Back on the cans with The Externals
Three decades after their debut album, Perth rockers The Externals are back with their seventh record, Back On The Cans, and are celebrating with a launch show at Leopold Hotel on Friday, September 6, with support from Black Buzzard. BOB GORDON caught up with singer-songwriter Harry Moffitt to chat about life in the band and beyond.
It’s been 30 years with a lot of pauses at times in between, but The Externals have never stopped. A lot goes on in your individual worlds, but you’ll always be ‘Externals’. Would you describe the band as a brotherhood or a tribe or something else along those lines?
Personally, I am not a fan of brotherhood. Tribe is okay, but I reckon it’s more like a country footy or cricket club. We love each other’s company, have had plenty of players over the years, love a beer in the club room, partners feel welcome, and kids running around, BBQ out the front. We all hug when we meet and have a strict no-dickhead policy!
How does it feel to have that in your lives—this band that always has your back in more ways than music, although that is plenty?
I love it, mate. For me, it’s my favourite team right now. I love being around them all, and when on stage together, nothing phases us. At a gig earlier this year in Wollongong, everything that could go wrong went wrong, but we just kept on without a worry for anyone, and the crowd picked up on that. And I remember the VBs back at a mate’s place after a gig in Ulladulla. We had the best night, and it was just us, listening to the Oils. Win or lose, we just enjoy playing. It’s like, ‘You won’t say it, but I will. I love youse guys’.
When you started, did you think much about longevity, or was it all about being in the moment?
Nah, we just shared a love of music and loved the challenge of doing something hard.
Members of The Externals having served in the SAS is a big part of the band’s folklore. Has that been tricky at times due to the confidential nature of the regiment?
Yeah, but not impassable. I’m proud of how we have been able to do it. We have always kept the unit reputation first and foremost—that has steered us well. We are also part of a larger group of regiment bands and musos: Dusty Miller Allstars, Fine Young Counter Terrorists, Tongue Charge, INSF and Ken Studley.
Having been deployed many times, you must have experienced and seen some challenging situations, to say the least. Has the band been cathartic for you in processing what you’ve been through?
Yes definitely, and for others. Including parents and kids of operators—some fallen. When playing at the regiment, it lets off a bit of steam for all generations and families. Music is a great release and, in some ways, a distraction from everything else going on in your life. It’s a team sport too!
Tell us about the process of writing and recording the new EP.
It started during COVID and has taken a while to get everyone together. Mostly written in my shed with a six-pack of VB. All written on nylon string acoustic, then brought to the band. Eight songs became six. I generally start with a theme and then build the super structure around that, and the band fills in their parts. The title track, Back On The Cans, came out of a rehearsal and took three minutes and 24 seconds to write. We played it once… boom, done.
It certainly echoes all of my memories of seeing and listening to The Externals going way back. Is it challenging to summon that same kind of youthful energy, or does it come easy for you?
We are still one of the hardest charging bands in the country. We come with a fun but competitive spirit; we want to be the best on the night. In a lot of ways, we are better now than we have ever been. It never comes easy. It’s always hard. But hard is good, and good is fun. And rocking hard is fun.
With the album out, what Externals plans do you have from here?
Melbourne and Sydney shows. I’m writing new songs now with Tom for the next album, where we will release a new externals character, The Beer Baron.