WEST THEBARTON: SAINTS OF THE SUBURBS
Listen up West Thebarton fans, church is in session. Reverend Ray Dalfsen – the band’s zealous frontman – is delivering a sermon on all things rock ‘n’ roll, mateship and their second album, Mongrel Australia.
Words by Zara Richards
“Mongrel Australia is that bloke in the bar who’s covered in tattoos and drinking a beer no one else is really drinking,” says ‘Reverend’ Ray Dalfsen when reflecting on West Thebarton’s long-awaited second album. It’s just days before the March 22 release and you can hear the frontman thinking on the other side of the phone
“As soon as you start to have a chat with the bloke, you realise they’re a really warm person and that they’re going to give you a really fun night. You can’t stop thinking that you judged him, but you’re very happy you said g’day. You realise [the night] is going to be something memorable.”
It’s a hell of sell, but it’s fitting for one of the finest rock outfits South Australia has produced in the last decade. West Thebarton – comprising Brian Bolado, Tom Gordon, Josh Healey, Caitlin Thomas, Nick Horvat and Ray – have left the scene starved of a second album since dropping their runaway debut, Different Beings Being Different, in 2018.
We’ve been patient. And so has West Theb, who’ve been penning Mongrel Australia’s 13 tightly-coiled tracks since 2019. “These songs have been written over quite a long stretch, it’s really weird,” says Ray. “It’s like we’ve had our kids, sent them to school and now we’re putting them in the real world. I absolutely cannot wait.”
Mongrel Australia takes the landscape of this sunburnt country – our people, our experiences, our culture, our troubles, our triumphs – and distils it into 44 minutes and 34 seconds of noise. The result is a record that feels like a left hook to the jaw and a big bear hug at the same time. We knew rock looked good on West Theb. But so does vulnerability.
“I think you’re vulnerable when you start thinking more about life and the world. What you’re doing and your place in it – all that kind of stuff,” muses Ray. “We wrote Different Beings Being Different when we were so young – we wanted crazy rock ‘n’ roll guitars and everything had to be buzzsaw and I was yelling into the microphone, line after line.
“On this new record, we wanted to explore a little bit more of our personality. And really, that’s where the vulnerable component comes from: we’re a lot more comfortable now in sharing who we are.”
Mongrel Australia doesn’t sacrifice West Theb’s signature gritty sound for softness. Instead, the wall-to-wall fury of their firstborn album has been put through its paces the second time around, sweated down to a point of precision. Its tracks reflect this growth, too. Love, grief and cancer are topics touched on in songs like ‘Slow’ and ‘Neck Pains’, while the album’s eighth entrant, ‘Modern Australia’, feels muddied with frustration – a frustration levelled somewhat at this country’s resistance to change.
“Cos I’ve been waiting my whole life, just to see some change,” Ray says on the four-minute track. “To my land, to my land.”
And while Mongrel Australia has resisted namechecking local watering holes or championing Adelaide’s western suburbs, South Australia still courses through its veins. We put it to Ray that sometimes the guitar riffs and licks woven through the album sound like a love letter to the band’s hometown and its famed ‘Adelaide sound’. He’s quick to tell us it’s never intentional.
“We’ve never really deliberately tried to be South Australian,” he says, “But it sort of comes as an extension of our life experiences and who we are and being completely authentic on this record.”
West Thebarton’s roots run deep through the state. Right now, guitarist Josh Healey plays in bands like Energy Angel and Sleep Talk. And before West Theb were cobbled together in suburban backstreets in 2013, multiple members had cut their teeth gigging on the local circuit for outfits like Horror My Friend, Archers and TEA.
“[In TEA], David Blumberg, who’s now the publican at the Golden Wattle, used to write these twangy country songs but in the most rock ‘n’ roll way possible. I was listening to this song we released years and years ago called ‘Lead Shoes’, and I was like, ‘Jesus… this is really the pre-cursor of West Theb.’”
But that’s the thing with West Thebarton. The big, beating heart of Mongrel Australia – and all that came before it – reflects the band’s life experiences, threaded together by their mateship. It’s impressive for an outfit that often balances seven points of view. But for West Thebarton, the secret to success is a combination of trust, authenticity and camaraderie.
“I’ve always said, if you play in a band with people, you’ve got to be friends,” says Ray. “There were times when I spent double the amount of time with West Theb than I did with my family or friends. A ridiculous amount! And part of that is also having each other’s back. There has to be trust.”
This extends to previous bandmates, too. Ray mentions Josh Battersby, who left West Theb in November last year after a decade with the group and recording Mongrel Australia. “He was such an incredible influence on the band – he’s certainly a mind-boggling guitar player. And he’s such a deep part of our history… we’re still best friends with him. I think it goes beyond playing music together in a room.”
On June 21, the now six-piece will take to The Gov stage to launch Mongrel Australia – a gig that will set the pace for the remainder of West Theb’s tour. “There’s something chaotic about an Adelaide crowd,” says Ray. “Particularly the punters in the first five rows – they know it’s a West Theb show and they can go a little crazy.”
Gigs are a good excuse for Ray to go a little crazy, too. Anyone who’s caught the band live knows how well the frontman can wrangle a mosh pit and send punters into overdrive. It’s all part of West Theb’s charm. But the stage has also become something of a sanctuary for him – a world away from his nine to five grind working in the medical technology industry.
“It really revs me up when I get to go into West Theb mode,” he says. “I’m like, ‘Cool, this is my outlet now. I’m not normal life Ray anymore, this is West Theb Ray’.
“I think it’s really important to have a double life if you’re a musician because it makes it more fun. It’s nice to have that completely compartmentalised life where I’ve split everything else from my musicianship.”
As for the remainder of 2024? Ray says West Thebarton plan to be on the road or in the studio as much as possible.
“Playing shows is something that brings a lot of pleasure to me and everyone in the band,” he says. “And we’re gearing up now to do some more recording. The fire is well and truly lit and we’re just stoking the flames. We’ve got that passion for jamming.”
