WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.060 Okay, I want you to picture a glass box. It's 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:04.719 sitting right in the middle of a public square. 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.609 Year's 2004. Federation Square, Melbourne. It's 00:00:08.609 --> 00:00:11.750 hot. It's loud. And inside this box, it's basically 00:00:11.750 --> 00:00:14.470 a human aquarium, are three musicians trying 00:00:14.470 --> 00:00:16.890 to record an album. And they can't get out. They're 00:00:16.890 --> 00:00:19.109 stuck in there for weeks on end. Right. They're 00:00:19.109 --> 00:00:21.589 eating in there, slaking in there, probably arguing 00:00:21.589 --> 00:00:24.050 in there. And all day long, you've got commuters, 00:00:24.149 --> 00:00:26.890 tourists, school kids pressing their faces up 00:00:26.890 --> 00:00:28.850 against the glass, just watching them like they're 00:00:28.850 --> 00:00:31.429 zoo animals. For most bands, this would be a 00:00:31.429 --> 00:00:33.869 nightmare, a torture test. Or, you know, just 00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:35.829 a psychological breakdown waiting to happen. 00:00:36.070 --> 00:00:38.250 Exactly. But for the band we're talking about 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:40.590 today, this wasn't some kind of punishment. It 00:00:40.590 --> 00:00:43.850 was a strategy. This is the story of Regurgitator, 00:00:43.969 --> 00:00:46.670 a band that, I mean, if you look at their whole 00:00:46.670 --> 00:00:49.729 career, it seems like they spent 30 years actively 00:00:49.729 --> 00:00:52.250 trying to destroy it. Yeah, and somehow only 00:00:52.250 --> 00:00:54.530 became more successful every single time they 00:00:54.530 --> 00:00:56.729 lit the match. It's this paradox of, what do 00:00:56.729 --> 00:00:59.509 you call it, anti -careerism. It really is. I 00:00:59.509 --> 00:01:01.149 mean, usually in the music industry, you find 00:01:01.149 --> 00:01:03.310 a sound, it works, and you just repeat it until 00:01:03.310 --> 00:01:06.010 the wheels fall off. Regurgitator did the exact 00:01:06.010 --> 00:01:08.549 opposite. They'd find a sound that worked, get 00:01:08.549 --> 00:01:11.370 bored with it, mock the fans who liked it, and 00:01:11.370 --> 00:01:12.930 then just pivot to something completely different. 00:01:13.409 --> 00:01:15.549 We're talking about a band that went from, like, 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:20.370 heavy alternative rock to 80s synth pop to recording 00:01:20.370 --> 00:01:23.489 in a bubble to making children's music. Yeah. 00:01:23.549 --> 00:01:26.000 And somehow... They are still one of the most 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.379 respected acts in Australian music history. It 00:01:28.379 --> 00:01:30.939 creates a fascinating case study. How does a 00:01:30.939 --> 00:01:34.200 band that's defined by cynicism, by genre mashing, 00:01:34.219 --> 00:01:36.980 by just refusing to play the game, how do they 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:39.099 outlast their peers who followed all the rules? 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:41.609 That's the mission today. to try and understand 00:01:41.609 --> 00:01:44.010 the method behind all that madness. And honestly, 00:01:44.090 --> 00:01:46.090 if you look at how they started, it's almost 00:01:46.090 --> 00:01:48.230 funny we're even talking about a career, because 00:01:48.230 --> 00:01:50.430 this was never supposed to be a real band. No, 00:01:50.489 --> 00:01:52.689 not at all. It was a distraction. If you go back 00:01:52.689 --> 00:01:55.590 to Brisbane, 1993, the music scene there was 00:01:55.590 --> 00:01:58.650 incredibly incestuous. Everyone was in everyone 00:01:58.650 --> 00:02:01.689 else's band. You had Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely, and 00:02:01.689 --> 00:02:04.250 Martin Lee. The holy trinity of Brisbane weirdness. 00:02:04.510 --> 00:02:07.950 And they supposedly met on a bus. Just a chance 00:02:07.950 --> 00:02:10.129 encounter on public transport. But these guys... 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:13.000 were already established musicians. Ben Ely was 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:15.639 in a band called Pangea, which was a pretty big 00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:18.900 deal locally. Quan was in a band called Zurastia. