Generation Gap

“We started it almost a year ago and I suppose we're about 75 per cent done,” Gardiner explains, discussing the writing and recording of their first studio LP since 2004's Extremist Makeover. “Some vocals still have to be done, but we're in no rush; if it comes out this time next year it doesn't matter. We don't have a label, so we'll probably just put it out for free on the Internet. We've got a whole heap of songs that we've recorded over the years that never made it - demos, and a couple of new ones that we've written. It's just something that we want to do, mainly because it gives us something to do a bit of a tour on – we miss touring. We like doing the one-off shows here and there, but nothing beats getting on the road for three or four weeks – that's heaps of fun.”

You know 28 Days - the Rip It Up, Sucker-baiting Melbourne rap-punks that asked us rhetorically a decade ago What's The Deal? They broke up in 2007, but the lure of, as Gardiner calls it “an awesome paying hobby”, brought them back together and onto the stage once again. However, taking it a step further than era peers such as Bodyjar and One Dollar Short, they are actively recording new material. In between adult staples like wives, kids and 'real' jobs, the four-piece are currently dividing their time between Woodstock Studios and young sound-producing prodigy Tim Attack's home studio in Melbourne.

“It's going to be a lot rawer,” Gardiner explains. “One thing that we found out is that you're better off doing something that will sound the same live; like people come up and will say, 'The songs sound so much different,' and you think well, of course it does, it's a CD recording compared to a live gig, but then you go see The Bronx and they sound exactly the same. That's what we want to get out of this, something that we can just play live.”

As far as what we can expect to hear lyrically from frontman Jay Dunne, however, Gardiner isn't so clear.

“It's just typical Jay, so a mixed bag really. He's so eclectic, it's really just whatever he feels like writing about at the time. There's one which sounds like it's about strippers but I don't really know,” he laughs. “It's a bit all over the shop, but he's a random dude. If something pops into his head he'll just sit down and write a song about it, which is cool. We don't have any theme going on, there's going to be no concept albums or anything.”

Having been tackling the circuit for 15 years now, it's no surprise that although many of their old fans are still remaining loyal, a change of the guard is also occurring.

“Older brother/younger brother – we're getting a bit of that. Like the older brother who is in their thirties and the younger brother who is twenty-one. We've been doing a few shows in the last month or so and I'm amazed at the amount of early-twenties kids at the show, and they'll come up and be like, 'Oh, I used to listen to my older brother's CD and I loved it' – that's awesome.”

However, don't expect Gardiner and company performing to appease these new arrivals.

“Nah, we just play the old stuff now,” he admits. “We're not one of those bands that will play four or five new songs that will maybe make the [new] album; we'd probably get bashed if we didn't play Rip It Up or Sucker.”