It’s no secret that Dune Rats know how to party. I’m not talking about some desert-dwelling rodent here; the Dune Rats I’m referring to are simply a trio of chilled-out Brisbane boys who you wouldn’t be surprised to see stepping out of a beat-up wagon filled with strange smelling smoke and guitars. The Dunies, as they are often lovingly called, are going on tour, with hopes of filling rural venues with their surf-infused pop-rock and crowd surfing their way into the abyss as is ecstatically depicted in the video for their new single, ‘Superman’. After a bit of chasing, I managed to get in contact with Danny Beusa, lead guitar rat and all-round chiller. Danny’s voice was filled with hype as he explained the ins and outs of recording the Dunies album, spreading the Dunies vibe across the world, and the upcoming Dunies tour.
It comes as no surprise that the debut album from these boys is a home-job. Inspired through a letter written by Steve Albini to Nirvana in the lead up to the recording of In Utero, the Dunies decided to hole up at bass player Brett Jansch’s mum’s house and try and knock out an album in a few weeks.
“We wrote the album at Brett’s mum’s place in Berowra and we ended up doin’ other stuff too, cos you can’t just sit there and write a song. So one day BC was diggin’ in the ground, “buildin’ a garden”, and we thought, ‘Well, you can’t eat what we usually grow’, so we started planting tomatoes and stuff and goin’ to Bunnings and dropping heaps of money on that. People were confused a bit by that and we were just like, ‘Shut-up, we’re makin’ an album!’ After a while of just rollin’ around surfing and stuff we had about 14 songs, haha!”
The upcoming tour for the Dunies comes through as a bit of love for the more isolated rural towns around Australia. “We’re a bit of a mess when we’re not touring, we’re so used to having somewhere to go and we love doin’ it so much. It’s cool doing these regional dates. I dunno if people just get really bored outside of cities, or I actually reckon they’d have more fun to be honest, but they just party way harder. Rock up to the show smellin’ like a brewery and just go crazy – and it’s hard not to have a sick time with them afterwards.”
With a notable enthusiasm for giving themselves and everyone around them the best night out possible, the single ‘Superman’ and accompanying video stands proudly as a tribute to those wild mates with an interest in crowd surfing, shenanigans and leading the party.
“Usually we’re pretty silly, lyrically. We don’t take it seriously at all, but with this one we kept tryin’ to write lyrics about our rad mates who come to shows and basically launch themselves off the stage superman style. Other than that they’ve always got our backs … coming on tour to America with us as our crew and making sure nothing goes to our heads. But it’s not just our mates, it’s also for dudes who come to the show and get wild … the kinda people that we reckon we’d be mates with if we knew them.”
When&Where: The Barwon Club, Geelong – September 26
By Xavier Fennell