STACK #209 Mar 2022

MUSIC FEATURE

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THE YOUTH IS FATHER OF THE MAN

Vibrant with the kinds of scalpel-precise lyrical profundities for which frontman Dave L'eupepe is known, angel in realtime. sees Gang of Youths grasp at the turmoil of a life event – the death of an adored and secretive father – and turn it into expansive, high-low-brow beauty. Words Zoë Radas

”I ’m someone who’s made a career out of saying sh-t of that ilk,” Dave Le’aupepe says of a lyric from Gang of Youths’ third album angel in realtime. The line in question goes, ”I’ve not been in the greatest place/ Think I will get better/ I dunno.” ”I don’t know if there was power behind it, man – it felt pretty weak,” he continues. He’s fine with admitting weakness, of course, because he’s ”never far away” from self- deprecation. ”And if I’m this much of a pr-ck

while I’m being self-deprecating, can you imagine what I’d be like if I believed the hype!?” Dave and bassist bandmate Max Dunn are Zooming from London, though Dave attests he’s a ”Cro-Magnon” when it comes to video call tech. (”Gang of Boomers,” Max jokes.) The two cheers their ”famous Australian battery acid” Victoria Bitter, before Dave quotes the entirety of the ”Matter of fact, I’ve got it now” ad in a yammer before adding, without a breath: ”Yeah, clearly I don’t miss it at all!”

What he truly misses since the formerly Sydney-based band moved to England in 2017, are the people. ”I miss my mum, my dad’s grave, and I miss this : the great Australian temperament,” he says, gesturing to his screen. ”I miss [the] accents. We didn’t flee [Australia]; we had to go to do what we wanted to do. I wanted to leave on a high. I’d rather stay here and miss those things, than come back and... learn to resent those things, or even worse, forget why they were so amazing in the first place.”

80 MARCH 2022

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