Dune Rats Just Wanna Have Fun
The Dunies have always found a willing audience in Adelaide for their particular brand of mayhem. The beer & bbq headliners talk with the note about some of their wildest gigs in the city of churches, staying current for a decade and the business of growing up.
Words by Zara Richards // Image by Paul Grace
They’ve gone from bong-smoking Brisbane boys but Dune Rats have always made music with one goal in mind: have fun. The Note is speaking with drummer BC Michaels and singer Danny Beus from the three-piece outfit over Zoom. They’re due to make their headline appearance at this year’s Beer & BBQ Festival and even through a computer screen, the band’s larrikin energy is palpable.
“I like beer and I like barbecues, so it should be fun going to the Beer & BBQ Festival,” says BC. “Our buddies, Skeggs, played last year and told us about it. We’ve always loved coming to Adelaide, so when we got asked to do this, it was a bit of a no-brainer.”
“BC is gonna try and eat a whole rack of ribs on stage!” adds Danny, helpfully. Given Dune Rats partially made their name through their on-stage chaos, seeing the band’s drummer chow down on meaty mess mid-set wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. If anything, a little tame.
In the decade and a bit since they started playing together, Dune Rats have become professional party starters. And according to the band, the party is always peaking in Adelaide. One of their earliest gigs in the city saw the venue ban crowd surfing after the riotous three-piece played. “We went back a couple of weeks later and apologised,” recalls Danny. “The owner looked like they’d seen a ghost. I think they thought we’d be these little fuckwits and just not care.”
Then there was the time at The Gov, where they shared a bill with Cosmic Psychos in 2015. “People kept throwing weed at us on stage,” says BC. “Then I got a bit sick on the drum kit and vomited on [bass player] Brett [Jansch], who was on the ground. After the show there was all this weed and vomit over the stage…”
One of their more infamous concerts includes a gig at the Thebarton Theatre in 2017 when a crowd member decided to stage-dive off one of the venue’s balconies under the misapprehension the crowd would catch them. “He hit the floor and went to hospital,” says BC. “Luckily, he was fine.”
“Yeah, my mum called me the next day and was like, ‘Was that your show where the kid jumped off that thing?’” says Danny. “When you get a phone call from Mum, you know that things got a bit crazy the night before. Adelaide has just always been fucking nuts. It’s a bit of a common thread that when we [visit] there, people keep one-upping it – not that I’m saying anyone should jump off anything high at Beer & BBQ…”
Dune Rats achieved rockstar status with music that’s made for mosh pits. Tongue-in-cheek lyrics, a skate punk sound and a middle finger attitude saw the band top the album charts three times with The Kids Will Know It’s Bullshit (2017), Hurry Up and Wait (2020), and Real Rare Whale (2022). Weed-soaked singles like ‘Red Light Green Light’ and ‘Scott Green’ made the band favourites with JJJ.
However, later tracks like ‘UP’ and ‘Skate or Don’t’ prove that there’s more to the Dune Rats than smoking cones and causing a racket. The band’s sound has grown up alongside the trio.
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Last year’s Real Rare Whale, released via their own label Ratbag Records, is ten sophisticated songs that get stuck in your head. The tracks are still stamped with a certain level of Dunies silliness, but there are no swear words and no lyric gimmicks this time round. They even wrote their own version of a love song called ‘Melted Into Two’, loosely inspired by a fan tale from a couple who tried to make themselves one when listening to the band while on acid.
“If you play our first EP and our last album, it’s a pretty psycho jump [musically],” says Danny. “But I think the one thing we’ve always done is we’ve never tried to be one of those bands that does a full 180 on our sound to appease the changing music tides.
“The rock o’clock will come around again, so to speak. We’re just going to keep doing what we want to do.”
“Yeah, there’s only so many times you can write songs about weed before you bore yourself,” chuckles BC.
Having the grit to stick to their guns resulted in the band making what Danny says is their ‘best album yet’. Dune Rats have just wrapped an impressive 47-show tour around Europe, Canada and the US for Real Rare Whale. “After three months I was still enjoying playing the songs,” the singer says. “I reckon there’s depth in all the tracks. There’s an album or two that I probably don’t have to ever play again in my life. But I fucking love this one.”
Right now, the band are in the middle of a heavy writing session for what will be their fifth album. Despite their love for the last record, they don’t want to re-create Real Rare Whale. They’ve spent the past five days having fun and letting loose creatively, experimenting with new sound.
“We’re just writing songs that we like,” says BC. “Doing that makes it feel like when we first started writing music – when no one’s listening to your stuff so you just make the music you want.”
Inviting others into the Dunies fold has also helped the band keep it big-picture. They’ve previously worked with songsmiths and mates like Shane Parsons from DZ Deathrays, Zac Carper from FIDLAR and John Feldmann from Goldfinger on writing songs. Violent Soho’s James Tisdale also helped produce Hurry Up and Wait. “Dune Rats isn’t just us fellas,” Danny says. “We don’t ever want to not be open to making the best possible songs for Dune Rats.”
This mentality has kept the band at the top of their game for more than ten years. They’re having just as much fun as they were when they started making pun-packed punk tracks in 2011. Plus, their loyal fan base is loving it all the same.
“What’s that saying? The brighter the flame, the quicker the burn,” Danny says. “We weren’t a band that blew in overnight. We’ve spent a lot of years building up and writing songs. It’s going to be a lot of years before we stop doing that.”
“We started the band thinking we’d play to, max, 100 people,” adds BC. “So, like, to still be able to do it this far down the track is fucking awesome in itself. We’re killing it.”
Catch Dune Rats playing at Beer & BBQ Festival on Saturday, July 15. The event runs from July 14–16, featuring acts like The Living End, Magic Dirt and more. Tickets on sale now.
