The Fauves

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Fluorocarbon-, microplastic- and hit-free, The Fauves Tropical Strength will not damage you or your family’s hearing so long as you play it at volumes under 5 dB.

The album was recorded in a week in Indonesia in late 2023, strictly during office hours. Later we roamed the Sanur foreshore like shiftless itinerants seeking trouble or some nasi goreng. Next morning we were back at the studio as if nothing had ever happened, which perhaps it hadn’t.

Very few Australians have ever been to Bali so we relished the sense of outpost exoticism and a culture completely untouched by Western influence. Here we could work in relative anonymity, far from the complete anonymity that tracks our every move at home. And when we needed some attention, we simply had to say, “We’re the dudes that did that Dog song”. Pretty sure that got us a few discounts, although we had trouble doing the currency conversion.

It's generally considered that bands don’t reach their peak until their 13th album, which puts us in the sweet spot for success. Two hundred sales would be about par. Five hundred sounds a bit greedy. Over a thousand and we’re running a scam – change your passwords immediately.

Tropical Strength has 11 tracks. They’ve got lyrics but, yeah nah, who’s got the attention span to read a lyric sheet?

Un-Australians: Have you ever failed the Pub Test? Have you ever had unpatriotic thoughts? Do you laugh every Invasion Day when people tip pink paint over the heads of Captain Cook statues? You may be an un-Australian. Hand in your passport and let the government send you to Nauru immediately.

Try Telling Someone Who Gives a Fuck: In 1928 they banned Lady Chatterley’s Lover. In 2024 you can put “Fuck” in a song title. This song is better Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Well, the book at least. By all accounts gamekeeper Oliver Mellors was an excellent lover.

If You Love Me: There aren’t enough songs in the canon about hypochondriac middle-aged men. You could sing “She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah”. Or you could sing “If you love me, you might have to kill me”. We chose the latter.

Only Wait Forever: Of all the failed, broken, disbanded airlines in aviation history, TAA is our favourite. That’s not what the song’s about but W.B. Yeats didn’t tell you what his poems were about either.

It Kills Your Worst Enemies: The Fauves Tropical Strength – it kills your worst enemies.

Moscow Olympics: In 1980, we were on Year 8 school camp at Mill Valley Christian horse ranch. Well, it was just called Mill Valley Ranch but there was a church there and they made us go to it, and there was horse riding, but we’re scared of horses. The Moscow Olympics were on concurrently.

Guitar Village: We bought our first guitars at Guitar Village in Frankston. We had a song Called Clive of India Curry Powder on our album Nervous Flashlights and were duly supplied with a complimentary box of powered curry products from the kindly proprietors of the worthy company. Hopefully we’ll get a box of guitars this time.

Always Look for the Bad in People: Generally a lot easier task than doing the opposite.

Bursting at the Seams: It could be about middle-aged spread or a batch of defective cricket balls. You do the exegesis.

The Show That Never Goes Away: 5 bonus points for the first person to create a meme with our photo and the caption “The band that never goes away”.

Let Me Stop You There: Sorry for your loss. It’s a bit grim.