To commemorate the release of their second EP, we dove into the world of Sophisticated Dingo as they shared a track by track exploration of their most recent creation, How’s the Carry On!? Four years on from their first release, this EP plays as a real mark of their progression - as musicians and long-term best mates - as it navigates the realms of early surf-rock blended with their signature garage-punk thump, alongside a new consideration for the challenges that come with growing up. Still packed with heaps of energy and plenty of noise, this time around the chaos is slightly more refined and the hooks are tighter than ever.

A rollercoaster of fun and emotion from start to finish, this five-song collection will be sure to have you transported far from the grips of a Melburnian pandemic-riddled winter. Placing us in a far more desirable location, allow yourself to get lost in the heavy and refined drum beats, the substantial and sturdy guitar licks and the insightful lyrics that manoeuvre through adulthood.

Read on to dig into the design of each track and the inspirations behind them from the unveiling words of Lew.

Vultures

First out of the gate it’s a bit of everything on the plate. No intro, just straight into the verse, some of the most abrasive guitars on the record, a half-time bridge and spoken word nonsense (relatively hidden). We put a piece of just about everything into it recording-wise and I guess it shows with that list. I hear plenty of noisy American influence in the recording, along the lines of Wavves and Best Coast with overtones of drunken Australiana à la Cosmic Psychos and DZ Deathrays.

Mary

This song has my favourite intro on the EP. I always wanted an 8-bit style video game sounding introduction for the song. Our producer Sam Swain was a wizard when it came to working those quirky things out. He whipped out this (not sure what it is sorry) midi controller synth (maybe?) that fitted in his pocket and we mucked around on it for about 15 minutes and low and behold the intro was complete (including virtual dog barks). There are plenty of moments throughout the song that capture the contrast of all versus nothing.

Ego

We wrote the music for this song and played it in its first (underwhelming) form all the way back in 2014. To be honest it all sounds pretty similar to how it did back then. My favourite part of the song is the outro. I like how the drums and guitar lift to drive home the song under the vocals. I feel like there is some influence from Polish Club coming through there.

Don’t Wanna Be

This is another one that we have been playing live for ages. We have always called it ‘Bush One’ though. The name ‘Don’t Wanna Be’ came late in the piece because we thought it needed something more than a working title for the record. While recording we changed the arrangement of the outro for the first time in the song’s existence. It was a relatively big thing to change given we had played it live the same way for three years but it felt right and I think it sounds good.

What Is Going On?

This is the newest song out of all of them on the EP. The first rendition of this came in a rehearsal room long ago but the idea was hard to flesh out. The initial spark was strong enough to stand the test of time though and the song eventually found a way to be written. I am happy that it did because I really enjoy playing and listening to it. The outro is the track slowed down a whole lot. I always thought it sounded like the Mount Kimbie x Dingo remix that could have been.