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Lafferty Daniel - Boring Twenties
Lafferty Daniel - Boring Twenties
Lafferty Daniel’s tantalising sophomore EP Boring Twenties is an ode to the struggles, fears and apathy of the modern twenty-something year-old, packaged up into freaked-out garage-surf nuggets.
Brimming with a sunny jangle and heaps of energy, Lafferty Daniel’s second EP finds Jack Foy feeling uncertain about the future, but thanks to his earnest vocals and erratic instrumentation, he somehow makes the whole experience sound thrilling.
The EP kicks off with ‘Good Together’, a straight to the point surf jam with driven guitars and direct lyrics. Despite the strong Australian accent, the layering of the vocals adds a real sparkle and lightness to the song. Following on with ‘Work This Time’, we really get that sense of that lethargy triggered by the 9 to 5 daily grind. The track is both somewhat sceptical and hopeful - we’ve all been there.
Up next is ‘Been Your Friend’, a perfect portrayal of that all too familiar anxiety of navigating a relationship post-break up - “so why do you never pick up your phone? Did I say something wrong? It’s been static for so long”. We really get a sense of the uncomfortableness of the situation, and the truthful, no bullshit attitudes that can rear their heads in the fallout of a heartbreak. Wrapping up Boring Twenties is standout track ‘New Eco, No Ego’. If you’ve ever listened to a song and thought “this is great but it needs more drum fills”, then this is the song for you. The bouncy drums keep you bopping along from start to finish, and with its winding guitar riff and catchy vocals, it’s a track you will need to get up and have a dance to.
Lafferty Daniel have really followed up their debut EP Faux Punk with another wild instalment of jams with Boring Twenties. It’s wacky, it’s groovy, and all-round just a lot of fun. To celebrate the release, we got in touch with Lafferty D to find out a bit more about each moment the EP.
The EP kicks off with ‘Good Together’, a straight to the point surf jam with driven guitars and direct lyrics. Despite the strong Australian accent, the layering of the vocals adds a real sparkle and lightness to the song. Following on with ‘Work This Time’, we really get that sense of that lethargy triggered by the 9 to 5 daily grind. The track is both somewhat sceptical and hopeful - we’ve all been there.
Up next is ‘Been Your Friend’, a perfect portrayal of that all too familiar anxiety of navigating a relationship post-break up - “so why do you never pick up your phone? Did I say something wrong? It’s been static for so long”. We really get a sense of the uncomfortableness of the situation, and the truthful, no bullshit attitudes that can rear their heads in the fallout of a heartbreak. Wrapping up Boring Twenties is standout track ‘New Eco, No Ego’. If you’ve ever listened to a song and thought “this is great but it needs more drum fills”, then this is the song for you. The bouncy drums keep you bopping along from start to finish, and with its winding guitar riff and catchy vocals, it’s a track you will need to get up and have a dance to.
Lafferty Daniel have really followed up their debut EP Faux Punk with another wild instalment of jams with Boring Twenties. It’s wacky, it’s groovy, and all-round just a lot of fun. To celebrate the release, we got in touch with Lafferty D to find out a bit more about each moment the EP.
Good Together
I wrote this song after a tough break up. It was a real rollercoaster, complete with the classic post-break up, six months of seeing each other, off and on. I wrote it the day after having had the final nail put in the proverbial coffin. It helped in processing a lot of the emotion involved, and lyrically it was a kind of tongue in cheek jab at myself for actually thinking it could ever work out! In short, it’s a song about wanting to be in a relationship that you know isn’t good for you (or them).
Work This Time
The first thing I came up with was the main chord progression. I love writing songs in 6/4 - it’s really deceptive cause it’s an even number so you don’t even realise it’s an odd time when you hear it. You wouldn’t guess from listening, but that’s an influence from the Ramones. I find it really funny how the Ramones are written off as this super simple punk band, but they’re easily one of my biggest influences. A solid handful of their tracks are in 6/4, and even a coupla bits are in 5/4. So I went with that vibe but gave it a little twist in the middle. I love writing based off of rhythms. So pretty much the whole song is like four chords, but I tried not to make it super obvious.
Another thing I love is using layers. That’s a real blink-182 thing. Throughout the song, each section gains and loses layers of guitar, keys, harmonies etc. I love hearing that in music. Simple writing, but with arrangements that make you go “oh hang on, I’ve already heard this part, but there’s something different about it this time.”