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:21.500 Regurgitator was just what they did for fun. 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:23.280 It's the side hustle, the place where they could 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:25.879 just dump all the weird ideas that didn't fit 00:02:25.879 --> 00:02:28.000 in their serious bands. Which is often where 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:30.099 the best art comes from, right? When there's 00:02:30.099 --> 00:02:32.500 no pressure. But the industry didn't really see 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:34.659 it that way at first. There's this great story 00:02:34.659 --> 00:02:36.979 about how they got signed. A rep from Warner 00:02:36.979 --> 00:02:39.860 Music, Michael Parisi, he flies up to Brisbane. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:42.759 He was there to court Benny Lee, but for Pangea. 00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:45.979 He wanted the serious band. He did. Pangea had 00:02:45.979 --> 00:02:48.219 the live chops. They had a following. But the 00:02:48.219 --> 00:02:51.580 manager, Paul Curtis, who is a legend for managing 00:02:51.580 --> 00:02:55.500 this chaos for decades, he slips Parisi a tape 00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:58.000 of Regurgitator. The old bait and switch. Exactly. 00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:00.879 So Parisi listens to the tape and he hears something 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:03.080 that Pangea just didn't have. He called it a 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:05.939 hook. There was this like pop sensibility buried 00:03:05.939 --> 00:03:08.159 under all the noise. So Warner ends up signing 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:11.050 the side project instead. That must have been 00:03:11.050 --> 00:03:13.330 a weird dynamic for Ben Akeley. Hey, they don't 00:03:13.330 --> 00:03:14.870 want our main band. They want the joke band. 00:03:15.229 --> 00:03:17.509 But they signed the deal in 95, put out a couple 00:03:17.509 --> 00:03:20.169 EPs, get some airplay with a song called Blubber 00:03:20.169 --> 00:03:23.169 Boy. Yeah. And now, you know, standard industry 00:03:23.169 --> 00:03:26.900 practice here is. You've got a major label budget 00:03:26.900 --> 00:03:29.139 for your first album. Yeah, you book a nice studio 00:03:29.139 --> 00:03:32.740 in Sydney, maybe Melbourne. Get a producer who 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:35.020 works with Nirvana or something. That would be 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:37.659 the logical thing to do. Regurgitator, however, 00:03:37.719 --> 00:03:40.560 took that budget and flew to Bangkok. In 1996. 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:43.560 Yeah. And you have to remember, recording in 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:45.620 Asia wasn't this trendy thing to do back then. 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:48.879 It was just logistical chaos. They set up in 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:50.900 a pop music studio right in the middle of the 00:03:50.900 --> 00:03:54.300 city. And Bangkok in the 90s. That is just sensory 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:56.909 over - The heat, the river, the traffic. You 00:03:56.909 --> 00:03:58.870 can almost hear the humidity on the record. You 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:01.849 really can. The album, Two -Playing, is named 00:04:01.849 --> 00:04:04.969 after the Thai word for jukebox. And that title 00:04:04.969 --> 00:04:07.050 is just perfect because the album sounds like 00:04:07.050 --> 00:04:09.050 someone is smashing the buttons on a jukebox 00:04:09.050 --> 00:04:12.270 at random. It's total sonic whiplash. You have 00:04:12.270 --> 00:04:15.370 a track like Kung Fu Sing, which is this crunchy, 00:04:15.550 --> 00:04:18.370 guitar -heavy rock riff. But then the vocals 00:04:18.370 --> 00:04:20.470 are rapped, and the beat is almost hip -hop. 00:04:20.649 --> 00:04:23.569 It was a collision of styles that... on paper 00:04:23.569 --> 00:04:25.269 just shouldn't work together they were mixing 00:04:25.269 --> 00:04:29.089 metal funk rap pop but it wasn't just the sound 00:04:29.089 --> 00:04:32.050 that was aggressive it was the lyrics kwan yeomans 00:04:32.050 --> 00:04:36.050 had this very specific Very cynical worldview. 