Track By Track: The Stevens

Having released their 24-song debut album last year, The Stevens’ ALEX MACFARLANE and TRAVIS MACDONALD revisit its timeless themes of marathon vomiting, hearing impairment, fictional shredders, regional swimming holes and … l( . )( . )king back.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

‘From Puberty to Success’

T: Most of my songs don’t make literal sense, so there isn’t much use trying to drag meaning from them. The title is a Kippenberger quote. I liked having it as the first track because in some small way it sends off the EP, which was pretty pubescent, and introduces our first LP as something probably more adult. We tried to cram the best of everything we had into this album with its success in mind. Really upholding the slacker credo, some key topics in this song are: the kind of jobs various bandmates have had, very wealthy Christians and how office buildings used to be shorter than churches.

‘Scared of Other Men’

A: This is about being scared of the bigger boys and not being able to defend myself.

‘Elpho Beach’

T: I grew up in Elphinstone, which is a dry town on the way to Bendigo. It has a population of about 500, half of that belonging to a group of Mokbel-associated hideouts. I liked our once-a-year beach holidays; otherwise, a water-carved granite rock formation called The Cascades (or Elpho Beach) was the closest swimming spot. This song is about a fictional family staying in a non-existent motel in the area. I write about two of the four key swimming holes in the Central Goldfields region on this album, the other being Turpins Falls.

‘Trail of Debt’

A: It’s about credit cards and how they are always a bad idea.

‘Turpins Falls’

T: While practising with an old band, we hatched a plan to drive my dad’s forklift to Turpins. We didn’t get very far though. We did some circle work and dangerous stunts instead. My dad was pretty angry about it; Matt Harkin had already injured himself a few times during his care. Turpins Falls is a popular drinking and kissing spot. The water is pretty much unswimmable now though, because of blue-green algae.

‘Legend in My Living Room’

T: Originally made with words about a golfing accident and the death of a major investor of an aboriginal art dealership. Al encouraged me to just leave it as an instrumental. Which was a better idea. I’m using those words for another song now.

‘Challenger’

T: One of my favourite general buzz words. It has been used for the name of cars (Dodge and also Mitsubishi), multinational corporations and disastrous space missions etc. It seems like only way to challenge the world as an ordinary guy is with a big machine.

‘Red Ribbon’

A: I work in a mailroom for a large collective of barristers. Sometimes you see really rough photos of corpses and it just doesn’t really bother me.

‘The Long Vacation’

T: Alex has a few songs on this album and in our set about being in the doldrums or limbo or general state of not much happening, (‘Worse Everyday’ was a favourite before I met him). This is me trying to write one.

‘Restaurant/E-Maj’

A: I had dinner with a very emotional person and I wanted to leave. The E-Maj bit was created to bridge this song into travelator. It’s made using a Yamaha organ, an electric guitar and a Roland chorus echo.

‘Travelator’

T: This is another more guitar-based song. For a while we would play this at the end of our set. We often rush through all of our songs in about 15 minutes, so we have this one as a bit of a cosmic parachute.

‘Lost and Found’

A: This one’s about when you are younger and your group of buddies becomes really incestuous, and everyone’s getting drunk and having intercourse with each other and everyone’s getting all used up.

‘Time Share Community Hall’

T: The first half of the song is a jingle for timeshare apartments I made. I was stuck in a timeshare presentation for five hours with my dad in Bali as a 14-year-old because I thought I won 10 thousand dollars in a raffle. The second half of this song introduces a now-reoccurring character called Dale. Dale is a guy who played guitar alone for most of his youth, usually trying to perfect Hendrix, Zeppelin, Maiden and eventually Opeth and Dream Theatre. He is also whoever has the shred duties on whatever song we play. Alex and I switch between being Dale.

‘Skeleton vs. Silicon’

T: A.K.A. ‘Hygiene’. About the confusing and common practice of creating your own history and mythology by omitting and exaggerating information. I wonder what archaeologists will think of breast implants on the chest of some skeletons in the future. I like the way that this song ends. This one is a real testament to how good at playing Callum [Foley] and Tam [Matlakowski] are.

A: This is one of my favourite songs. I am glad that I’m in a band that gets to play it.

‘True Tales of Half Time’

T: Alex came over and we wrote and recorded this one on a pretty warm night. We had the windows open and so the railway crossing signals across the road are almost the loudest thing on the recording. Al’s crazy for the trains horn from outside the window at about the 30-second mark. That’s why there no vocals on this song.

A: This is the only song we wrote together on this album. It was a really nice night.

‘College Theme’

T: This song at times is about moving from the country to study. Originally called ‘Art School Girls’.

‘Hindsight’

T: This is another Stevens song about l( . )( . )king back.

‘Come Outside’

A: I spend too much time hungover, whole 12-hour periods vomiting because I am weak. This is about my suspicions that my girlfriend was slowly starting to realise that I sucked, and making an effort to do something nice for her.

‘Blind in One Ear’

T: Another great bit of playing by the Cal and Tam backline. This song is about the cost of being a rock fan. I have pretty bad ringing in my ears; I miss a lot in conversations.

‘Fascinator Preparations’

T: Some ramblings about spring time in Melbourne.

‘Worse Everyday’

A: Wrote this when I was 17. It was on my eighth and final solo album. Travis says that the sick riffing in this song was what made him want to start a band with me. I was going to say that it’s really juvenile and broody lyrically, but all my songs on this album are. This song also features Callum Foley doing some really nice backing vocals.

‘A Forgotten Step’

T: Originally written as a prelude to ‘Long Vacation’. Wanted to shoot a video clip for this song with William H. Macy, but it was a stupid suggestion.

‘Limbo’

A: This ones about creating problems in your life in order to write songs. I don’t like writing about things I don’t know about or haven’t experienced because I am not particularly creative. One problem I made turned into this song.

‘Lucky Scores a Ride’

T: This song is a fictional story of a pretty standard marriage and impending divorce scenario. I used notes that I made while watching TV.

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‘A History of Hygiene’ is out now on CD, digital and vinyl through Chapter. Read our review. They play Sydney and Brisbane this weekend; info below.

Fri, Jan 17 – The Red Rattler, Sydney, NSW [$10, w/Day Ravies, Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys + Nathan Roche Band]
Sat, Jan 18 – Trainspotters @ Grand Central Hotel, Brisbane, QLD [free, w/Martyr Privates, Thigh Master + Sewers]
Sun, Jan 19 – Greenslopes Bowling Club, Brisbane, QLD [3pm, $10, w/Per Purpose, Evening Hiss, Barbiturates + Scrabble]