Perth's BATS give us the rundown on their debut album, Truthless Faithless

Perth based alt-rock band BATS quench the thirst of Australian rock fans with their powerful (both thematically and sonically) debut LP Truthless Faithless. To go a little deeper into the record's creation, we asked BATS to give us a run-down of their new album, which is officially out today.

Truthless

Truthless is an unrelenting and unhinged guitar/dance driven track to the point of obscenity. The song is about we the people being treated as if we are mindless, constantly pushed to breaking point by a barrage of companies/government agencies spruiking this or that contrary to what the actual truth is. The middle breakdown of the song is symbolic of taking a breath and realising what happens all around us and to us unless we choose for it not to, which leads into the outro where the repetitive beat and guitars completely break down like we ourselves (and our planet) will if we keep this up but let’s look at the outro as a positive rebellion against what we have been subconsciously trained to do whether we know it or not.

We got a mind. Lets use it.

Tarantula

Tarantula actually stems from a time long ago, circa-2014 in which I was rather fascinated with the whole tropicalia movement, in particular Jorge Ben Jour, Os Mutantes which is probably where the samba-esque vibe comes from.

Who You Know

The guts of this track is pretty Pete’s doing! Originally titled Pete’s Song (for obvious reasons) it took a turn for the darker in the studio. The addition of the semi tonal change in the would-be choruses makes a pleasant side track for the mind away from the riff. As with most of our songs it is a stance of defiance, and a bit of riffage never hurt no one.

Beirut

A brother song of a track off the earlier EP, this is one of those little more 60s-inspired numbers that slips into the fray as a bit of light amongst the darkness. Written on acoustic guitar as opposed to in the jam room it embodies a bit more of a rythmic strumming pattern and is pretty fun to play!

Alexus Nexus

We have never played this live ever, but will at our launch on November 18 at the Odd Fellow. The storyline is: imagine a little town anywhere in the world that has never known fear and how happy that place would be. Now imagine fear moves in like a thick fog and what would the people do? Freak out? Start questioning each other? Not trusting in each other anymore? Sounds like 2017...

Big

This tune was initially had five more sections. As is often the case when one makes something much more complicated or full of stuff to then strip it all back to bare bones. It’s a staple of our live set.

Snaffles

Snaffles has had a few lives over its time before roosting in its current form. We are all fans of timing changes and big smalls! It’s the opportunity we have to play as little as possible (choruses) whilst making as much noise as possible to then zip back into the pocket for the verses.

24 Hours

24 Hours is by far our “busiest track”, especially drums wise. As a precursor to Freedom the song comes from the point of view of being trapped in a cage (detention centre) for years on end where your only hope of survival is to get through another 24 hours and try not lose your mind.

Freedom

Freedom is written about exactly that. The poor people on Manus and Naru just trying to get away from stuff which none of us would stand for. It’s all of our worldly rights to be free. We as the white middle class wouldn’t even contemplate having our freedom taken away, but we will take it away from others in more need than ourselves.

Bad Handshakes

Is about one's moral obligation to do right by each other and the guilt/lack of courage people show when not dealing with an issue caused by them. I have done it and will live with that regret for the rest of my years. Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing but in the long run you will be better off.

Faithless

I watched my best friend die at 23. It’s taken a decade to put this on record. This song is for her x.

This is all pretty heavy stuff. We take our music and subject matter seriously but not ourselves. Ever.

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