00:04:36.709 --> 00:04:38.850 Cynical is putting it lightly. He was writing 00:04:38.850 --> 00:04:40.750 songs that were deliberately offensive. Yeah. 00:04:40.850 --> 00:04:43.089 I mean, we have to talk about the track. I sucked 00:04:43.089 --> 00:04:45.329 a lot of cock to get where I am. A title that 00:04:45.329 --> 00:04:48.649 instantly grabs your attention for obvious reasons. 00:04:48.810 --> 00:04:51.230 And it is not a metaphor. No. And naturally, 00:04:51.490 --> 00:04:53.490 the establishment absolutely hated it. You had 00:04:53.490 --> 00:04:55.569 Alan Jones, the king of conservative talk radio, 00:04:55.730 --> 00:04:57.889 launching a whole campaign to get the song banned. 00:04:58.189 --> 00:05:01.230 He was just appalled by the obscenity. Which, 00:05:01.269 --> 00:05:03.569 I mean, knowing Regurgitator, that probably just 00:05:03.569 --> 00:05:06.370 felt like free marketing. It absolutely was. 00:05:06.529 --> 00:05:09.250 It positioned them as the outsiders, the punks 00:05:09.250 --> 00:05:13.269 inside the major label system. And despite or 00:05:13.269 --> 00:05:15.810 maybe because of that controversy, 2 -Playing 00:05:15.810 --> 00:05:18.129 was a monster hit. It went platinum. They won 00:05:18.129 --> 00:05:20.050 the ARIA for best alternative release. They were 00:05:20.050 --> 00:05:22.009 suddenly one of the biggest bands in the country. 00:05:22.459 --> 00:05:24.120 So here they are. They've accidentally become 00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:26.220 rock stars with their side project. They've got 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:28.459 the platinum plaque. The smart move now is to 00:05:28.459 --> 00:05:30.339 make two playing part two. Give the people more 00:05:30.339 --> 00:05:33.060 of that rock rap stuff. Keep Alan Jones angry. 00:05:33.259 --> 00:05:35.699 And this is where that anti -careerism really, 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.579 really kicks in. It's 1997. They retreat to this 00:05:39.579 --> 00:05:41.639 warehouse in Brisbane they call the Dirty Room. 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:44.279 And instead of cranking up the guitar amps, they 00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:46.319 start messing around with synthesizers. This 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:48.910 is the pivot that defines them. The album unit. 00:05:48.990 --> 00:05:51.509 If you were a fan of Australian rock in 1997, 00:05:51.870 --> 00:05:53.730 you were listening to Grinspoon, Silverchair, 00:05:53.949 --> 00:05:57.269 heavy guitars. Post -grunge was the law of the 00:05:57.269 --> 00:05:59.470 land. And Regurgitator comes out with an album 00:05:59.470 --> 00:06:01.750 that sounds like a warped 80s pop record. It's 00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:03.769 all bubbly, electronic, it's got drum machines. 00:06:03.850 --> 00:06:06.790 It was the complete antithesis of cool rock at 00:06:06.790 --> 00:06:10.370 the time. It was almost a troll move. And they 00:06:10.370 --> 00:06:12.449 were so aware of what they were doing that they 00:06:12.449 --> 00:06:14.949 literally warn you on the very first track. I 00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:16.730 like your old stuff better than your new stuff. 00:06:16.930 --> 00:06:19.029 It's just genius. It's the first thing you hear. 00:06:19.209 --> 00:06:21.769 They're mocking the listener before the listener 00:06:21.769 --> 00:06:23.930 even has a chance to form an opinion. Well, it's 00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:26.870 a defense mechanism. By saying it first, they 00:06:26.870 --> 00:06:29.069 take all the power away from the critics. They're 00:06:29.069 --> 00:06:31.269 basically saying, we know this is different. 00:06:31.350 --> 00:06:34.069 We know you might hate it. And frankly, we don't 00:06:34.069 --> 00:06:36.740 care. But the joke was on them. Because people 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:39.819 didn't hate it. They loved it even more. It backfired 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:42.240 in the best possible way. Polyester Girl became 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:45.300 this huge anthem. Black Bugs was everywhere. 