A staple in the Melbourne punk scene, Lazertits have been releasing music for over five years now, with their debut album Not Punk, Per Se arriving into our welcoming laps in 2017. After an extended break, they returned last month with their latest single ‘Self Care’, an ode to self-love and the liberation from the stranglehold of broken love and sleepless nights one can achieve through masturbation, released fittingly amidst the tribulation that is coronavirus.

With a clear assertion that Eastern health techniques and in-vogue dating apps like Tinder might be inferior to what one can accomplish with their fingers, Lazertits spend the track’s near five minute runtime honing in on their preferred method of looking after oneself. Powered by dominant and distorted guitar riffs and backed by a propulsive rhythm section, the track heaves with a kind of haphazard vigour, which only affirms each chanted lyric entangled in the meaning of the song. Once the vocals have rounded out though, the instrumentation refuses to let up and shifts into a fiery outro section, its careening tempo shifts perhaps echoing the sentiment aforementioned before things are abruptly finished.

Following on from release, we caught up with Lazertits to discuss the new single, their thoughts on punk as a sub-culture and what’s getting them through isolation.

TJ: It’s been three years since the release of Not Punk, Per Se - your debut album that still sounds as essential as ever. What do you think has changed over the last three years leading into your upcoming record?

Amy (vocals, guitar): Firstly - thank you for your kind words!! It’s nice to feel relevant haha. Well the main thing that has changed since our first album is that we are now a four-piece, since our darling Vicki left! Vicki was the whole reason we started the band, it was her idea - she named the band, she wrote our first release ‘Gender Studies’. She moved back to Sweden for a while after we released the album, we rushed heaps to get it done and have the launch before she left. We thought about ending the band then as it felt kind of sacrilegious to go on without her. Eventually we all made peace with it - and with Vicki’s blessing - we instead took a hiatus (now an annual ritual after we burn out playing a few shows over summer lol) and kind of changed things up. I picked up the guitar at that point and Lexi took the helm in terms of songwriting. She’s now our primary riff-writer and concept overlord.

Lex comes up with a lot of the foundations for songs and we build on them together. So that’s kind of different from how we used to write, which was maybe more collaborative from scratch - which was amazing and fun while we were all learning, but also quite slow and sometimes painful as we all had really different music experience and vocabularies. Aside from that I think we’re all a bit more measured and considered with our approach to music - we aren’t total novices anymore and it’s been really fun working on new sounds (which you are yet to hear muahaha) and subject matter.

‘Self Care’ touches on a lot of isolation anxieties and feels like an anthem for taking care of yourself during these strange times. How did this song come about?

Lex (guitar, vocals): This song’s actually been in the works for about two years now, it started off from a place of feeling really lonely after a long-term relo ended. I’d realised there was a routine in the things I was doing to take away my boredom, and how easily I could make myself feel better or self-sufficient at least! It’s basically an exploration about how we feel we need to go really deeply spiritual and inward when working through a big life change, but you can literally feel physically better instantly by taking matters into your own hands ;). Bit of a confronting topic to sing about but whatever, women waz. WAP4EVA!

Filled with workout routines and downtime relaxation, the accompanied video clip for ‘Self Care’ reflects the importance of staying connected while staying apart. How did the concept for the clip come together?

Rose (bass): At the start of lockdown we were connecting over Zoom once a week to workout together. Although our weekly catch ups continued, we slowly started to replace dumbbells with vinos. A few glasses in on one of those band-vino-zoom-sessions, we developed the concept. The initial idea came from our genious-ly creative guitarist, Lexi. Lexi and I got overly excited by the idea of incorporating TikTok inspired choreography. All of a sudden our late 20’s/early 30’s selves felt 17 again, making up a dance number to Britney Spears in your living room to show off to your parents' friends.

You’ve been a mainstay in Melbourne’s punk scene for over five years now, but as your last album suggested, your views of what is ‘punk’ might not completely align with traditional attitudes. What does punk mean to you?

Amy: Yeah the punk label was always funny to us, mostly because it wasn’t a genre of music we necessarily knew much about. We didn’t really know what we were doing back in the day, when the main goal was to remember enough songs to play the bare minimum 20 minute set. I don’t think any genre or style was on our minds, we literally had a blues song called Mouth of the River where Lexi sang in a southern accent and Amy played keys and did back up “shoooo-wa-wa” noises LOL. But I guess for ages our only recorded song was ‘Gender Studies’, which is arguably the most punk song we ever wrote, so when we were starting out we’d get booked for all these kind of heavy rock and punk shows.

It was always so funny talking to the bands who’d booked us after the show - I’d say about half the time they’d love it for whatever reason and the other half of the time they wouldn’t really know what to say cos we clearly didn’t meet their expectations. Mostly this was quite funny to us cos the whole concept of us playing shows was kind of a joke.

Which brings me back to your question - I think the definition of punk that finally made sense to me was when our dear friend Sam West wrote a piece about our first EP and called it "punk as...in an unpolished, don't-give-a-fuck glee of a band that's constantly surprised anyone's taking them seriously...it’s really fun to be around”. I feel like I really took that on and it helped me understand a bit better that punk is whatever you want it to be - and anyone who tells you that what you’re doing doesn’t fit the description of ‘punk’ has clearly missed the point.

Looking back on punk's influence over the culture and music of the 70’s, do you think there’s any similarities in the reinvigoration of the genre in Melbourne at the moment? How do you think the local scene fosters this type of music? And how do you think things have changed?

Amy: Had to phone my Dad for this one. All he could tell me is that cocaine is much more expensive now. Hahaaaa yeah nah yeah well as you could probably ascertain from my response to the last question, I don’t really think I’m super equipped to answer this question from a historical perspective. What I do know is that the Melbourne DIY/queer/non-male dominated punk scene kind of seems like nothing else I’ve ever come across. As our dear label angels at Roolette would say, LOVE MUSIC FRIENDSHIP COMMUNITY. That is exactly what the local scene fosters in a really big way. I have no clue what went on in the 70’s but if it was half as kind, encouraging, supportive and truly TALENTED as our scene then I really do wish I was alive then. But honestly I doubt anything could be more badass and radically adorable than the Melbourne punk scene we are fortunate enough to have grown with as a band.

‘Self Care’ is the first single from an upcoming full length out through Melbourne favourites Roolette Records. How has your experience been working with the label on the release so far?

Rose: Absolutely fantastic. We could tell straight away that they are a team we were going to enjoy working with. They’re kind, cute, lovely people with similar values and goals. We couldn’t be more stoked.

Amy: Just jumping in here to give an extra big love react to Roolette - couldn’t dream of a better label to work with. Again quoting them here - they are a “people first” kind of label. As people ourselves, we love that big time. Cannot recommend enough working with Roolette!

Obviously, this year’s turned out to be a bit of a write off, and we’re guessing that plans to launch the new single have been put aside for the moment. Being so firmly rooted in the local scene, what are you most excited about and hopeful for when things go back to normal?

Rose: Beers, mates, music. Cannot bloody wait. We were just saying to each other recently how much we’re looking forward to having band practice together. Our band practices are like therapy. It’s usually accompanied with some wine, cheese, cups of tea and catching up on each other’s hot goss. A couple of hours generally go by before we say ‘hey, we better play some songs’.