially a headlining show. A bunch of these songs really connected: Anything Near Conviction is still probably our most popular song, which is funny because when we put it on the record, it got pushed way down the back – we didn't even realise it was going to be what it became.”
Importantly for Richardson and his bandmates, the connection that If This Is All We’re Going To Be made with fans has been both visceral and enduring.
“That part of it has been really special,” he smiles. “My memory's not amazing and I kind of forgot about that connection, but even just in the weeks since this tour got announced, people have been getting in touch or commenting, saying, ‘This was happening in my life when this record came out and I listened to this all the time’ and ‘this was happening in my life and this got me through that’.
“And that's just a pretty humbling experience to have been a soundtrack to part of someone's lives and experiences, and I feel like a lot of our fans grew up alongside us at the same age, so that was really cool.
“A lot of those connections have been pretty amazing, and I mean for me that's the whole point of this thing – in terms of what everyone’s going to take away from being in the band, I'll remember the connections, and I won't remember much else.”
Richardson admits that in terms of the duality of being in a band – splitting time between creating music away from the public glare, and then hitting the road to share that music with fans in the flesh – he much prefers feeling connectivity with like-minded music lovers.
“I love playing live – if I could choose, man, I would just go and connect and play shows,” he states emphatically. “I struggle with the songwriting grind – I’m not very good at paying attention for very long, so that's always a real process for me, a real challenge. It can be a bit tricky that bit.
“I would love to just go and play shows and talk to people, that would be my absolute dream.”
Sadly, dreams don’t always come true. Since reconnecting with his bandmates, the songs have started flowing, and baby steps towards Luca Brasi album number seven have already been taken.
“Yeah, we started writing music, man, somehow,” Richardson laughs. “I've been home back in Tassie for about a year, so I guess a few months ago we actually started writing songs. There's some songs there. I don't know what they are or what they look like yet, but it's starting to come together as some kind of thing.
“I can imagine there's going to be a record at some point, which is pretty wild because for a couple of years with everything that's been happening in my own life, I thought this was done, I thought it was in the past.
“I kind of feel like there might be some songs there and a record and something to say, which is completely imperative – I don't want to put out albums if I've got nothing left to say. But if there's something there to say, then I'm pretty keen to do it.”
The recent life travails that Richardson is alluding to are both real and substantial. Facing a cancer battle within his immediate family, he became a tireless (and successful) campaigner and fundraiser for lifesaving cancer treatments.
This altruism in the face of adversity – in conjunction with other fundraising efforts for bushfire victims and Guide Dogs Australia, as well as his status as Tasmania’s inaugural Lifeline Ambassador – found him a 2026 Tasmanian nominee for Australian Of The Year, worthy recognition for both his empathy and advocacy.
Richardson concedes that the gravity of the real-life issues he’s been facing in recent times has put the rock’n’roll dilemmas he faces with Luca Brasi into brutal perspective.
“I hope that if I hold on to nothing else – and it's easy to fall back into bad habits – but I’ve learned that nothing really fucking matters,” he muses. “All these things that you stress about – your day-to-day bullshit, things you can’t fucking move past – nothing fucking matters at the end of the day.
“You come to know what really matters to you in the end, and it's not bullshit like the stuff we get so easily bogged down by. It just reminds you of what actually is important, totally.”
Luca Brasi’s If This Is All We’re Going To Be celebrated its tenth anniversary yesterday, with pre-orders for the record’s vinyl repress available now, and tickets to the band’s upcoming anniversary tour on sale now.
BootsDarling Music & Select presents
Luca Brasi
If This Is All We’re Going To Be 10th Anniversary Tour 2026
With special guests Signals Midwest and Secret World
Friday, May 15th – Metro Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, May 16th – The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD
Friday, May 22nd – 170 Russell, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, June 5th – Astor Theatre, Perth, WA
Saturday, June 6th – The Gov, Adelaide, SA
Friday, June 12th – Du Cane, Launceston, TAS
Saturday, June 13th – Du Cane, Launceston, TAS
Thursday, July 2nd – The Jack, Cairns, QLD
Friday, July 3rd – The Warehouse, Townsville, QLD
Saturday, July 4th – McGuires, Mackay, QLD
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
