Track by Track: La Bastard

Melbourne surf/garage/rockabilly firebrands La Bastard have collected tracks from their first four releases for a limited tour LP on French label Beast Records. Guitarist BEN MURPHY takes us through it.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

‘Beaten Down’

This was written at a time when I was listening to a lot of Roy Orbison songs! It’s a doo-wop-inspired number, very ’50s-feeling! The middle part of the song has a non-repetitive chord structure which keeps changing – we just kept adding more and more chord changes, which just seemed to fit. As a result, the song has a pronounced crescendo as the chorus progresses – it’s really fun to do live ’cause we start out really tame and by two minutes in we’re bashing it out!

‘Get Up, Get Out’

One of the first songs we ever wrote. Anna [Lienhop, lead singer] came up with the main riff and all the vocal hooks, but it still needed something else. Coming from more of a post-punk/noisy musical background – the instrumental outro was one of my first attempts at writing a ‘surf riff’ – and it’s predictably sinister! The two components of the song really worked together though, and it’s always been a crowd favourite at gigs.

‘Bewitchery’

A bit of a playful, cheeky little number that centres around this catchy instrumental hook I came up with for the chorus. For some reason I always had the David Lynch film Wild at Heart in mind when I was writing this one, but it also reminds me a little bit of something Edwyn Collins might play.

‘Timorese Ninja’

Our first surf instrumental. We approached it like writing a punk song – I wanted something that sounded really untamed and interesting, and to put in as many dynamic shifts as possible. I was listening to a heaps of Man or Astro-man? – I was really digging the modern take on surf tunes – and thought ‘What would a Man or Astro-man? song sound like if they didn’t hold back on anything?’ When we were trying to think up a name, I’d been reading about these gangs in Timor-Leste who were terrorising civilians using martial arts. The thought of a Timorese ninja striking fear on the streets of Dili just seemed to fit.

‘In Deep’

I’m a big fan of Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin and Brigitte Bardot – this was our take on a French pop number. It was heaps of fun to record – first time we’ve ever used an acoustic guitar on a La Bastard track (and this one has two!), plus we had heaps of fun in the studio playing around with double-tracked vocals and handclaps. I’m a big fan of this one – it was a real stretch from the typical garage/surf stuff we’re known for, plus it’s catchy as hell!

‘Cold Rainy Night’

This was written at a time where we really started to work guitar/vocal interplay into our songwriting. It’s a very immediate song – it charges through a range of different movements in less than three minutes. My girlfriend always said it feels like the song’s already finished before you even know what’s hit you. Given the song is about the myriad of emotions that accompany the initial shock you feel on the first night of a breakup, it seemed rather fitting!

‘Call of the Wild’

This has always been a crowd favourite and I don’t think we’ve ever left it off a set since it was written almost three years ago. It was inspired by the notion of human relationships and people which bring out your dark side, making you behave at a moment of high emotion in a way you perhaps don’t recognise in yourself or feel that comfortable about. Pretty dark stuff, and the music is appropriately sombre too! Still, this one swings – if we were ever going to get on a Tarantino soundtrack, hopefully this would be the one they’d choose!

‘Promise Me’

This was written in the lead up to the 2013 federal election. The desperate vote-winning scrambling of the Labor Party during the last two elections, not to mention Tony Abbott’s “I’d do anything but sell my arse to get the job” comments, are a pretty sad indictment of modern Australian politics and the absence of anything approaching visionary leadership.

We’ve never been a political band (despite having some very political members!) but this was our way to engage in a subtle and playful commentary on the bullshit politicians will spin to win your vote. And it has ‘hey hey heys’ in it!

‘It’s Not Like I’m Telling a Lie’

A swing number with a pretty evil-sounding main riff. We’ve always been interested in rockabilly/’50s rock and roll but never wanted to be limited by the fairly rigid parameters of the genre. Especially since we all came from very different musical influences – from soul to metal and post-punk stuff. This was probably as close to rockabilly as a band like us were ever going to get, and even though it’s dark, it swings for sure!

‘Stranger in the Night’

The Gun Club have always been heroes for us, and this song was our first attempt to try and do something rough, frantic and bluesy in the tradition of Jeffrey Lee Pierce. It ended up being faster and rougher than anything from Fire of Love; there’s a running joke in the band that we now play this two or three times faster live than when we first recorded it!

The song is about a sinister dude who wanders into a bar in a remote town one night, who may or may not be a physical personification of the devil – I never really decided whether it was the devil or just a nasty guy. Either way, you’re left feeling that it’s not someone you wanna fuck with!

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‘Ooh La La Bastard’ is out now on vinyl, CD and digitally through Beast Records, with cover art by Lluis Fuzzhound of Fuzztoon Studios. Read Patrick Emery’s review of last year’s ‘Tales From Beyond’. Upcoming gigs below.

Fri, Oct 31 – The Royal Oak Hotel, Launceston, TAS [w/Guthrie]
Sat, Nov 1 – Day of the Dead Party @ The Winston Hotel, Hobart, TAS [w/The Sin and Tonics]
Fri, Nov 14 – The Old Bar, Melbourne, VIC [w/The Floors, Alex Elbury & The Strangers + Timothy Neilson]
Sat, Nov 15 – River Rocks @ Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong, VIC [w/Tumbleweed, Warped + many more]