It may seem a little odd for a bunch of surf-loving punks from Byron Bay, but the guys in Skeggs found themselves in a rather interesting situation during the demoing phase of their brand new album My Own Mess, a situation that provided them with much inspiration for the album’s creation. Vocalist and guitarist Ben Reed and bass player Toby Cregan, speaking from their respective homes in Byron, are only too happy to tell us the tale.

“We demoed for the first time, we had about 60 songs, and we went out into the country to this Airbnb which was like a ranch set-up,” recalls Reed. “The guy that built it has set it up like a full cowboy ranch, it was completely cowboy-themed. Our buddy Jez [Player] from the band The Pinheads brought all his gear out there, and we sat out there for about five days.”

“The whole time we were dressed as cowboys,” Cregan interjects, laughing. “The guy knows Molly Meldrum, he’s like [a] crazy company executive dude, for EMI in the '70s or something. It was great.

“We dressed as cowboys and stayed in character the whole time.”

The first order of business for them once ensconced in their cowboy haven in the country, was the paring down of the 60 tracks they had to a more manageable level. “We nailed all those songs down to maybe a bit over 20, and it felt pretty complete. So we recorded those ones. And even then, between that time and actually going into the studio, we wrote a couple more.

“We basically just went as hard as we could to write as many songs as we could, and weeded it all out until we had the 15 that we know that we were stoked with.”

You might think that with all that material written, the band already have a massive head start on the next record, but Cregan is not so sure about that. “I don’t know,” he admits, “I find it hard to go back to old songs because they’re already old.”

“Sometimes we can just take ideas and chord progressions from what we’ve done and add new stuff to it,” Reed adds. “Sometimes ten songs can boil down to one song, you know?”

Lyrically, the album runs the full gamut, ranging from deep, heavy and meaningful concepts to total trivialities. “Some of it’s real emotional and really introspective, and about what’s happening in life,” Reed describes. “And then some songs are about just everyday stuff, like when you’re at the pub and you can’t use your card at the bar or something, and then you’ve got to go get cash out and you have to pay the $2.50 fee.”

“Yeah, they go from really serious and melancholy,” takes over Cregan. “And then I’ve got a song that’s just about wanting to sit on your lounge. Some of the songs I can’t even listen to because they make me so emotional if I even just hear it, and other songs are about just sitting on the fuckin’ lounge! It’s a good balance.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to have fun for fuck’s sake, you don’t want to be too introspective all the time. That’s our favourite word now,” he concludes to laughter from both.

The album was officially released on 7 Sep, and then the last third of this year will be taken up by two massive road trips - a huge Australian tour with multiple dates in most of the major centres and an extensive jaunt around the UK and Europe. This is the band’s third Euro trip, and Reed and Cregan very much enjoy the challenge of attempting to break new ground and conquer new territory beyond their own shores.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Cregan states. “It’s just so much fun, and it feels so refreshing to basically have to start again. We’re just touring constantly, playing as much as we can to as many people who don’t know us as we can.”

“Yeah, then we’ve got more overseas trips planned for next year,” Reed reveals. “We’re just going to tour until we disintegrate!”