Released on Friday the 21st August, Adelaide’s most exciting rock exports BAD//DREEMS released their killer debut full length Dogs At Bay.
Recorded with iconic producer Mark Opitz (AC/DC, The Angels, INXS, Cold Chisel) and Colin Wynne, the album follows in the wake of breakthrough singles ‘Dumb Ideas’ and ‘Cuffed and Collared’, which have seen the band grow from its humble beginnings in a whitegoods warehouse to one of the most exciting guitar acts in the country.
To celebrate the album release, the band have given us a track by track run down of the record which you can check out below. If you like what you’re hearing be sure to catch the guys when they roll into your town on their upcoming September/ October tour.
New Boys
This is a song about the bikie gang of the same name and particularly their founding member Vince Focarelli. The New Boys were a Muslim 1% gang who came onto the scene in Adelaide and upset the established order.
Focarelli has survived about 6 assassination attempts. One of these was a shoot out in a packed inner city cafe. The bikie scene is pretty prevalent in Adelaide and periodically it crosses over into normal people’s worlds. I happened to meet Focarelli once and he was a compelling character.
This song was the easiest to record on the album, Miles and James made a really great rhythm track.
Cuffed and Collared
This is a song about having to get up, go to work and put up with pricks you don’t respect. Cuffed and collared was a play on the metaphorical constraints of wearing shirt and tie. I since discovered it is part of bondage parlance.
It unintentionally bears a resemblance to the Monkees ‘Last train to Clarkesville’, which coincidentally is one of Opitz [produced album]’ favourite songs.
Bogan Pride
I had a powerful experience when I went to watch a friend perform at one of the summer dance type festivals. I was completely sober and surrounded by the ‘roided shirtless, Southern Cross tatted young men, out of their mind on pingers and cheap Adelaide meth. It was around the time of the Cronulla race riots. It was really aggressive and intimidating, but underpinned by some sort of homoerotic element.
The Southern Cross tattoos added a nationalistic element. This song is a night out through the eyes of one of these confused young men.
Musically the initial inspiration was The Celibate Rifles ‘Tick Tock’.
My Only friend
This and Dumb Ideas were the first songs recorded and came out on a 7″ in 2014. It’s the oldest song on the record I think. Looking back on the lyrical content of the album there are a helluva lot of references to solitude and being alone.
I guess this comes collectively from the feeling we sometimes have in Adelaide of being isolated. Plus, I’m an only child and a bit of a loner.
Hiding to Nothing
This was one of the last songs finished. I think Ben had the original verse idea and we fleshed it out. For a long time we’d intended to write a song about Adelaide and this is that song. It could apply to anyone’s home town really. It was originally called Don’s Parade, which was a misremembering of a Sir Donald Bradman drive, the road from the Adelaide airport into the city.
While doing the vocals Ben sang a the line “but a river has flowed through the fields we have ploughed” as “Bow river has flowed through the fields we have ploughed” to take this piss out of Opitz. Opitz kept that take and had the last laugh. The ascending end of the guitar solo was inspired by the ascending prechorus bit in the Vanda-Young masterpiece “Love is in the air” but was dialled back in the interests of good taste.
Naden
I rocked up late to rehearsal as usual and the other three guys were playing this verse groove. The lyrics are about a dream Ben had that involved a strange amalgam of his childhood memories in North Adelaide and the story of Malcolm Naden. Naden was a fugitive from Dubbo, who managed to evade capture for 7 years by, hiding in the NSW bush. A (misguided) mythology grew around him, with comparisons to Ned Kelly. In truth, he was a deranged murderer, who is now jailed for life.
Hume
This is the closest thing on the record to a love song, set on the Hume highway between Sydney and Melbourne, a stretch of road well known to any Australian musician.
It’s a song about unrequited love or perhaps a dream lover. Lyrically, there was some inspiration from Jacques Brel’s ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’.
Dumb Ideas
James came up with the original idea for this. Opitz relished the chance to beef up the chugging guitars. The lyrics are a pretty direct “fuck you” to someone, maybe an ex girlfriend. It was written at a time when we were having to talk to different music industry people and hangers on. It’s directed at some of the sleazier and more nefarious of them too. Sorry Surry Hills, but these people seemed to hang around there like flies on shit.
Ghost Gums
This is a nostalgic song. I have a tendency to nostalgia, but am wary of indulging it too much. It can bring melancholy and pain. Every holidays when I was a kid I’d be sent down to my grandparents who were grape growers Mclaren Vale. It was a great place for a kid.
There was a giant fallen log by a creek, with horses and dogs. It’s the last time in my life when I can remember being happy and carefree. It’s a song about being happy alone. “Alone with you” refers to my imaginary friend of the time, “Baggy”, an erstwhile knight of the round table.
Paradise
Ben and I wrote the lyrics to this at my house during the bush fires in the Adelaide Hills last year. There’s a suburb in Adelaide called Paradise in the foothills. It’s about a broken marriage, and the idea of original sin: the apple and the snake and all that.
Blood in my Eyes
James came up with the initial music for this. We’d been listening to almost exclusive Tom Petty around this time. It’s about being blinded to someone’s flaws by virtue of being related to them/too close to them. Ben gave a fantastic vocal performance.
Sacred Ground
A lot of my favourite albums finish with a bittersweet or optimistic kiss off e.g. The Drones ‘You’re Acting’s Like The End Of The World’ on Havilah or ‘Dead Flowers’ from the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers.
It’s a song about remembering to find beauty in the mundane. Sometimes i have really transcendental experiences when I remember to do this. As someone prone to melancholy it’s important to do so. This quote from Jerry Seinfeld on Andrew Denton’s a Enough Rope, where he was discussing his three rules of life always stuck with me:
Jerry Seinfeld: “[this] isn’t really a romantic love … like if I get a really good cup of coffee I like to just go, you know what, just hang on a second, ‘This is a fantastic cup of coffee!!’ And I’ll ask everyone, ‘Isn’t this great coffee?’ … you will enjoy life more if you do that.”
BAD//DREEMS Australian Tour Dates
Fri 25 Sep
Fowlers Live
Adelaide, SA
Fri 9 Oct
Oxford Art Factory
Sydney, NSW
Fri 16 Oct
Woolly Mammoth
Brisbane, QLD
Sat 17 Oct
Miami Shark Bar – Minimum Wage Club
Gold Coast QLD
Sat 24 Oct
Northcote Social Club
Melbourne, VIC
Fri 30 Oct
The Odd Fellow
Fremantle, WA
Sat 31 Oct
Amplifier Bar
Perth, WA
