“30 years. 10 albums. 1 being together. Join this latest expedition to the peak mountain of sounds. Deep dive into the invasive notions of INVADER. In a spirit of reflection – scale high, question everything, and arise with some kind of knowing. Kingdoms are benign monsters, Old World imperial extractors whose flicking cicatrice tails weigh heavy across lives time invaded. Take any strength and transmute power gained.”
So reads the opening paragraph of Regurgitator’s latest presser, typical of the group’s cracked-philosophical, whacky-fun style. And why shouldn’t they be in a good mood? Their tenth album, INVADER, lives up to its name, and they’re on a jolly jaunt across the country, complete with a Canberra stop to boot.
With this in mind, I ask musical polymath and Gurge frontman Quan Yeomans how the atmosphere is at Camp Gurge right now.
“Hectic!” Quan exclaims. “I forget how frantic recording and releasing albums is. It’s been a while!”
I ask Quan to take us through INVADER; what did they set out to achieve this time, and how did the material all come to be?
“We just started a record like we normally do”, Quan begins. “It started about 18 months ago with the ‘let’s get back on the horse’ mentality.
“We booked some time in a studio just outside of Brisbane. I had just finished a solo release, so my head wasn’t in the space, I guess; just not in the zone. We got about five demos out, but I didn’t get much out of that session.
“Ben [Ely, bassist, but you knew that already] did manage to get a song from that first session onto the record – Tsunami. So that was the first song written and recorded.”
Quan explains the eventual arrival of ‘having his shit together’.
“Paul [Curtis, Valve label head and wonderful person] had suggested I read The Creative Act by Rick Rubin; I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, whatever.’
“I read it, and it did spark something in me – to be a bit freer in how I worked. It’s a pretty good book, actually; I mean, there are a lot of people who think Rick Rubin doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing, but the guy is extremely successful. He has a Zen mentality, which is very apparent in the book – and I like that stuff.”
Zen in check, Quan was furiously writing by this stage; he found that fabled ‘flow’ and felt really good about what he was doing.
“By this point, I had written about five or six songs,” Quan states. “Live drums were next – so we did another session in Brisbane. I mainly did the additional session for Ben, who is the kind of guy who likes to get together with the band and hash things out in the live sense. But strangely enough, none of the live sessions Ben recorded made it to the album – he scrapped it all and started again with programming instead.
“I used most of those tracks he scrapped, took them back to Melbourne and started playing around with them.”
Throughout Covid, Quan taught himself to use a different DAW [Digital Audio Station for those of you playing at home], gave Pro Tools the boot and started using Studio One, which ‘upped his game’, he concedes.
“I was determined to do it all myself,” he reveals. “At that point, I was happy with about seven of the tracks.
“At this juncture, I also read many books on indigenous thinking over the last few years. Quite a few of them really blew my mind,” Quan says, a reverence entering his voice. “Two in particular; Braiding Sweetgrass, written by a Native American woman, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and another called Sand Talk, by an indigenous Australian author, Tyson Yunkaporta.
“Sand Talk astonished me,” he added. “I could see the influence of these authors moving towards the album – with The Voice Referendum defeat last year, it was a particularly hard time for our indigenous community. These important issues were bubbling away and coming to the forefront – the material became driven by this.”
Quan was so into Tyson’s book that he reached out to see if he was interested in collaborating.
“I didn’t care what it was; I just wanted to show my appreciation for his writing because it really moved me.”
Quan declares that Tyson was very gracious. After an exchange of emails, Tyson offered him a poem called Arc.
“I wanted to put some music behind this, to match the sentiment we were aiming for, and Tyson jumped on board.”
And indeed he did, with Tyson having this comfortingly beautiful reflection on the album:
“History doesn’t necessarily repeat, but it certainly rhymes. There are poetic devices available to artists to divine the patterns of past, present and future. This album digs deep to make sense “in a world of weaponised illusions and radicalising sorcery, where the lines between digital fantasy and embodied agency have become irrevocably blurred.” – Tyson Yunkaporta (Sand Talk; Right Story, Wrong Story)
The influences cited by Quan were starting to sew a diverse and powerful patchwork throughout INVADER, and Quan wasn’t finished. Not by a long shot. Wanting to take it to that next level – the band hunted down the illustrious Australian rapper-activist JK47 and iconic Canadian electroclash artist Peaches to feature on the album.
“These performers were exactly how we wanted to continue with the album”, Quan states.
From day one to the finished product, Regurgitator opened up to new methods, new engineering, and new collaborations, with each member on their own journey. Quan admits there has never been this much collaboration on a Regurgitator joint.
“I really enjoyed working on this album – it was a lot of hard work,” he beams. “It was unusual… The amount of joy I got from creating this release. There was a lot of burnout – but I was hyper-focused.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so focused on an album.
“The collaboration was the injection we needed,” he adds. “Historically, we have been siloed and singular when writing an album. And I was strangely happy and proud with the album’s result – which is odd for me. I am very critical of the stuff I’ve written; it is very worrisome if I like something I’ve finished.”
Quan attributes the calibre of talent featured on the album and the amount of time that was afforded for the polish as the kickers behind his happiness.
And he and his bandmates deserve it, for it has been a long and winding road to get to where they are now. Regurgitator formed in 1993 under the all-encompassing style of alternative rock. With a large playing field and limitless avenues, the genre has taken over the last few decades. We dove into this landscape with Quan and how it has changed for the band, the positives and… the negatives.
“For me, it’s about enjoying what I do,” he states. “That passion has remained; I still love writing music, I love creating music, and I love more genres of music – which is probably in step with how a listener works these days.
“We’re not as weird as we used to be,” Quan continues. “People are more flexible with our music these days. Certainly overseas – our first tour in the US, people just did not know how to pigeonhole us; it just would not have worked, and we would have pissed away all our money and wasted our time because no one would have got it.
“But now the landscape is a lot more open.
“The negative thing is that you don’t get to focus on a particular style, which means you don’t get to become a master of something. But we’ve always liked spreading ourselves thin,” he chuckles. “As a live band, we play as well, if not better now than we ever have.
“Right now, it’s just about maintaining the physical ability and the drive. Touring is hard. It’s hard work—there are 30 shows in the next two months, one show every second day. We’re all over 50 now, so we’re paranoid that something will break in our bodies.
“We’re trying to get some physical fitness back – because we’re sure as hell not a band that stands still for an hour and a half.”
Consider this a call to action, Regurgitator fans: Please bring some kind of caffeinated beverage and Ibuprofen to gigs.
“Yes, also some kind of B Vitamin. Thanks in advance,” Quan adds.
In anticipation of the upcoming tour, Regurgitator has released a teaser in the form of its first single, Cocaine Runaway. Feedback from the younger generation has been heavily circulating on the socials, which is still a strange surprise to Quan.
“The real test will be heading out and playing the material live,” he concludes.
The It’s So Invasive…. national trek will be the band’s only significant tour for 2024 and will introduce a new, fourth touring member to the line-up in the form of Sarah Lim on keytar and guitar. On Saturday, 8 June, at The Baso, The Gurge promise an 80-minute set covering the new album and an array of hits across the past 30 years. AND, they are joined by special guests Party Dozen, Cry Club, and Monster Zoku Onsomb. All this for only $66.30 via Oztix? Bar-gain!
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