Thank God for our inherent Aussie loveable larrikin nature.
If this weren’t such a crucial part of our national identity, we’d just be another nation swollen on its own sense of self-importance, much like America or the good old motherland, Britain.
But here, we take the piss. We jest. We give it a good hard go and don’t mind laughing at ourselves if it falls through.
Bag Raiders fall well and truly into the loveable larrikin category. There’s a sense of fun and humour to their music that is instantly recognisable, and comes through even in their DJing.
‘Well, we probably can’t DJ as well as most, but we have more fun than them,’ confessed Chris Stracey, one half of the Bag Raiders.
‘We’ve gotten better at DJing, but we were absolutely horrible when we started.
‘Our friends the Bang Gang guys, they let us play some of their parties at the beginning when we didn’t know how to play and we must have been doing the most horrible train wrecks. But they seemed to be cool with it.
‘From then it’s been a long road to get to where we are and now we can DJ and that sort of thing.’
That long road started in 2006. Since they’ve kicked out three EPs and have toured quite extensively, including South America, Brazil, Chile and Columbia. Craziest destination? Japan, naturally.
‘Going to a nightclub in Japan was so different,’ said Stracey.
‘It seemed like no-one was drinking but when you played a song that everyone liked they’d all completely lose their shit and go crazy.
‘And then everyone would stand around politely and then everyone would just go crazy again.’
Maddest gig ever goes to Richmond, Virginia where Bag Raiders played an impromptu set at the local bowling alley, house lights and all.
‘We played this gig and I think it was a last minute organised thing and it was in a bowling alley in Richmond in Virginia.
‘I think there was only like 18 to 20 people there and they all had painted signs and everyone who was there was totally there and really into being there.’
Which is Stracey’s polite way of saying they were all completely nuts (witness the video yourself at www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW9vtBd6EFw).
Naturally, now that their new album is about to drop, Stracey is excited – the long road has lead somewhere, and it clocks in at around 45 minutes of complete electronic brilliance.
Of course, there were some finals hurdles to jump over.
‘We didn’t have a lot of song writing experience so trying to make songs work and sound effortlessly simple is harder than it sounds.
‘Other things weren’t challenges as much as steps along the way, like when we originally wrote the album we had recorded all the vocals ourselves.
‘And we listened back through it and thought it was good but not amazing and so that’s when we decided to revisit a lot of the vocal tracks and see if we knew anyone who could have a go at them.’
Which turned out to be quite a few people, Dan Black, Rhys Taylor (Ted & Francis), Simon Jones (The Holidays), Gisselle Rosselli (Crave You) and Martin Solomon (Wim).
Of course, you can find out how magnificent this album is when it drops October 1.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
FINAL THOUGHTS FROM THE BAG RAIDERS
If your sound was a perfume, what would it smell like? Off milk that you can’t stop sniffing… but nicer.
Would you rather play under the sea or in outer space? Under the sea is outer space!
If Bag Raiders were a transformer, what would you change into? Dude, it would have to be a robot that drinks coffee and rum and goes wild ballroom dancing under the sea in outer space.
