Interview: Angus from The Lulu Raes

The Lulu Raes are an unstoppable pop-rock machine. Having pumped out a phat stack of singles, the Sydney gents have now gotten together to record their debut EP ‘All Our Parents Are Divorced’. We chatted with Angus from the band to talk about influences, the stories behind the singles, and one particularly fiery gig!

Your new single, Never Leave is so uplifting and warm, especially with the little vocal break in the chorus, what’s the story behind the song?

Originally it was an acoustic song that our singer Eddie and our guitarist Taras, had written, and it was a completely different song that written, and we tried to make more of a whole-band vibe and it just came together pretty quickly from then, I guess.

Your releases so far have all been insanely catchy with that little bit of pop shine to them, who would you say are the biggest musical influences for the the band?

I got told last night that we have a bit of early Beach Boys sound to us, and I guess we all kind of love that catchy stuff. But we love a lot of bands. Our singer really loves the Strokes, and we all just have very different musical tastes that all just come together in this very don’t-take-yourselves-too-seriously vibe in our live shows. We love to have a good time on stage.

Well we certainly had a good time at the Brisbane show when you were with the Jungle Giants and the smoke alarms went off…

[Laughing] Yeah, well that one might have been Eddie’s fault, we’re not sure yet.

You’re just came off a touring Jungle Giants, obviously, and you’ve also done some shows alongside Sticky Fingers and DMAs, what’s it like touring with such well-established bands?

I only joined just after the boys had finished touring with Stick Fingers and DMA’s, but the Jungle Giants shows were really good, and they’re all really nice people. The singer Sam took really good care of us and we was really accommodating, so there wasn’t that divide that you often get in the green rooms. They were good guys, good friends!

Is there anything that you’ve picked up from the Jungle Giants about touring or live performance?

I guess just the crowd interaction. They get the people so excited. Often you don’t see a lot of interaction, or that they’ve missed the vibe of the audience, but they love to get in for a dance, and have a chat between songs, which is always important, I reckon.

You’ve also had some appearances at some much larger festivals, like Groovin’ The Moo, how do those larger festivals differ from a smaller headline show?

I think you have more of a job to win them over, especially because we were playing at 11am. We had a great crowd and they were really into it. But you have to go out there and win them over straight away, because we only had a 20 minute set. You really only have time to play four or five singles, as opposed to the smaller shows like Newtown Social, where you have time to build the energy throughout, and you can have not so much dips, but calmer moments.

What should fans know before they get their hands on the ‘All Our Parents Are Divorced’ EP in August?

Well the first thing they should know is that unfortunately my parents are the only ones that aren’t divorced. [Laughing] I could get in trouble for that, but I’m working to get them split up; its a work in progress. Its going to be a good EP. It’s got a lot of bouncy tunes, and it’s got two more on there that are real bangers, so I think it’s going to be a really good time when it comes out!

Check out Never Leave from the ‘All Our Parents Are Divorced’ EP, and make sure to have a look at the tour dates below!

‘All Our Parents Are Divorced’ EP Tour

FRI 09 SEP
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
SAT 10 SEP
Transit Bar, Canberra
THU 15 SEP
Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
FRI 16 SEP
Producers Bar, Adelaide
FRI 30 SEP
Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane
SAT 01 OCT
Sol Bar, Sunshine Coast