FIDLAR frontman Zac Carper jokes being in a band is the only profession "where the person that hires you, the promoter, gives you a bunch of alcohol and says, 'now go do your job'."
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Many would argue that's a perk worth raising a glass to. And for a long time Carper agreed.
The alcohol and hard drugs flowed freely around the Los Angeles skate punks in their early days as they released their EP DIYDUI (2011) and their self-titled debut album in 2013, which featured the thrilling Cheap Beer with the lyric, "Forty beers later and a line of speed/Eight ball of blow and half a pound of weed."
Elsewhere, FIDLAR (the acronym for the skate mantra, F-k It Dog, Life's a Risk) maintained their hedonistic party reputation with songs like Wake Bake Skate and Cocaine.
While the album brought FIDLAR acclaim due to their infectious energy, inevitably the hangover arrived in brutal fashion. While on tour in 2013 Carper's pregnant girlfriend overdosed on heroin and died and his own drug addiction and drinking spiralled out of control.
FIDLAR's second album Too in 2015 detailed Carper's battle for sobriety while maintaining the band's thrashy Californian punk sound.
"It's pretty easy to get wrapped up in the whole addiction cycle," Carper says from Los Angeles.
"As you get older and as we get older, the band, we've learned how to take breaks and not get too f--ked up. It's life, right. You either figure it out or you die."
FIDLAR's third album, Almost Free, released in January is proof Carper has life better figured out than in the band's formative years.
With a clearer mind Carper turned his focus on gentrification in his native Hawaii (Get Off My Rock), the political climate in the USA (Too Real), narcissism on social media (Can't You See) and even the loneliness of sobriety (By Myself).
It's life, right. You either figure it out or you die.
- Zac Carper
The album also saw FIDLAR expand their sonic palette to hip-hop beats, electronica, funk, horn sections and more polished production, courtesy of working with pop producer Ricky Reed (Meghan Trainor, Fifth Harmony, Jason Derulo).
"It's definitely a shock to the system with the punk police," Carper says of Almost Free. "The punk police is out to get us at the moment because it's not punk enough.
"To me that's what makes it punk, because it's not punk.
"I think it's a learning curve. The amount of people who like it is bigger than the amount of people who trash talk it."
Ultimately, Carper says, FIDLAR needed to challenge themselves.
"We just started noticing that playing slower is harder than playing faster for us," he says. "Turning down the amps is harder than turning up. You can cover things up with distortion.
"Almost Free is the loudest album we have because it's clean and you can push the volume up on cleaner stuff.
"There's some conscious decisions made, but I don't think going into it we were like, 'Let's show the world we're not just stoned on our couch'. We were just trying to challenge ourselves."
On previous albums writing lyrics was always about finding the "lightning in the bottle" for Carper. Punch it out quick. Little fuss.
But on Almost Free he wanted to explore issues in greater depth, while maintaining his direct and simplistic execution.
The best example is second single Too Real where Carper rails against the divisive political discourse between the left and right-wings.
The song's lyrics, "You've gone so far to the left/You ended up on the right," and "Are you really feeling guilty about being white?/What's that like?" even upset his friends.
"The world is just crazy right now," Carper says. "I was trying to find the right words to put in the song. I remember showing some people and they were offended by it and I'm like, 'good.'
"I'm not right-wing at all, I'm more left than anything, but some people who are liberal were offended by that and that's good because it's exactly what I'm talking about."
Almost Free's other stand-out moment is the opener Get Off My Rock. Here Carper spits with venom about gentrification to a Beastie Boys-inspired stomp. It's a sentiment many Novocastrians can relate to.
"Originally it was about LA but I started touring and realised it's happening everywhere, especially in cities where venues are because usually venues are in ghetto places," he says.
"Now they're all nice areas. I went back to Hawaii and it just went from zero to 100. We didn't get the cute little hipster f--king coffee shops, we went straight to Starbucks on every corner.
"I'm like, 'what the hell happened, there's a process and you've just skipped the cute hipster shit to now you're living in a mall'."
FIDLAR perform at Splendour In The Grass on July 19, before heading to the Cambridge Hotel on July 20.
Josh Leeson
Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