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.120 Unit went triple platinum. It won five ARIAs, 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:50.639 including Album of the Year. They beat Savage 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:52.959 Garden. They beat The Living End. They tried 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:55.740 to alienate their rock fan base with a pop album 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:58.160 and ended up becoming the biggest pop band in 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:00.259 the country. But while the public was seeing 00:07:00.259 --> 00:07:03.220 this massive success, the internal reality of 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:06.589 the band was getting really dark. Like, Thriller 00:07:06.589 --> 00:07:09.310 movie dark. Yeah, this is the story that often 00:07:09.310 --> 00:07:11.389 gets glossed over because the music itself was 00:07:11.389 --> 00:07:15.389 so fun. It's late 1997. They're on the unit tour. 00:07:15.449 --> 00:07:17.870 They're in Perth. And Martin Lee, the drummer, 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:21.069 just doesn't show up for a gig. Which, for a 00:07:21.069 --> 00:07:23.629 touring band, is the ultimate panic moment. It's 00:07:23.629 --> 00:07:25.490 terrifying. He'd been at a nightclub the night 00:07:25.490 --> 00:07:28.329 before and just vanished. He was found the next 00:07:28.329 --> 00:07:31.050 day unconscious. He spent a full week in a coma 00:07:31.050 --> 00:07:34.370 in a Perth hospital. A week in a coma. That is... 00:07:34.670 --> 00:07:37.329 Wow, that's heavy. It's incredibly serious. And 00:07:37.329 --> 00:07:39.649 the really scary part is when he woke up, he 00:07:39.649 --> 00:07:42.889 had total amnesia about the event. To this day, 00:07:42.949 --> 00:07:45.490 there's no clear public account of exactly what 00:07:45.490 --> 00:07:47.949 happened to him. It's just a blank space. So 00:07:47.949 --> 00:07:50.209 you have the band at the absolute peak of their 00:07:50.209 --> 00:07:53.569 fame. Polyester Girl is blasting out of every 00:07:53.569 --> 00:07:56.350 car radio. And their drummer is in a hospital 00:07:56.350 --> 00:07:59.500 bed with a huge gap in his memory. They still 00:07:59.500 --> 00:08:01.300 had shows to play, though. They couldn't just 00:08:01.300 --> 00:08:03.319 stop the machine. No, the machine keeps moving. 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:06.100 So they brought in a fill -in drummer, John Coghill. 00:08:06.220 --> 00:08:08.579 From Powderfinger. Right. And this is where the 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:11.480 cultural clash becomes really interesting. Powderfinger 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:14.079 and Regurgitator were both from Brisbane, but 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:16.399 they were from different planets, socially. Yeah, 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:19.060 Powderfinger were the golden boys. Polished. 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:23.300 earnest, melodic rock. Exactly. And Quan Yeomans 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:25.839 was pretty open about the friction. He later 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.379 described Powderfinger as private schoolboys 00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:31.180 from a different social strata. It wasn't just 00:08:31.180 --> 00:08:33.960 a musical mismatch. It was a total vibe mismatch. 00:08:34.059 --> 00:08:36.919 You can imagine the tension of having this outsider 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:40.440 step into their weird, cynical little circle. 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:42.720 It really highlights how insular regurgitator 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:46.340 was. They were a gang. But Martin recovers eventually. 00:08:46.659 --> 00:08:48.919 But things didn't just snap back to normal. No. 00:08:49.559 --> 00:08:52.179 That kind of trauma leaves a mark. When they 00:08:52.179 --> 00:08:54.399 went to record the follow -up album, Dot Art, 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:58.100 in 1999, the whole dynamic had shifted. They 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:00.399 rented a beach house in Byron Bay, which sounds 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:02.659 idyllic, but Martin Lee felt like he was being 00:09:02.659 --> 00:09:04.899 pushed out. Well, you look at Unit with its electronic 00:09:04.899 --> 00:09:06.779 sound, they were using more and more drum machines. 