I think one of my favourite things to do with song writing is having the juxtaposition between really lively, happy sounding music, with kind of down-trodden lyrics. The whole theme of the song is a despondence, laziness, and apathy. But it’s presented in a really high energy way, and I’m all about having that contrast.
Been Your Friend
This is a song about meeting someone, and hooking up and having a great time, but ultimately realising that its better if you scale it back to just being friends. Except you never were friends in the first place! And now you’ve got all this added emotional baggage. So it’s about trying to navigate that relationship transition, while having to overcome all of this history. And sort of flailing around not really knowing how to do it correctly, hence the exasperated yelling at the chorus. Musically, a big inspiration for this song was ‘I Feel Fine’ by The Beatles. I chose to give the second verse that calypso kinda drum feel, and then padded it out with a bunch of other percussion to really make it feel over the top! I don’t think you could really compare the two songs aside from that, so I think I gave the rhythm my own spin on it.
New Eco, No Ego
The first thing I wrote for this song was the riff, and then pretty much based the rest of the writing around that. Similarly to ‘Work This Time’, I really like taking only a few chords, and then messing around with the rhythm a lot to create different sections, and ultimately, a fully fledged song. The end of the song slows down into a completely new section, but then out of nowhere kicks back into the original rhythm to really drive things home. I think this entire section is the part I’m musically most proud of on Boring Twenties. Lyrically, the song is kind of about a person who is really naive trying to make their way through the world. They understand they have no idea what they are doing, and are kind of in limbo about whether or not to broaden their horizons, or if they’d be happier in blissful ignorance.
I wrote this song after a tough break up. It was a real rollercoaster, complete with the classic post-break up, six months of seeing each other, off and on. I wrote it the day after having had the final nail put in the proverbial coffin. It helped in processing a lot of the emotion involved, and lyrically it was a kind of tongue in cheek jab at myself for actually thinking it could ever work out! In short, it’s a song about wanting to be in a relationship that you know isn’t good for you (or them).
Work This Time
The first thing I came up with was the main chord progression. I love writing songs in 6/4 - it’s really deceptive cause it’s an even number so you don’t even realise it’s an odd time when you hear it. You wouldn’t guess from listening, but that’s an influence from the Ramones. I find it really funny how the Ramones are written off as this super simple punk band, but they’re easily one of my biggest influences. A solid handful of their tracks are in 6/4, and even a coupla bits are in 5/4. So I went with that vibe but gave it a little twist in the middle. I love writing based off of rhythms. So pretty much the whole song is like four chords, but I tried not to make it super obvious.
Another thing I love is using layers. That’s a real blink-182 thing. Throughout the song, each section gains and loses layers of guitar, keys, harmonies etc. I love hearing that in music. Simple writing, but with arrangements that make you go “oh hang on, I’ve already heard this part, but there’s something different about it this time.”
I think one of my favourite things to do with song writing is having the juxtaposition between really lively, happy sounding music, with kind of down-trodden lyrics. The whole theme of the song is a despondence, laziness, and apathy. But it’s presented in a really high energy way, and I’m all about having that contrast.
Been Your Friend
This is a song about meeting someone, and hooking up and having a great time, but ultimately realising that its better if you scale it back to just being friends. Except you never were friends in the first place! And now you’ve got all this added emotional baggage. So it’s about trying to navigate that relationship transition, while having to overcome all of this history. And sort of flailing around not really knowing how to do it correctly, hence the exasperated yelling at the chorus. Musically, a big inspiration for this song was ‘I Feel Fine’ by The Beatles. I chose to give the second verse that calypso kinda drum feel, and then padded it out with a bunch of other percussion to really make it feel over the top! I don’t think you could really compare the two songs aside from that, so I think I gave the rhythm my own spin on it.
New Eco, No Ego
The first thing I wrote for this song was the riff, and then pretty much based the rest of the writing around that. Similarly to ‘Work This Time’, I really like taking only a few chords, and then messing around with the rhythm a lot to create different sections, and ultimately, a fully fledged song. The end of the song slows down into a completely new section, but then out of nowhere kicks back into the original rhythm to really drive things home. I think this entire section is the part I’m musically most proud of on Boring Twenties. Lyrically, the song is kind of about a person who is really naive trying to make their way through the world. They understand they have no idea what they are doing, and are kind of in limbo about whether or not to broaden their horizons, or if they’d be happier in blissful ignorance.
Check out Boring Twenties above, and catch Lafferty Daniel launching the EP on Friday, November 29th, at the Grace Darling.
