BUBBLEGUM HAIRCUT

Words: Em Tobin

Photography: @inelipics

It was a rainy May night when I caught up with Brisbane-based quartet Bubblegum Haircut over a 4XXX under Woolloongabba’s Season Three. On May 13, the band released their debut album, Hang me up by my boots, an ode to gritty, rock-noise harshness. Yet what lingers deeper in the melting pop of Bubblegum Haircut’s music is a quiet confidence that is apparent in their lyricism. What sonically appears exciting and gradient is empowered by potent storytelling. 

Live, it’s easy to be entranced by Bubblegum Haircut’s frantic stage presence, capturing a burning, red-hot enthusiasm. On the stage at Season Three, the loud intimacy of the band’s spirit is omnipresent, and what is revealed is a stark, evident passion, the type which only appears through true authenticity. Bubblegum Haircut know how to move a crowd; it’s as apparent to them as the music itself. Inside Season Three, bodies moved frantically amid a kaleidoscope of sonic noise into a feverish whirlpool. The crowd was as loud and passionate as the band itself, captured and deeply immersed in the noise of the band’s newly released single, Noose Song. 

What Bubblegum Haircut have essentially captured in their album echoes the ethos of the stage presence in their live performances - raw, deliberate passion. Hang Me Up by My Boots is ultimately a reflection on unique sonicality and the ardent enthusiasm at the heart of the band. Since its release, their album has climbed the 4zzz charts, with the band playing a host of local shows. Bubblegum Haircut are Brisbane-based Jarva Efendi, Kaleb Collings, and Sam Weinert.

EM: Bubblegum Haircut appears to be very good friends. What’s this like in terms of band collaboration, and what’s your favourite part about working together?

SAM: I’m not sure actually. It makes it super easy; there are not really many issues. We’re quite democratic, I think, when we have to make a decision. I don’t think that anyone gets their egos involved too much.  

JARVA: It makes us all on the same page.

SAM: Agreed, and it makes it way more fun. 

EM: Following the release of your album, Hang me up by my boots, I’m interested in this very distinct, Brisbane-esque sound you’ve cultivated. What experiences, philosophies, and sonics do you take influence from? 

JARVA: Nihilism. 

SAM: Jarva says so. 

KALEB: Thanks, that’s nice. No, I think that the Brisbane sound is very important, and it’s nice to recognise because we’ve tried to do that. But there’s also a lot of international influence, maybe mainly. But there's still definitely Brisbane stuff, sad, hopeless sort of undertones in there.

SAM: I think it happens kind of unintentionally. But also, there’s a bit more on the earlier stuff we’ve released. There’s a bit more of an Australiana sort of sound going on, but I think intentionally we’ve moved away from that on this album. We have more of a wider scope.  

EM: Noose Song - walk me through the process of writing that track. What was the process of creating such a loud, rock-esque memory? 

SAM: Well, we just wrote it in rehearsal once. 

JARVA: Sam had the bass line, and then we kind of created the idea of it, I guess. Then Sam went to Japan, and then we got it done. It was literally the last song, or second last song, I think.  

SAM: It came pretty spontaneously at the end of writing the album. I mean, I don’t think we rushed it; we finished it the day before we went to the studio.

JARVA: It happened naturally; it wasn’t like we ran out of time and needed something last minute. 

SAM: Yeah, very natural. 

JARVA: I guess that’s what it’s about, lyrics-wise. 

SAM: You called it Sam Noose Song. But I said, let’s just call it Noose Song because it’s way sicker. 

JARVA: I wrote the lyrics about a person. But I think it is just a universal feeling, whether about a person or a place, it’s just an idea. There’s a lot of interpersonal conflict; it’s introspective, the lyrics, but it’s sort of relatable to a lot of people. 

SAM: This song’s more personal than a lot of our other songs. 

JARVA: Yeah, that’s why this track’s one that I prefer the most. 

EM: Bleeding USA is such a strong reflection of current geopolitics. How do you bring your own worldviews into your music, and why? 

JARVA: Well, that one, at least lyrically, is just something people are surrounded by. I mean fucking hell, how can you not, if you’re writing in any sense, feel a bit of a war? That’s pretty much it.

EM: If there was any song to be leaked off the album before release, what song would you not want to be leaked? 

SAM: I actually want Bubblegum to be leaked; it's one of the nicer ones.

JARVA: Maybe Gimme. Don’t leak that one. 

KALEB: I’d have to say Hang me up by my boots. I think it’s a standout; I think it’s really good, but it’s also quite different to everything else. In my opinion, it’s my favourite song. I wanted to release it as a single. 

EM: I really enjoyed Surf’s Up, and I think it’s great fun. How do you feel Surf’s Up resonates with your audience? 

SAM: Well, I’m not sure. I wrote it as a joke, well, not really a joke. We were just all together having fun, but it’s sort of changed up. 

JARVA: Lyrically it’s not fun. It’s actually reinterpreted from a surf song to a war song. It’s about war; it’s about invasion, it’s from the perspective of a German soldier looking over the beach on Normandy during the invasion. That’s pretty much it. 

SAM: When we play it, it’s more fun. 

KALEB: We literally wrote it in a practice as a joke, and then we had joke lyrics. Then Jarva went home and wrote some nice lyrics, and we turned it into something else. 

JARVA: But it’s cool, though; I really, really like that song because it gives off a surfy vibe, but the lyrics are so different. 

SAM: I was pretty opposed to releasing it, but now I really like it. The lyrics make it more serious, but it sounds like it’s a bit about surf’s up. 

KALEB: And maybe that’s a good representation of the band. 

EM: You guys are a punk band, through and through. What do you think defines the band within this genre? 

JARVA: We’ve been banned from a lot of places. We’re being pushed out of everywhere to the sea, and Kaleb’s the first to leave. 

KALEB: We definitely started off as a punk band, but I think this record is pushing us in towards more post-punk, I guess. 

EM: What did you learn from the process of producing and writing the album? What lessons have you taken from the experience? 

KALEB: Well, it’s the first album release that we haven’t recorded ourselves. It’s a big change to go to a studio and do it. Before, we were literally recording everything in bedrooms and storage sheds, but it was nice to have a different set of ears and professionals doing it. 

SAM: Yeah, it just makes me want to write more music and write better music. Honestly, I’m still more interested in doing it ourselves again, after this experience, and spending more time writing and recording, and with Cordell playing with us now, it just makes the scope wider for what we can play. 

KALEB: Maybe we didn’t say before that it’s Cordell’s first time playing with us. 

EM: What is everyone’s favourite track off the album and why? 

JARVA: I think for me it’s Noose Song. I love Noose Song, just because that song in the song, I can’t even remember writing them. Some of the songs I dwelled over a little bit more, but that song in particular just felt like it’s really shown up. It’s really personal to me. 

SAM: Yeah, I think Noose Song is my favourite. I think it’s like, the best song that I’ve had a hand in writing to date, and I also think it has more to it than what we’ve done before, and released before. And it’s really fun to play live. And also, Surf’s Up is good. 

KALEB: I forgot to say, maybe Claire, actually, I can’t decide. We recorded it in one take, and Cordell’s guitar strap broke, the guitar fell on the floor, and Cordell kept playing the fucking main guitar part on the floor, and it worked. We did it in one take; we were like, that’s sick. It was so nice. 

EM: Bubblegum Haircut ascends from very DIY origins. How does it feel to move into the space of getting other people to produce your music - does that take away an aspect of creative control, or does it add to the experience? 

JARVA: Not really because Cam, Cameron Smith, from Incremental Records, was so relaxed, so the process felt very hands-off. We would go in, and we went in and recorded all the songs over two days. The only thing that was different was that we weren’t recording in a fucking storage unit, and it was done properly. He wasn’t telling us what to do, but he’d always be down to give us suggestions. It was really good to have a third party be like, " Hey, maybe, fuck it, a double track on the vocals would be really cool here.” 

SAM: But I also think I’m more interested in doing it. Obviously, it’s his hands that are controlling what actually comes out of the computer at the end of the day. Going forward, I think I’d be more interested in having a bit more control. Obviously the difference is that we were paying for it by the hour, not that we were getting scammed. I’d like to have more time and space to work on it ourselves. We spent three hours recording. But Cam is great, and we’re so proud of the final product. 

EM: What is BubbleGum Haircut’s favourite pop culture moment? 

SAM: Michael Jackson holding his baby over the balcony, we all agree. But I don’t know, I’d have to go on Instagram. 

JARVA: When Sabrina Carpenter got cancelled at Coachella this year. 

KALEB: When that kid said, 21. 

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