Alex The Kid Pull Apart Their Debut Album 'Speak Up' In Track-By-Track

Having just released their debut offering Speak Up, WA punk rockers and triple j Unearthed One Night Stand winners Alex The Kid have taken apart their newest album for us in this exclusive track-by-track. 

The band talk about writing songs about cats, taking inspiration from Rocky Balboa, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and old relationships.

Speak Up was released via Pee Records last Friday.

PUNCHFACE CHAMPIONS

TRENT

Punchface Champions is about taking things for granted, being complacent with a relationship or friendship thinking that it will always be there no matter what, so you stop putting in effort to that person and thinking things instead of saying them. That person then feels neglected and wants to push you out of their life, with yourself being oblivious to this it takes you by surprise and can sometimes be too hard to explain or mend.

HASHTAG YOLO SWAG

TRENT

This song was written about a couple of things, about how politically correct everybody has become and you have to hold back from saying what’s on your mind out of fear for the keyboard warriors out there. Also about people who are just straight up jerks.

CATASTROPHE

JAMES

I wish I could say something in-depth about this, like how it reflects a bad relationship or how I’m just like a cat in the way I live. But the truth is, Trent and I got high one day and came up with a song about my cats.

DALE

It was supposed to be a serious song, as when we recorded the instruments it come across as a really strong song. We didn't want to "waste" it on a funny song but after a long discussion at a jam we came to the conclusion it needed to be.

VINYLS

TRENT

Vinyls is about when we were growing up and going to parties on the weekends, it was always easy to walk anywhere in Geraldton, especially after a few drinks. That’s the fun of it, getting drunk and being able to walk from party to party with your mates and being able to walk home. We still do it today when we play a show in Geraldton. A few of the lines also reference real things I went through with relationships growing up. I remember this song being written when we wanted to go back to basics because after the band started and over time I think we were overthinking song structures and thinking too much about writing the song before practically writing the song as a whole band.

DALE

When we were writing Vinyls the laidback nature got to a point where we didn’t really know how to finish it, so we just said, "Kadin (drums) and Trent (bass) you guys just mess around and we'll do some ring outs".

SKATE OR LIE

TRENT

Skate Or Lie is generally about going back to Geraldton and seeing old friends and girlfriends, partying hard but having to drive back to Perth hungover as hell with little to no sleep.

KEN

The name of the track itself is a reference to compulsive liars, addicted to creating lies to better themselves or seem more impressive to those around them. The lyrics 'You see through me' is from the perspective of the liar. The lyrics "It's been a while since you've seen me, and how the fuck have you been? Tried so hard just to forget you and all the shit we both went through" are less about lying, more so about the fallout of the liar and those who they’ve deceived.

IT AIN'T OVER

TRENT

From the viewpoint of Rocky Balboa, standing up to Apollo Creed and gaining his respect! This I believe was the newest song that we wrote to make it onto the album, we didn’t get to jam it too many times so there was no set theme to this song for lyrics, however Dale's brother, Lyndon, was at the vocal recording session when this song was being done and I think he suggested it be about Rocky. We used to have a wall ball team back in the day that consisted of myself, Dale and Lyndon and we were called Team Balboa, our motto was “It ain’t over until it’s over” so it kind of came from all that.

DALE

This track was a last minute inclusion when we did the pre-production for the album with our friend Daniel Stuart. Wall Ball Rules!

NIGHTMAN COMETH

TRENT

This song I do all the singing, the main reason is quite funny. James was late to recording one day so with it being a short song I thought I would just get in there and smash it out. The song itself is written about dealing with depression against yourself, so pretty much a split personality view on one person’s battle with two voices in their head. The song name comes from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

PHIL COLLINS BIRTHDAY

DALE

I got the pleasure of naming this track when we were composing it as it was my riff ideas that started it off. I love Phil Collins. When I wrote the main parts to this song i was listening a lot to The Lawrence Arms - The Greatest Story Ever Told and a lot of hardcore bands like Go It Alone/Miles Away/Bane. I feel there's a bit of a harder edge to my writing and Ken's is a bit poppier. This song I feel is a great result of the two styles coming together to make one great track that I don't feel fits into a specific genre or sounds like any particular band.

TRENT

This song is about getting sick of waiting on people to make up their minds. Always getting fed the same excuses and promises but nothing is changing so it’s time to cut the ties to that person. I think deep down this song is a reflection on how I used to be in some relationships, never wanting to commit out of fear of getting hurt once again.

LET'S BLOW THIS JOINT

TRENT

A few of us love the movie Half Baked. James so much that he can recite so many quotes off the top of his head. This song started out as a fun kind of song even before the lyrics were written. It’s just about rolling joints and getting the munchies, the Half Baked quote was added in after we wrote the lyrics for the song because it just suited it well.

UNBEARABLE KID

TRENT

Written about the daily struggles of a person dealing with anxiety and depression. Every day is different, waking up not knowing what mood you will be in today and how after so long it can start to take its toll on you physically and mentally. But despite all that, still having the positive attitude to want to push through no matter how hard it can get.

DALE

Another example of my harder, faster style of writing coming through and Ken's style meeting it half way to create something we see as unique. The track name comes from a bad review we had in our early days from a local zine, safe to say he wasn’t a fan.

TENDERLOINS

TRENT

This is an old song that was on our very first EP titled Awkward Timing. It’s about trusting someone and doing everything for them only to get treated like shit in return, but them being completely oblivious to it, so after so many times of being let down it's time to say get fucked and move on.

DALE

This was the first song I wrote for the band when I joined in 2011. It's always stuck with us and there's never been a set where we haven't played it. I'm glad everyone in the band liked it enough to want to re-record it, because as soon as we finished the first recording back in 2011, I wanted to add a little guitar lick but it was too late. I finally got to record the lick in 2016.

CHAPMAN ROAD

JAMES

Paying homage to a shitty little house I used to live in with a couple of mates. It was overgrown, rundown and $100 a week. Was a rad party house and because it was to be torn down, it didn’t matter if it got trashed… which it did.

NOT FOR YOU

JAMES

A song about disappointing people important to you and hoping that they can forgive you. I wrote all the lyrics for this track bar a few lines, which Trent did, and everyone in the band likes to reminds me of it.

DALE

This song was originally called "Orgasm River" which I recall is a nod to Billy Joel's River of Dreams. The song wrote itself. Ken had come to jam one day with the opening riff, I came up with the rhythm notes and Trent shortly after with the bass riff. This song came together pretty quickly considering we normally spread our writing out over a few jams.