Good Boy's Rian King Talks Wasting Money On Bad Politics

Catching up with pop-punk frontman Rian King, it just happens to be the same day as the result of Australian Marriage Equality survey is being announced to the nation. Like millions of his fellow Aussies, the bassist and vocalist feels very strongly about the issue, and the positive result of the costly survey has left him with bittersweet feelings.

"It's good to know that the majority of Australians feel that [preventing same-sex couples from marrying] is wrong," he says. "It does feel like the right thing to do is to make it legal, whether or not it affects you. What makes me the maddest is how much money has been wasted and what a distraction it has been from other things that are going on, like Adani, Manus, international trade deals and so on.

"The way the media handled it and the way the government handled it, I think that was the most upsetting thing. A couple of my friends have been abused in the street, and that's from people just assuming that they're gay. It's just so backwards."

The non-binding nature of the wasteful opinion poll was another sore point in the whole process, for people on both sides of the argument, but now it's the responsibility of politicians to actually do their job, follow through and make it law, King suggests: "I think any free-thinking modern person should get involved in this, and I guess it's our duty — anyone who feels strongly about it and has a platform to talk about it — to push for this to happen. As long as things are given a dialogue, there's an opportunity for change."

Good Boy is certainly practicing what they preach. The new EP is titled Shirk Life, and the title and lyrics of the opening track, A Waste Of Approximately 122 Million Dollars (Taxpayer Funded), doesn't hold back in spelling out the band's collective feelings on the matter. King says that the process of laying down Shirk Life was a relative breeze.

"It was the quickest writing and recording process to release ever," he reveals. "It just seemed really quick, because we only had it recorded about a month and a half ago. I don't even know why. Everything just seemed to align for us."

An extensive tour to celebrate and promote the EP kicks off in early December, although according to King, it was touch and go as to whether the jaunt would actually go ahead, due to some pretty heavy other commitments involving the other band members. "We had practice on Monday night and we were a little worried because [drummer] Stuart [McKenzie] was heading to Tasmania for two or three weeks and [guitarist] Tom [Lindeman] was off to New Zealand for 14 days, lucky bastards. So we weren't sure it was going to happen, and we haven't really had much time to practise.

"We kinda said, 'Our first two dates are in WA, so we'll count those as practices,'" jokes King. "But I just got some new film for my camera and I'm really really keen to get back to Perth and WA in general. And then the rest of the shows will be great. The thing is we're kinda treating it like a free holiday, where we hang with our friends around the country. Touring's always fun."

This run is just the beginning too, as 2018 will find them spreading their wings and heading off to more far-flung tour stops to peddle their live wares. Work is also likely to commence next year on the next Good Boy release, which is set to be a step-up from an EP. "We're looking at maybe going overseas," King reveals, "Probably to the UK and generally going in that direction. And then I want to start putting lots of effort into writing a big album. It's hard to plan for things like this, because things change constantly, but we definitely want to put out another 12", maybe a couple of records and just travel, just keep doing our thing. Ultimately we want to do South America, Canada, Russia, all that. You know, travel, write, record - it's a life holiday!" he laughs.