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Regurgitator.
If you ever need to give an example of evolution, look at Regurgitator. From 'Tu-Plang' to 'Unit' to '...Art' they've kept listeners guessing, and nothing's changed with the stripped back rock of new single Bong In My Eye. Their upcoming album is to be recorded in the public eye: sealed in a bubble in Melbourne's Federation Square. Quan Yeomans, however, sounds weary when I ask what they've been up to of late.
"Not a great deal..." he sighed. "I came back from overseas after 18 months over there about nine months ago and we have just been writing since then. We have had a couple of UK tours over the last two years: we went to Glasgow and London and that was really fun. The UK is full of Australians anyway so we had a heap of ex-pats come to our shows, 800 people turned up to one so we were really happy with it. In the UK, nobody really knows us and nobody really cares to know us, I wouldn't think."
He perks up when I ask about how the band are functioning at the moment. "We have been rehearsing new stuff lately and it's coming together really well. We're focussing on writing stuff that is relevant as well as being listenable..." he enthuses. "I don't really know what level we are at now. I came back and felt that I was a nobody again and it really gave me a fresh outlook. I guess we could have just sat down and said 'let's churn out another album to keep this thing going' but I didn't really want to do that. So when I was overseas I said to myself 'I don't really want to come back and do another album unless it is really wacked out.
"Recording in front of people is going to be really strange and I want to have as much of the album written before we go [into the bubble] because writing lyrics in public scares the absolute shit out of me. We're not finished yet though, I am working on about seven songs concurrently at the moment and about three of them have lyrics. Hopefully we will get most of the songs done, but if we don't I guess I'll be stuck in there. But when we're in there it might turn out to be really inspiring!"
Regurgitator have always struck me as a band that wanted their lyrics to be heard, both to shock and to make people think. "I am interested in playing with words and making some sort of point about society through my lyrics," Yeomans agrees. "I don't really know what I'm doing now though because I passed through a very cynical stage and now I don't think I am as cynical as I used to be. I realised that I wasted a lot of energy. Lyrics are still very important to me but I just don't know how good at it I am any more. It's really been like pulling teeth lately."
Sam Vinall
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Regurgitator play the Adelaide UniBar on Fri 6 Aug with Spod and Spatial Monkey.
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The latest issue
available now!
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