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:09.480 Yeah. If you're the drummer and the songwriter's 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:11.279 obsessed with the drum machine, you start wondering, 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:15.759 so, why am I here? Exactly. The machine was replacing 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:19.049 the man. Plus, Kwan didn't want to record in 00:09:19.049 --> 00:09:21.070 the dirty room anymore, which Martin had helped 00:09:21.070 --> 00:09:24.549 build. Lee felt undervalued, excluded from the 00:09:24.549 --> 00:09:27.950 creative process. So in late 1999, he leaves. 00:09:28.129 --> 00:09:30.970 Creative differences. The classic breakup line. 00:09:31.149 --> 00:09:33.769 But in this case, it was very real. He was replaced 00:09:33.769 --> 00:09:36.629 by Peter Kostic from the Hard Ons, another legendary 00:09:36.629 --> 00:09:39.730 Australian punk band. So the lineup stabilizes, 00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:42.129 but the relationship with the major label, with 00:09:42.129 --> 00:09:44.429 Warner, is starting to rot. Right, because remember, 00:09:44.570 --> 00:09:47.259 Warner signed them. because of that hook. But 00:09:47.259 --> 00:09:50.799 by 2001, Regurgitator is in London, recording 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:53.419 an album called Eduardo and Rodriguez Wage War 00:09:53.419 --> 00:09:57.019 on T -Rex. Great title. Classic title. But the 00:09:57.019 --> 00:09:59.820 music, it's hip -hop heavy, it's weird, it's 00:09:59.820 --> 00:10:01.860 dark, and Warner's listening to this going, okay, 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:03.879 but where's the next polyester girl? Warner was 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:05.879 frustrated. They basically accused the band of 00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:08.120 lacking commercial motivation, which is hilarious, 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:10.720 because the band never even claimed to have commercial 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:13.419 motivation. They were motivated by boredom and 00:10:13.419 --> 00:10:16.269 art. So the label drops them. Or they mutually 00:10:16.269 --> 00:10:18.629 agree to part ways. And honestly, for most bands, 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:21.450 this is the death knell. You lose the funding, 00:10:21.509 --> 00:10:23.610 you lose distribution, you fade away playing 00:10:23.610 --> 00:10:26.250 pub gigs. But Regurgitator saw it as liberation. 00:10:26.690 --> 00:10:28.950 And this brings us right back to where we started. 00:10:29.350 --> 00:10:33.970 The bubble. 2004. Yeah. Banned in a bubble. Now 00:10:33.970 --> 00:10:36.250 that we know the history, the rejection of fame, 00:10:36.389 --> 00:10:38.950 the boredom with standard studios, this whole 00:10:38.950 --> 00:10:41.110 stunt makes so much more sense. It was a way 00:10:41.110 --> 00:10:43.830 to force creativity through constraint. They 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:46.529 partnered with Channel V. They built that glass 00:10:46.529 --> 00:10:49.210 studio in Federation Square. And they turned 00:10:49.210 --> 00:10:52.169 the entire recording process into a reality TV 00:10:52.169 --> 00:10:54.750 show. Just imagine the psychology of that. You're 00:10:54.750 --> 00:10:56.429 trying to write a lyric. Maybe you're feeling 00:10:56.429 --> 00:10:58.470 vulnerable or stuck. And there's a guy just eating 00:10:58.470 --> 00:11:00.409 a sandwich on the other side of the glass staring 00:11:00.409 --> 00:11:02.950 at you. It's the ultimate exposure. It plays 00:11:02.950 --> 00:11:05.450 with the whole idea of the rock star as a commodity. 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:08.379 You want to consume us? Fine. Watch us cut our 00:11:08.379 --> 00:11:11.059 teeth. Watch us sleep. It completely demystified 00:11:11.059 --> 00:11:13.139 the whole process. And the music that came out 00:11:13.139 --> 00:11:16.039 of it, the album Mish Mash. Yeah. It sounds frantic. 00:11:16.200 --> 00:11:18.919 It does. It has this nervous energy. It's maybe 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:20.620 not their most polished work, but it's arguably 00:11:20.620 --> 00:11:23.679 their most honest. It proved they could generate 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:26.120 attention and create art without a major label 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:28.659 marketing budget. They just needed a high concept 00:11:28.659 --> 00:11:31.779 stunt. And they kept chasing that. that stunt 00:11:31.779 --> 00:11:34.700 energy or maybe just the novelty of new places. 