Who Are You?

The term 'underground' can be a pretty nebulous concept when bandied about in music circles, but there's no doubting that the loose coalition of bands forming the Australian indie underground at the moment have made the scene the most vibrant and exciting that it's been for years, perhaps even decades.

Bands from all around the country such as Royal Headache, Dick Diver, Scott & Charlene's Wedding, Kitchen's Floor, Peak Twins and Nova Scotia – to literally name check but a few – are making massive inroads on their own terms, secure amidst a vibrant and thriving community of likeminded bands and discerning punters who aren't being dictated to by the large radio stations and tastemaking conglomerates of yesteryear. It's impossible to pinpoint precisely, but most of the scenes seem traceable back to the genesis of Eddy Current Suppression Ring in Melbourne a few years ago, who seemed to inspire a generation of bands with their DIY approach and sensibilities as much as they did with their visceral music.

And at the vanguard of this new wave of lo-fi elite is Melbourne quartet Twerps. Formed back in 2008 by frontman and chief songwriter Marty Frawley and bassist Rick Milovanovic – eventually rounded out by guitarist Julia MacFarlane and drummer Patrick O'Neill – the band last year dropped their debut self-titled album, a brilliant piece of dreamy slacker pop as effortlessly artful as it is instantly accessible. It's a brilliant first up effort, but the Twerps seem just as excited about what's happening around them to their friends' bands as they are their own bubbling success.

“Yeah, those bands are just killing it,” the affable Frawley enthuses. “Yesterday I was on my way home listening to the new Bitch Prefect record, just going, 'I can't fucking believe how good this is!' I've got a local section in my record collection – an Australian section – and there's maybe twenty-five of my friends' records that are in there, and they're basically all stronger than any of the records that they play on triple j. They have more lifespan, they sound more true to what they're doing – like the Total Control record and anything that Eddy Current did – it's pretty amazing how much is happening. It's a pretty inspiring time to be around.

“There's also a good community in Sydney, plus the scene around the Kitchen's Floor dudes up in Brisbane. It's kind of scary, there's a new Sarah Mary Chadwick record coming out – Julia used to play with her in Batrider – and there's the new Bitch Prefect record coming out, Dick Diver's album came out when ours did, it just hasn't stopped. I thought maybe it was just going to be one busy year [in 2011], but it's still continuing and it's so cool. I think everyone is inspired by everyone else, and as bad as it sounds it just shows that you don't need big radio stations behind you. Everyone's playing good shows, and just doing it. It's really exciting.”

As with the indie lo-fi movement that sprung up in the early-'90s, a whole new generation of bands have stumbled across the timeless beauty of the Flying Nun sound, the stable of bands that sprung up around Dunedin back in the early-'80s. Just as bands like Pavement, Superchunk and their ilk got turned on by acts like The 3Ds, The Verlaines and The Clean two decades ago, a new generation of acts are now drinking from the same well and so far the results are just as shambolic and exciting. Twerps even cite The Clean's gem Anything Could Happen as being a template for their eventual sound.

“I met Rick working at this video store, and I'd been working with this guy called Tim who was from New Zealand, and he put on this song by [former Tall Dwarfs frontman and Flying Nun staple] Chris Knox called Not Given Lightly and I really liked it, and that was like one of the first songs I'd got into where it wasn't mainstream,” Frawley recalls. “I was like, 'This is pretty cool,' because I grew up around lots of pretty cool music, but when you're eighteen you go through a pretty weird stage. But when I met Rick he knew everything about music – he'd worked in a record store – and once he found out I liked that song he showed me the whole scene that it came from. He showed me a lot of the Flying Nun stuff, and I guess Anything Could Happen is one of the standout tracks from the era – it's rambling and very simple, but it's got a good hook, and that's what we loved about it. To this day we always say that that's our song.

“Then a couple of years ago the Flying Nun scene suddenly became really cool, and it's not like we were latching onto that, it was already the stuff we were listening to. It was quite funny to see people in America like Bradford Cox from Deerhunter talking about Flying Nun. We get labelled with the Flying Nun thing a bit – and Julia's from New Zealand – but sometimes I think it's just because I can't really sing and some of those bands sound a bit tone deaf or something, but it's not like being stamped with something daggy. I think it's pretty badass.”

