Almost a year after hitting South African shores for the first time, the Dune Rats returned to promote their upcoming new self-titled album, which has since dropped at the beginning of this month. I sat down with lead vocalist and guitarist Danny Beusa for a chat about their time spent in sunny South Africa, and their hopes for the new album.
Well, I say I sat down with Danny, but it was more like I tagged along for a beer downing, spliff smoking bonanza that seemed almost ‘Fear and loathing’–esque. I had met up with the Aussie lads at Rumours in Weltevreden Park. They were visibly drained when they arrived, obviously the insane hours they had racked up on planes darting around the planet for the past few months had started to have an effect on them. But once a beer was firmly lodged into their hands, and some spliff (that’s dagga, mom) was inhaled, they became the most entertaining people on the planet. And I’m not even talking about the show!
Don’t get me wrong, they lived up to every shred of hype they had built here since their last visit, but they seemed to dominate attention and praise off-stage as much as they did on it. “Being in a touring band is f***ing cool. We make new friends almost every night, and most of the time people are buying us beer.” Says Danny as he and I receive free beers from some rather attractive ladies at the bar. “Coming back to South Africa wasn’t even a question for us. After the last tour, which pretty much blew our f**king minds, we knew we’d jump at the chance to go back if it was ever on the table.” Said Danny. “The response we got last time was a complete surprise. And not because we thought there’d be f**king lions running around outside the venue. But because the people here felt just like home. You’d don’t travel halfway around the world and expect to get along with [the] people there as much as you do with your bong-buddy back home.”
Almost everywhere the Dunies went that night, they had a posse of fans following them around. Not the “sign my boobies’ kind of fans (although I’m pretty damn sure that did happen at some point), but rather the “lets hang out and be best friends forever” kind of fans. It almost seemed as if the Dune Rats were South African first, and Australian second.
Well I thought that for a while. Then I chatted to the bands’ drummer BC and bassist, Brett. Those dudes have the THICKEST Australian accent. And the constant beer chugging didn’t make it any easier. I probably said “Excuse me?” more times then they had said “c*nt” that night. If you know anything about the Dunies, then you know that’s pretty impressive. To them, the C word is a term of endearment, an exclamation, an insult, a compliment and a space-filler. “You f**king c**ts give me a boner in my soul!” said Brett to Gad de Combs and Thomas Revington of Shortstraw fame. Well, at least that’s what it sounded like.
Speaking of Shortstraw, The Dune Rats developed a tight bond with the indie-kwela hunks on their first trip to SA. The bands lead singer, Alistair Thomas, said to me as the night was drawing to an end, “Without them [The Dune Rats] our tour of Japan and Australia probably wouldn’t have happened. They were just so cool about helping us make the connections we needed to get the tour organized.” Shortstraws bassist, Russel Grant, was quick to jump in… ”It was actually quite crazy and incredible to come back from a tour in Australia and Japan and get to play with they guys who helped make it happen.”
Between them, Shorstraw and The Dune Rats ripped Rumours a new one. Sweat-droplets had started to form on the walls and the roof of the club, a true testament to how these bands force you to abandon your cool guy, bob-your-head sentimentalities for a more squeak-your-takkie and spill-your-drink kind of attitude. Danny mentions how, “We never really wanted to be as famous as possible, ya know? The only reason we do this is because our mates got sick of us being stingy with our music, so we started playing proper shows. Apparently a whole bunch of other c**ts thought the same thing, cause it wasn’t so long after that, they stuck us in a plane and flew us to Asia, Europe and f**king Africa!” He added later that “That’s kinda what our new album is about. We are just so f**king stoked that after what me and BC started all those moons ago, our lives are so different now. As long as people will listen, we will make noise. And smoke bong.”
The Man Between the Music 