The Smith Street Band: Stroll in their shoes

The Melbourne indie four-piece, whose works include EP Don't F--- With Our Dreams, have won fans around the world for their distinctive style: rock'n'roll with a heavy Australian accent that's not afraid to tell it like it is.

Frontman Wil Wagner, who's joined by guitarist Lee Hartney, Michael Fitzgerald on bass guitar and Chris Cowburn on drums, is surprised their latest album Throw Me In The River, released in late October, is their most successful yet; songs Surrender and I Don't Wanna Die Anymore attracted significant airplay and made it onto the ARIA charts.

Already their latest single, the Australia Day release Wipe That Shit-Eating Grin Off Your Punchable Face, is achieving similar success. The band have had to order another pressing of the 7-inch vinyl after the first sold out, and within 30 minutes of it being uploaded online, it had tens of thousands of listens. The fiery song was inspired after Wagner was walking down the street next to a woman wearing a headscarf.

"We didn't know each other, but we were walking together for 10, 15 metres," Wagner tells Weekender from his home in Melbourne. "She was just getting these crazy looks and people would mutter stuff as she walked past. It was this 10-second glimpse into that reality, and I went and sat on a bench and wrote the first verse of that song then."

The first verse addresses that atmosphere of hatred, then moves on to cover treatment of refugees, political point-scoring and racist attitudes in a hook that has the makings of an anthem: "A change is gonna come/Our country's mind can't stay this closed".

Wagner says the reaction to the single, which is dedicated to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and will donate a portion of its profits to charities that support asylum seekers, is bigger than he expected.

"We've got so much support from people, and so many people are paying 30 bucks for a $3 download to give the money to charity," Wagner says.

"It's been really cool. We sort of thought, 'Yeah we'll put this out, a few people might say some nice things, a few people might take offence because it's political', but the response it's got is not at all what we expected.

"We just put it up on our Facebook at 2.30pm, and by 3pm, it had thousands of likes. The song had been played nearly 10,000 times. It just went from there."

One of the most talked-about parts of the release has been the cover art. The band commissioned friend Shaun Thatcher to paint a smirking Tony Abbott, which Wagner jokes he had to apologise for once the politician's spectre began haunting the artist's dreams.

"We were originally gonna use a photo we found online, he had the most horrible expression on his face, we were like, 'That's perfect'," Wagner says. "But we travel overseas a lot, and we really didn't want to be getting into trouble with the Australian government.

"[Shaun] had it up in his studio for a few weeks, and every time he came into his shared studio it would be pressed against a wall so no one could see the photo. He'd spend six hours working on it and go home and lie awake. Every time he closed his eyes he'd see Tony Abbott's face."

But the toil - and the dreams - weren't in vain. Wagner is considering selling the painting and giving money to charity, if someone wants it in their house.

"I was like, 'I'd love it', then I saw it and was like, 'I don't wanna stare at that when I'm watching the telly'," Wagner says.

He won't have much time for sitting down and watching TV for the next few months. After a massive tour around Australia, which will see them headline the Cambridge on February 12, the band will head overseas, where it's likely the scaffold of their next album will be set out.

"I think a lot will be written on the road, just through force of habit," Wagner says.

Until then, Wagner says he can't wait to play in Newcastle.

"This could almost be my 15th, 16th time playing Newcastle, so obviously I enjoy coming back," Wagner says. "We haven't headlined the Cambridge before, so that's a cool thing for us to tick off the bucket list.

"We'll do a bunch of different stuff people might not have seen us do a few months ago, some new songs, some old songs, and the Cambridge is a really sweaty venue and I'm a really sweaty guy, so I'll sweat heaps. And it'll be fun."

The Smith Street Band play at The Cambridge on February 12.