Of course there's more to the Melbourne band's sound than this one influence – Brisbane legends The Go-Betweens are another clear antecedent (see sidebar) – but it's a sound that's put them in good stead, their just-announced US trip later in the year set to be their third trip to the States, where they're gaining some serious traction.

“It's going to be pretty exciting to go back again and catch up with all our friends, we're super-pumped. We went last year [for the first time] and did [industry showcase] South By Southwest, we were there for six weeks and no one knew who we were, we only had our little seven-inch out. Before that we'd just had a tape on a label that a guy that we knew from Wet Hair put out. It was a lot easier the second time, especially fighting-wise and not wanting to strangle each other,” Frawley laughs. “We've all worked out each other's boundaries pretty well now I think. I mean we're all best friends, but [when you're on tour] it only takes a few hours to make you realise that you can't stand someone for a day.”

This second States tour that Frawley mentions happened earlier this year when Twerps hit the road with Real Estate, and it was on this sojourn that they started to make real inroads, no doubt helped by their ubiquitous online presence.

“Because the tour was with Real Estate we were playing pretty big shows – some shows were to 1200 people, and some were 300 – but it didn't matter because the kids got right into it,” Frawley tells. “They were appreciative audiences which makes you enjoy what you're doing, and makes you think that you're not wasting your time. It was crazy, some nights kids would be yelling out for songs off our seven-inches – kids knew who we were and were singing along to our songs, even though we're from a long way away. It's pretty crazy what the Internet can do.

“I think we've always used that to our advantage pretty well – you just put out your music and if people like it that's awesome – but it's definitely a tool to exploit. Obviously songs go on blogs before they go out in the record store nowadays, and a lot of the bigger blogs have been pretty friendly to us. If it wasn't for stuff like that – songs being on Pitchfork and stuff – then probably no one would know who we are. And getting that coverage overseas makes us a bit better known here. It wasn't until we did some stuff overseas that a lot of people here decided to give us a shot, but that's cool. You can't just be some band that comes out of nowhere, I feel that we've done some hard yards.”

But before they get their passports ready, Twerps are coming up to Brisbane for the Out The Back component of the annual Brisbane Festival. Twerps have only been here once before – for Frankly Festival at Brisbane Powerhouse last September – and at that stage they hadn't even released their album into the world.

“I don't think [it was out], no,” Frawley remembers. “I think maybe we'd had a few songs on Pitchfork or something – it's funny when that happens, you just notice a lot of young dudes [in the crowd] with their arms crossed, checking you out. Like, 'Is this cool? Should I be here?' I remember there were a lot of young guys there doing that. But we didn't really get to do an album tour because we all work pretty full-time at our jobs. I think that was the first time that we'd ever [played in Brisbane], so we're really excited about this trip. We've got some new songs so hopefully we'll remember how to play some of the old ones, but it's going to be cool. I can't wait.”

THE GO-BETWEENS BRIDGE

Twerps admit to having been influenced by Brisbane's The Go-Betweens, but Marty Frawley has even earlier memories of the great band, his late father Maurice Frawley – a staple around the Melbourne music traps back in the day – having played in Grant McLennan's solo band during their hiatus in the '90s.

“Yeah, totally man – Rick [Milovanovic – bass] said the other day that they're his favourite band outright,” Frawley admits when asked about The Go-Betweens' influence on the Twerps' aesthetic. “I also like Robert Forster's solo stuff and Grant McLennan, even though Grant McLennan kicked my fucking Sherrin [the brand of football used in the AFL] into a tree when I was a kid. I had a new footy, and my dad was touring with him and playing guitar for his new record, so he came over and we went to kick the footy, and he kicked it into a palm tree and we lost it. For years after that I was always cursing his name, until I got older and realised how great his music was. My dad was giving him shit about being from Brisbane and not being able to kick, and then a bloody fire truck had to come down to try and get it out and it got bogged – it was just a total wreck of a day. But because they knew who he was it was all cool.

“When we went into the studio we had songs that obviously had that Go-Betweens sound – no song is written intentionally to be like that – but when we're going into the studio we send the producer some songs we like just to give an idea, and Jack [Farley – producer] knew some tricks like chucking acoustic guitar behind tracks like Dreamin, just to make them sound more like The Go-Betweens. They're definitely an influence. I think we wear our hearts on our sleeves pretty hard.”