Articulate Songsters

Photo by Maggie Topliss

The Twerps write lazy, meandering tunes that feel like swinging in a shady hammock while the rest of your party plays backyard cricket—think the Go Betweens if they were informed less by romantic poetry and more by the plots of Pixar animations. Last year was a good one for The Twerps. You couldn’t look up without seeing a poster for a show they were playing. I met with the whole band in a park to do this interview but before we could begin, we had to dissuade a hyperactive Asian kid named Hau who wanted in on the interview. As soon as he left us alone, an awkward old nerd with a video camera started circling us—a weird way to start any interview by any standards. Unimpressed, Rick the bassist took off, leaving the rest of the band, Pat, Julia and Marty, to crack a couple of beers with me. Vice: Marty, I know you work in a video store. If you guys could provide the soundtrack to any film, what would it be?
Marty: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Pat: American Graffiti.
Marty: I was watching that film the other day and I actually thought about this. It’s a Richard Dreyfuss film and it’s cool. Everyone says they write songs about books and shit like that, but movies are probably a bigger inspiration for us.
Julia: What about Malcolm? Or The Big Steal?
Marty: Yeah, all those Australian films. The Twerps like Australian films. So, some of our songs are inspired by film, for sure. The rest are about girls. Like, Julia. Ahhh…I’m not very articulate.
Pat: I think you’re articulate. Sure, Marty. You’re articulate. What do you mean?
Marty: Well maybe but I’m a hideous speller. I wrote this note for Jarrod from St Helens after we made up the term “Snappin’ Off A Dragon”, which means having a wank and a poo at the same time. So, Pat and Jules did these drawings of a guy snappin’ off a dragon, and I wrote the note to go with them. When I showed them to Jarrod, he told me he knew that the note was from me because of the awful spelling, and proceeded to give me an on-the-spot spell check with a red pen. Right, you’re sticking to music then? How did The Twerps meet?
Marty: Rick and I started having beers and he realised that the dudes I was hanging around with were no good, no hopers who were standing in the way of things that I wanted to do. Things like meeting girls. We were smoking bongs eight days a week. So, he dragged you from the muck?
Pat: He smashed the bong from your hand.
Marty: I wrote a lot of songs in my old band, You Will Die Alone, which didn’t fit the style they were doing, so I had all these songs lying around. One day Rick just decided he was going to play bass, and he got good at it real quick. So we wrote a song and listened to it together about eighteen times and we thought that we were the kings of Melbourne. Pat played some drums, and Julia had just finished playing in Batrider and invited herself to play. So, what’s next for the band? You just did this great 7" on Chapter Records.
Marty: Rick’s the man with the plan—that’s why he isn’t at this interview. He’s at home. Planning. We all have our roles. Pat is the roadie. Jules designs the posters and artwork. I occasionally reply to email. I’m the artist of the band, you know? At the moment, US shows and maybe a record later in the year are the plans Sounds good man.
Marty: Yeah, but, back to the first question, I know exactly which movie we’d do the soundtrack to; Back To The Future, the first one. When I was in grade six, I’d just make Back To The Future II books. In the first film, he goes back to the 50s, and I’m obsessed with the 50s. His name is Marty, my name is Marty. It’s all pointing to “yes”. That’s definitely the film we will soundtrack.

The Twerps S/T 7" available now from Chapter Music.