Meet Residents' Club, a Perth band bringing nostalgic rock into 2021 with We Happy Few

There's a lot of talent currently circling within West Australia's indie/rock/alt-pop worlds, and it's already getting difficult to keep up. Now-nationally known heavyweights like Sly Withers and Spacey Jane have seemingly encouraged people to dive into the depths of W.A.'s next generation, which itself is being nurtured thanks to blossoming event series' and pockets of collaboration, where close-minded friends seem to be getting together to launch new ventures and projects left, right and centre.

Residents' Club are a newcoming five-piece that seem to encapsulate the exciting next generation of Perth indie-rock, and in a way, they're doing it differently to many others out there. The group came together at university last year, finding a shared interest in 80s new-wave and 2000s alt-rock and punk, and wanting to further explore that in the form of the band; the group coming together as a way to catch up and jam a bit on the side.

Eventually, it built into their debut single Blind Side of the Know, which came out in October this year as the group became known as ones to watch on Perth's live music stages. As often true within Perth, this interest soon ballooned out to the point where Residents' Club are a go-to addition to line-ups around the city, supporting a couple of other favourites we've tagged as ones to watch in the year ahead, from their Fremantle home right through to the inner-city and beyond - they're quickly finding their feet.

Today, they come back together to share their second single We Happy Few, and if their debut was an introduction as to what to expect from the project, We Happy Few all but solidifies it and proves that there's plenty to be excited about in Residents' Club as they continue to emerge. It's a fun near-four-minutes that captures the nostalgic heart of their sound and how they're able to bring it forwards to the current day, bridging together influences in New Order and The Cure with a rockier, The Strokes/Gang of Youths-like edge, pushed forward with earworming riffs and bright hooks.

It's a single that really seems to highlight the bounce in Residents' Club sound; the care-free and relaxed nature of the group that's been there since their foundation, and now, weasels its way into their music. We Happy Few is a whole lot of fun, and while there's a more intimate and personal side to the track lyrically - which you can read the band themselves explain below shortly - it's generally a song that peaks with their energy, and shows why they've become such a dynamite addition to live stages over the last 12 months.

We Happy Few is an exciting next chapter, and we don't doubt there's plenty more to come from Residents' Club in the year ahead. Until then, take a dive into We Happy Few as it debuts below, and better introduce yourself to the group underneath, as we get to know them and their music before they blow up.

Tell us about yourself?

We are Pat, Joe, Matt, Jules and Bob, Resident’s Club. Probably the most disorganised band this side of Australia but we try not to let that stop us from having a good hard crack. We kind of ‘informally’ formed in early 2019 through jam sessions in a shoebox-sized college music room, but it wasn’t till later in the year that we thought we were competent enough to hop on a stage. That’s not to say that we actually are competent enough, but it seems that as long as we are having fun up there, most people in the crowd are too and that’s good enough for us.

What’s your music like? What does it sound like? What kind of themes does it usually cover? 

Tough question. We have definitely had some identity issues when it comes what we sound like. It’s not like we all joined up and had a cut and dry idea of what kind of the music we wanted to make, I’m not sure if any band does. It’s fair to say that we all are influenced by the sound of 80s giants like The Cure and New Order, we love our anthems, but then sometimes each of us are almost overwhelmed by our individual ideas and music tastes. We are definitely starting to get on the same page when it comes to some kind of unified sound, but at the same time sifting through all our ideas is a fun thing to do.

What are your production and writing processes usually like? 

It's different every time. Sometimes we can write a song in literally 10 minutes, that was the case with our first song, Blind Side of the Know. Other times we can sit down for hours and mull over a single verse or bridge. For the most part, if we think too hard about it instead of trusting the process it will take forever to get done. A lot of the time we think too hard about it. Note to self – Think less hard about it.

Can you tell us about your new single, We Happy Few? 

You know when you’re about to do something on your own accord, and then someone asks you to do that same thing so now you don’t want to do it anymore because they asked? It’s kind of about that. Basically, a song about wanting to be left alone to do your own thing. Joe must have got most of the lyrics down when he was feeling particularly stubborn. It’s got a bit of bounce to it, so we hope people can chuck it on when they aggressively feel like dancing alone. Or something like that. 

What do you have planned for 2021?

Work, uni and life in general hasn’t made it easy for us to keep the ball rolling, but we are keen as to use this next half of the year to get heaps of stuff done. Getting into a bit of home recording soon, so you can expect more tunes in the next few months, maybe some music vids and merch too. Gigs too, lots of gigs. But stay tunedddd.

What do you want people to take away from your work? 

If you boogie when we play a bouncy song and maybe even get in your feels when we play something slower, we are over the moon. At the end of the day, we just enjoy playing it, and it’s a blessing that people come along to listen.

Where can we find more of your music?

When We Happy Few drops, we will only have the two songs out (on every platform), BUT, we got heaps more coming. Other than that, gigs are where it all happens. Tell us Pilerats sent you and we will give you a shoutout or an IOU for some free merch that we haven’t made yet xo. Plenty in the works folks.

Follow Residents' Club: FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM