Go Farther In Lightness

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VMP: From what I understand, the band met at church. Could you describe a little bit about how that came about? There’s a line on this song that you return to a couple of times, “it takes and it takes” or “he takes and he takes.” It reminded me of a song by Sufjan Stevens. I was wondering if there was any connection there. You’ve said this song is about how scared you are to bring kids into the world without your dad around. I like the idea of you imagining your kid in the kitchen and there’s this painting of your dad kind of presiding over the family even though he’s not there bodily. Brancatisano, Gloria (29 January 2023). "Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone Australia . Retrieved 29 January 2023.

Yeah, I mean, that's how I grew up! Some [punks] might not agree that it's punk because they're too busy listening to music that is insular or whatever... Because punk has been coopted by kids who want to be cool now instead of kids who had no hope of being cool and had to gravitate toward something that... I like to feel that [the album's] in some ways it's just me, and if that's punk then that's great because that's a scene I loved and was raised in. I'm weary of that title as well because with that four letter word comes a whole litany of really bullshitty, arbitrary, cultural distinctions. When Le’aupepe attempts to make sense not only of his father’s passing but also of his life, he hits his stride. On “tend the garden,” he inhabits his father’s perspective as he moved from Samoa to New Zealand to Australia. “I hope that one day if they find my sons/They’ll tell ’em everything that I’ve become,” he sings, underscored with soulful, Avalanches-style electronic pop. It’s a successful experiment and a rare display of restraint: Unlike some songs, which feel like overstuffed suitcases waiting to burst the minute they hit the baggage carousel, there’s an ease and spaciousness here. Go Farther in Lightness often sounded like a melange of influences done well, but the highlights on angel in realtime. zero in on Gang of Youths’ own territory. That so many songs reference electronic music is smart: Le’aupepe has always moved like a dancer on stage, and he imbues many of his performances here with that graceful quality. This song actually really turned out because I discovered David Gray. I had never listened to him growing up. I understand this one is about feeling burned out doing a bunch of shows after your father died? That’s what the “I’m only in it for the money!” hook is about. This one is about meeting and falling in love with your wife in New York, and then moving to London with her. Can you talk about the role that she plays within the fabric of the album?

Release

I understand this is the first song you wrote for the album, while you were in Wellington, New Zealand searching for your brothers? LE’AUPEPE: We used a whole bunch of samples. But the main ones we focused on are indigenous recordings from the Pacific recorded by a wonderful composer, and kind of an adventurer, named David Fanshawe. And his wife Jane has been really amazing in helping us repurpose some of his work. So we’re using a bunch of David Fanshawe recordings. And David Fanshawe, he was English, so he wasn’t indigenous. But he had this belief, I guess a fear, that these really sacred and important oral histories would be lost to time or lost to imperialism or lost to colonialism or lost to capitalism or whatever. So he was very concerned with that, and he wanted to make sure that they were recorded for posterity, for my generation of people, lest something happen, some horrible event that wipes everything out. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked The Positions at number 89 in their list of the 200 greatest Australian albums of all time. [5] Production and recording [ edit ] I think it really works to keep this one as minimal as you did. I was stunned to learn that it was five-plus minutes long because it feels so engaging for a song that musically is mostly staying in the same mode. But I think that has a lot to do with the quality of the storytelling that’s happening there. This is inspired by when you went to Samoa, and you had a couple of landmark experiences with your wife, right?

There’s a line you’ve written to sum up the metaphor with Maradona and your father: “Out of shit and villainy there might be something worthy to behold.” I love the idea of paralleling this guy who cheated and then all of the sudden four minutes later he’s playing the game to the best of anyone’s ability. following the release of 'let me be clear' which debuted at #2 on the aria album charts, gang of youths went on to release the #1, aria album, 'go farther in lightness,' which went on to win 4 aria awards, including aria album of the year, in 2017.I mean, it’s shattering. And I think that was my like — no matter how much I want to judge this sneaky bastard for concealing all this stuff, he had his reasons… The best thing to do is try to imagine what he might have been thinking. And knowing my dad as well as I did in terms of his day-to-day and his thought process, I think I might have got there in the end. He was a man — he took on projects because I think my dad saw art and beauty as a way of making up for past mistakes. Which may be a flawed approach to living, but in terms of it being an understandable thing, I totally get it. 7. “the kingdom is within you” This also, I guess, has bearing on “spirit boy.” This was inspired by a healing ceremony that you went through. You’ve also mentioned Christian faith and having a Jewish mother, and I’m wondering about how all these different spiritual threads fit together. It feels like “spirit boy” is a good jumping off place for that. gang of youths went on to break venue attendance records across australia and led to large international touring with the likes of foo fighters and mumford & sons.

Rod Yates of Rolling Stone Australia said the "record so emotionally bruised and honest that it at times feels like you're listening in on a conversation between frontman Dave Le'aupepe and the girl in question," adding "the album oscillates between Kings of Leon style grandeur, Bruce Springsteen-esque storytelling and sounding like it could fall apart at any second – which, emotionally, is fitting." [14] If I’m understanding this right, this is about how your dad helped you when you were really on the brink, and helped you many times, and how, as he was dying, you felt like you were able to reciprocate that at last.

7. “the kingdom is within you”

When you started this record, did you go in knowing you wanted to make something so large in scale?

I’ve used this guideline which is the emotion, the feeling of my father gone. This kind of weltschmerz, anhedonia thing I was going through after he died — nothing really makes sense except watching shit TV and walking along the canal in London. But I guess all the anhedonia and weltschmerz is sort of crystallized. And maybe I was able to move past it because I had this very important powerful experience with this wonderful woman. She performed “rongoā” on me, which is this special, traditional healing process. In that moment being embraced by this kind of otherworldly Māori, deeply Polynesian experience, that sort of broke through to me, I think, more than anything before. And this woman was Christian as well. They synchronize a lot of beliefs. They do match up rather nicely, like I said before. The band recently finished an arena tour as special guests to Sam Fender, played a selection of rapidly sold-out headline shows, and played an unforgettable performance of 'the angel on 8th ave' on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Gang Of Youths Drop 'Poison Drum' Clip And Headline Dates". The Music. 8 July 2014 . Retrieved 13 July 2023. How did you guys meet in New York? And had you already moved to London at the time when you met her? Or how did you end up in London? Despite and indeed because of frontman Dave Le’aupepe’s father’s absence, his influence permeates every talking point that the album offers. At times it’s solely focused upon the precise, personal experiences of loss: the dichotomy of intensity and peace that comes as someone passes through their final days; the overwhelming feeling in the wake of their death that life will never be the same, even if the rest of the world at large remains utterly unchanged.Angeles, Jana (18 April 2015). "Album Review: Gang of Youths – The Positions (2015 LP)". The AU Review . Retrieved 12 July 2023. I think there's part of us that clings to anything and everything when we experience crisis. We are so confounded by the implausibility of it all that we tend to look outward. We tend to look beyond. And I argue that we should look inside ourselves and he disagreed, and it was an important and life-changing conversation that I'll remember the rest of my life. Being in the car, talking to him about that. Interview: Gang Of Youths & Their Debut LP Release". Life Without Andy. 21 April 2015 . Retrieved 12 July 2023.