00:11:34.740 --> 00:11:37.059 Yeah. Because after the bubble, they didn't go 00:11:37.059 --> 00:11:39.460 back to a normal studio. They went to Brazil. 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:42.159 Right. For Love and Paranoia in 2007, they flew 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:45.100 to Rio. Then later, for Dirty Pop Fantasy, they 00:11:45.100 --> 00:11:47.799 recorded in an apartment in Hong Kong. It seems 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:49.399 like they were using the location as another 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:51.659 instrument. Like, we're bored at Guitarist, let's 00:11:51.659 --> 00:11:54.240 see what Rio sounds like. I think it's escapism. 00:11:54.299 --> 00:11:56.080 By this point, the band members were living all 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.220 over the place. Kwan was in Hong Kong, Ben was 00:11:58.220 --> 00:12:01.200 in Melbourne. They were pretty fragmented. The 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:03.299 band was becoming more of a periodic meeting 00:12:03.299 --> 00:12:06.159 of old friends than a full -time job. Which led 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:09.759 to the hiatus in 2013. Quan had his first kid. 00:12:10.539 --> 00:12:13.200 The logistics were a nightmare. They basically 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:15.360 just said, we're done for a while. And usually 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.659 indefinite hiatus is just polite code for we 00:12:18.659 --> 00:12:20.700 hate each other and we're never playing again. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:23.620 But not these guys. They took a break, lived 00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:27.399 some life, and came back in 2015. But the comeback 00:12:27.399 --> 00:12:30.580 isn't the surprise. The surprise is what they 00:12:30.580 --> 00:12:33.899 pivoted to next in 2019. This is my favorite 00:12:33.899 --> 00:12:36.600 twist in the entire saga, The Pagogo Show. The 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:40.019 band that wrote I Sucked a Lot of. You know what? 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:42.519 The band that was threatened by Alan Jones for 00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:45.179 being obscene releases a children's album. The 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:47.340 really, really, really, really boring album. 00:12:47.539 --> 00:12:50.080 Which is the best title for a kid's album ever. 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:52.399 It really is. And it makes you realize something 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:55.019 profound about their music. Regurgitator has 00:12:55.019 --> 00:12:58.059 always been a bit cartoonish. The bright synths, 00:12:58.059 --> 00:13:00.320 the high energy, the silly voices, the costumes. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:02.700 It was always playground music, just with adult 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:04.679 lyrics. You just take the profanity out and it 00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:06.419 reveals what was underneath the whole time. Pure, 00:13:06.539 --> 00:13:09.399 chaotic fun. Exactly. Kids respond to that same 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:11.600 manic energy just as well as stoned teenagers 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:14.990 in the 90s did. And of course, in true regurgitator 00:13:14.990 --> 00:13:17.269 fashion, the album was a critical darling. It 00:13:17.269 --> 00:13:20.049 won the ARR Award for Best Independent Children's 00:13:20.049 --> 00:13:23.460 Album. It's the ultimate anti -career move. Oh, 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:25.539 you think we're aging rockers who should be playing 00:13:25.539 --> 00:13:27.519 our greatest hits on the nostalgia circle? Watch 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:29.480 this. We're going to play songs for toddlers. 00:13:29.639 --> 00:13:32.179 And then, just to keep you guessing, they pivot 00:13:32.179 --> 00:13:35.860 right back. 2023, they celebrate 25 years of 00:13:35.860 --> 00:13:38.200 UNIT. They're opening for Weezer. They're opening 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:41.799 for KISS. That is a visual I just love. The KISS 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:44.000 army in all their makeup and leather, watching 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:46.799 Ben and Kwan jump around like complete maniacs. 