Awfulness, Ridiculousness, Humour; Take A Little Walk In Augie March's 'Bootikins'

Augie March are a band that have had their fair share of ups and downs, lost chances and a hiatus. The latest chapter in their now two-decade career is a resurgent return to form. Previously it was a cautious re-emergence with the inconsistent Havens Dumb, a "regrouping" as songwriter Glenn Richards calls it. This time around they "got the groundwork done a bit better so it's a stronger record in that sense, and in the songwriting too." Richards emphasises that he's "proud of this one, it has good energy, which is often lacking when a band gets on in years. If anything there was an emphasis on not over-cluttering, which we were prone to do in the past."

The album in question is Bootikins, the band's sixth, and it holds its own among their finest releases after the touring cycle for Havens Dumb ended in disappointment. "It just kind of petered out which was a bit disappointing. I got stuck into other stuff - film scores and TV work, which I was quite happy doing. Then I found myself writing specifically to record to four-track and it brought back the fun and excitement for recording in that fashion and led to a couple of little purple patches that sounded like songs I could do with the band."

As the songs were being written, Richards began to see a concept of sorts emerging, one where "an absurdly exaggerated version of myself was having rein in the lyric writing," he explains. "I was becoming aware of something thematic, the awfulness of the narrative in some of the songs, the ridiculousness as well. The apex of that was the song Bootikins - putting myself in the shoes of Albert Camus' Caligula, not just an awful caricature but an intelligent, sensitive Caligula who is rapidly turning. It was a good excuse to write a ragged, retro rock song and try and convey the menace and absurdity of that character. It neatly tied up lots of the efforts I was making to get that across in some of the other songs. It was also a funny name to call an album!" laughs Richards.

Humour isn't something that often gets mentioned when discussing Augie March, but there's a strong comedic streak in much of Richards' writing that deserves greater acknowledgement. "I've always had the struggle to convince people that there's a sense of humour there. I can hear it in my own voice, I just don't convey it enough in the singing. Maybe because I have something of a choirboy voice. It's getting rougher, maybe one day I'll have my Nick Cave moment," he says wryly.

The band were lucky to work with legendary Australian producer Tony Cohen, prior to his death in 2017. One of his strengths was to get the band in a room and let them play together and feed off each other. "While all of that was happening he was setting up his universe on the 24-channel desk and experimenting with certain kinds of effects on faders. He needed help on a big desk so we all got involved doing things. He essentially memorised stuff and was only satisfied when he got the mix where all the moves happened."

Casting an eye back over a critically acclaimed career, Richards is circumspect and open about where the band missed opportunities and had others taken away from them. "We always wanted to make actual records and the chances that you get to do that are pretty slim. We were at the tail end of the dinosaur era in terms of big record contracts and it worked against us ultimately because we got stuck on a label that we didn't really sign to," he reveals. "To be honest, I don't think the effort really matched the ambition along the way, we fell short in a number of ways and we had some bad luck too. I'm not sure how long we'll be able to keep doing it. It's about the other guys and their personal circumstances. We've got one more for now and it seems to be a pretty good one so we'll see. I'd love to take this music to Europe for the first time. It's ridiculous we never got over there. I could still do that but I'd probably have to look at taking some different guys over with me because of families and so on."