THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The followup to Dune Rats’ 2022 Australian chart-topper Real Rare Whale, If It Sucks, Turn It Up is a rollercoaster of good times, hard truths, ’90s nostalgia, and fuzzy stoner-pop goodness. The album sees the trio evolving their sound and honing their melodic instincts across a diverse range of styles — all delivered with the energy and infectious humour that is unmistakably Dune Rats.
Says singer-guitarist Danny Beus: “We wanted to make an album that throws you around a bit, like you are being washed around in the surf. We’re five albums in now so we knew it should be a record that shows all the different sides to the band.”
One of the inspirations for If It Sucks, Turn It Up was fellow Brisbane band Regurgitator’s 1997 classic album Unit. Danny says: “BC had been listening to Unit, which I loved when I was a kid too. It’s an album with a lot of different styles. We realised, you can have something that’s dreamy and dancey next to a song that’s punk. What became paramount for the album was that all these songs were a little different to each other but could fit together.”
The latest single from the album is Cheapskate. It’s a song about friendships, the kind of bond that glues a band together as tightly as Danny, drummer BC Michaels and bassist Brett Jansch. “Even when we are apart we still speak on the phone every day,” explains Danny. “In 13 years you can become completely different people and a lot of bands dissolve because they just can’t keep that internal friendship going.
“Cheapskate came out of us spending a lot of time touring in the U.S. There’s this weird world where the rich kids from Hollywood are hanging out with the skate punks and all the kind of people we know because they have such a better time there. As you are growing up you might think having money and sick cars would be the cool thing, but really the coolest thing is hanging out with your mates at the skate park. You can’t buy that.”
The video for Cheapskate was directed and created by Brisbane artist Tom Carroll, who shot the band on green screen then built a 3D Hollywood x 2000s punk x Baz Luhrmann Romeo + Juliet world around the characters and the song.
Previous single Solar Eyes is the sound of Dune Rats looking way back in the rearview mirror to some of their most earlier recordings while adapting their undeniable knack for a catchy hook, while the first single from the album Be Like You, a song about being unapologetically yourself, clocks in at 165 BPM and is a ready for the stage — an instant pop-punk classic.
Speaking of the stage: Dune Rats songs take on a whole new energy live onstage. Over the last 18 months, the Dunies have toured the world twice over, packing rooms throughout the U.S., Canada, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, France, South Africa, Ireland, and over 30 shows in the U.K. Back in Australia, the band played a slew of headline and festival gigs across the country, including a massive Splendour In The Grass set where they belted out their hit cover of The Angels’ Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again.”