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:49.379 It's perfect. KISS is all about the brand, the 00:13:49.379 --> 00:13:52.259 logo, the consistency. Regurgitator is all... 00:13:52.269 --> 00:13:54.970 about the mess the change the refusal to be branded 00:13:54.970 --> 00:13:58.730 and yet there they were sharing a stage and they 00:13:58.730 --> 00:14:02.190 just dropped a new album invader in 2024. they're 00:14:02.190 --> 00:14:04.529 still making new music still refusing to just 00:14:04.529 --> 00:14:07.149 be a heritage act which is so rare most bands 00:14:07.149 --> 00:14:09.870 from the 90s are stuck in amber they play the 00:14:09.870 --> 00:14:12.350 hits they look a bit tired regurgitator still 00:14:12.350 --> 00:14:15.960 feels Dangerous. Maybe not dangerous, but definitely 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:18.159 unpredictable. So if we step back and look at 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:19.840 this whole timeline from the bus in Brisbane 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.860 to the Bangkok heat to the platinum pop of unit, 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:25.860 the coma, the bubble, the kids music. What's 00:14:25.860 --> 00:14:28.019 the lesson here? I think the lesson is that career 00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:31.039 planning is probably overrated. If Regurgitator 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:32.980 had listened to Warner Music, they would have 00:14:32.980 --> 00:14:35.559 made two playing two, bored themselves to death, 00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:39.000 and broken up by 1999. They survived by destroying 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.700 themselves. Precisely. They burned down their 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:45.059 own image every three years. And by doing that, 00:14:45.179 --> 00:14:48.139 they never let the concrete set. They stayed 00:14:48.139 --> 00:14:51.139 flexible. The anti -careerism was actually the 00:14:51.139 --> 00:14:53.360 best career move they could have possibly made. 00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:55.480 It's a validation of boredom. They let their 00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:57.659 boredom guide them. I'm bored of rock. Let's 00:14:57.659 --> 00:15:00.120 do pop. I'm bored of studios. Let's sit in a 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:02.279 glass box. I'm bored of adults. Let's play for 00:15:02.279 --> 00:15:04.779 kids. And in a world where we're all told to 00:15:04.779 --> 00:15:07.259 curate our personal brands, to stay on message, 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:10.000 to be consistent, Regurgitator is just this great 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:13.019 reminder that you can be messy, you can be contradictory, 00:15:13.179 --> 00:15:16.139 and you can still win. Maybe you even win because 00:15:16.139 --> 00:15:18.600 you're messy. I think so. Longevity doesn't come 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:20.759 from standing still. It comes from being a moving 00:15:20.759 --> 00:15:22.899 target. So next time you feel like you're stuck 00:15:22.899 --> 00:15:24.860 in a rut. or you're worried about what people 00:15:24.860 --> 00:15:27.279 will think if you change your style, just ask 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:30.539 yourself, what would Regurgitator do? They'd 00:15:30.539 --> 00:15:32.200 probably build a bubble and lock themselves in 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:35.240 it. Or write a song about how much they hate 00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:37.460 their own fans. Either way, it seems to work. 00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:40.080 Thanks for diving deep with us into the chaos 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:42.519 of Regurgitator. Go listen to Unit, go listen 00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:44.559 to the kids' album, and see if you can hear the 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:46.340 thread that connects them. We'll catch you on 00:15:46.340 --> 00:15:47.159 the next deep dive.