Dune Rats: Work Hard, Party Harder

What do you do when the world as you know it comes to a stop? You might panic and protest your way through it, or you might find yourself a new perspective on life. It’s either survival of the fittest or saving the whole world. Or if you’re Aussie punks DUNE RATS – you move to a coastal town for three months with your best mates and get drunk.

“We’re so used to spending 10 months of the year together that after two weeks apart, we started tapping shit and going ‘fuck, let’s go do something’,” smiles guitarist and vocalist Danny Beus from his home down under. “So we went down to Eden, this small coastal town and shacked up there for three months just writing music.”

Whilst the rest of the world ran around like headless chickens, DUNE RATS were living the dream just weeks removed from topping Australia’s ARIA charts for the second time with 2020’s Hurry Up And Wait. It’s an experience they’re beyond grateful for. “While everyone else was complaining like ‘we’re all locked up’, we were just drinking heaps of beers, eating down at the pub and writing fucking sick songs,” Beus infectiously laughs, fondly remembering the good times he, bassist Brett Jansch and drummer BC Michaels got to enjoy whilst life as we know it fell apart.

Those sick songs they were writing between downing pints and dining out weren’t just for partying through the pandemic. They’ve become Real Rare Whale, DUNE RATS’ fourth album. But don’t worry, there’s no time for thinking about the past, it’s time to party. “We just wanted to write songs we could smash in front of heaps of people. I think a lot of other people went the other way, like everyone’s writing introspective ‘let me out of my room’ songs and we’re on the other end of the spectrum writing ‘let’s fucking rage songs’.”

Taking life too seriously is a trait we all fall for these days, but Real Rare Whale’s poppy punk rock will set you straight again. Take the surf-rock madness of opener LTD for example, which proudly starts ‘alright, time for some fun’. “Everyone’s had two years of fucking shit and writing about it and singing about it and talking about it, so it’s like fuck it, let’s just release this album and say it’s time to have fun, like let’s just have a sick couple of years playing live shows in your face, like let’s go!”

But it’s not all fun and games. DUNE RATS might rock and roll all night and party every day, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find the flipside. If you’re looking for the afterparty’s aftermath, it’s right there. “All the songs have a bit of a deeper level, it’s just whether or not people want to look into it or if they just want to fucking go ‘fuck yeah, let us drink!” with Drink All Day and Memorable Night. On the surface is the simple thing, and the other stuff we like to imply. Space Cadet is a perfect example where there is that nostalgia of when you’re a kid thinking you can take on the world but then the grim realisation that we live in a shared house and the dishes are piling up and you’re a washed-up drunk dude not doing all the stuff you wanted to.”

And these aren’t made-up tales of debauchery either, they’re the life and times of the DUNE RATS. Drink All Day isn’t just an ode to an Australian pastime, it’s a real experience. “Drink All Day actually happened to me!” Interrupts Jansch, erupting into fits of laughter. “I was at the races when I was 18 and I got kicked out by the cops, so I swapped jackets with some dude and jumped the fence, and then the cops noticed me in the other dude’s jacket so I was running but it’s like slow motion pissed as an 18 year old and I fell over and got taken to jail.”

Some cuts are deeper than others for DUNE RATS. Don’t go looking too deep into the album title itself for the meaning of life, unless you’re hoping to find their friends in FIDLAR. “Zac from FIDLAR would come up with names, we’d always joke around with album titles that are gnarly, cardboard box-worthy or just stupid, and Real Rare Whale was one of them.”

“Zac was like if you did name it that, it would be very difficult for radio announcers to pronounce that album, so we were like fuck, that’d be really funny. I don’t know if it’s the stupidest or best thing to do but hopefully it’s genius,” chuckles Beus. “Weirdly enough, when art imitates life, Eden the town is an old whaling town – it’s no longer, thank god – so it’s weird we named it Real Rare Whale and we wrote it in a town that had a really rare whale, and it’s a rare album where you fucking love every song on it.”

Real Rare Whale really is an all killer, no filler exhibition. In just 10 songs and 28 minutes, you’ll be singing your heart out word for word. Songs like Dumb TV, What A Memorable Night, and Skate Or Don’t are earworms that wade their way into your head forever. And it’s totally by design, thanks in part to indie-pop producer Scott Horscroft [MIDDLE KIDS, DMA’S].

“Coming from his little realm of stuff in pop and dance, at the end of the night Scott would pull out the keyboards and all these wacky toys and stuff like trumpets and shit and just lay it on because we could just revisit it,” Jansch reflects on Horscroft’s approach. “He opened our heads into thinking ‘what is the razzle dazzle that’ll finish it off?’, even if it’s keyboards that make you go ‘holy shit, what the fuck is this?’”

But don’t worry, the DUNIES aren’t trading punk for pop – because they’ve always been pop kids at heart according to Beus. “Since the first EPs, it’s always had that want to be poppy but with a DIY stoner edge to it, a lot of songs were written on acoustic guitars which sound all hurdy gurdy until we add electric guitars and distortions.”

With Scott cooking up a chocolate factory of sounds like he’s Willy Wonka, the band dove headfirst into recording. But not without an incentive. “We’re workaholics, we won’t call it for the day and go ‘fuck it, let’s have a beer’ until we’ve done something, so sometimes it’s just whatever needs to be done, we’ll just make a song a day,” explains Jansch.

“Wasn’t the dog humping leg song in that trip?” Beus asks, both bursting into fits of laughter. “Mick was writing this song like ‘why does my dog hump my leg, he humps my leg’ and you just know it’s definitely not making the album but it’s a good way to say ‘alright we’ve done that song for today, let’s go to the pub!’”

You might think they were bunking off a bunch, but Real Rare Whale is the proof in the pudding they worked as hard as they played. Just don’t go asking alt-pop duo LIME CORDIALE anytime soon. “They were in the other studio recording and it was like 4 o’clock, which is our tequila hour – where we won’t drink spirits until then,” Jansch reasonably explains. “It’s a celebration, we’re all making these nice tequilas and they rocked up to say g’day right at tequila hour, walking in just as it’s all kicking off and they were like ‘right, okay, we’ll leave you to it’ and left – it sets that image of us being rambunctious, but we did work our asses off.”

So now you know what DUNE RATS do when it all goes to pot, what will you do when the world comes to an end?

Real Rare Whale is out now via Ratbag Records/BMG.

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