Last Quokka are back with their first album. After an outstanding response to their punchy self tilted EP over a year ago, Dieback promises to yet again challenge, please and make you want to jump around screaming. Or is that just me? The album is launched this Saturday, March 3 at The Bird with support from Salary, Low Maintenance and Terrible Signal. MAGGIE BOCHAT chatted to Last Quokka about making the album, political living and Rottnest.
How would you describe the new album?
This album represents a really important step in the growth of our band. We feel like it’s a huge leap from the first EP. We’re really proud of what we’ve done here. For old Quokka fans it’s like the first EP but much bigger and faster. We wrote a lot of these songs right at the start of our band life and it’s amazing to hear these recorded and be able to share them with you.
What process did you go through to create it?
Like all the songs we wrote them collectively. They were recorded by our buddy Tristan Dudley of Wednesday Society fame and mastered by the amazing man himself Mikey ‘The Dolphin’ Young.
You are political in both your music and everyday lives. What messages are you sending with your new songs?
Everybody’s lives are political and we most certainly don’t see ourselves as or try to be a political band. We just sing about important shit and what we see every day. We think that perhaps the problem is underlined by the fact that people think that “being political” is something separate from their lives. But really it’s about how we live, how we organise ourselves, how we relate to each other and the choices we make.
Are there any particular issues in Australia at the moment you are passionate about?
There isn’t one issue. We are teetering on the brink. This shit is critical. People need to come together, the world is potentially going down in our lifetimes. We need to come together and act. Now. We need to organise. Stop just policing behaviours and attacking brothers and sisters. Never has there been a time where it’s more necessary for people to think about the kind of world they want to live in and begin to create that.
How has the #meNoMore movement affected your band?
We think it’s an important phenomena and we hope it can manifest in physical spaces. We believe that taking responsibility for your own actions regardless of who you are is a fundamental part of being human.
Have you ever taken a selfie with a Quokka?
No, Rottnest used to be a concentration camp.
