Gang of Youths have reflected on what many fans consider one of the most iconic performances in Splendour in the Grass’s history.
The Sydney band were riding high on the success of 2017’s Go Farther in Lightness, which had also dominated that year’s ARIA Awards, picking up the coveted Album of the Year. When they took to the stage at the Byron Bay festival in July 2018, it became clear that Gang of Youths were no longer one of the country’s most promising acts – they were now the biggest.
Appearing on the latest episode of Rolling Stone Uncut in an Australian podcast exclusive, frontman Dave Le’aupepe said the group did not anticipate the huge reaction to that set.
“Coming off stage was drama because there were technical issues and stuff,” he recalled. “I was fine with it, but I just didn’t really think about it. I kept thinking, okay, logistically, how am I gonna be able to get drunk after this without anybody getting upset by that? It was the last day of the tour, and I wanted a drink. That was my entire headspace — I was 26, we were babies, we were little kids.”
As has been the theme throughout their entire career, Le’aupepe did not want to buy into the craze and the hype around the band, particularly coming off Go Farther in Lightness.
“There’s a concerted effort with me personally to stop it from occurring,” he said. “It gets in your head, and it fucks with the way you write the music, the way you live your life. You start becoming contingent on approval — Am I good enough to do this? Am I a good person? It doesn’t really matter. This is just one step in our lives, together, as friends. We tread the plank way back then.”
Guitarist Jung Kim added: “We’re just simply people, like everyone else — we have some fragility to the mind. So what we tend to focus on, aside from notoriety, is each other.”
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Gang of Youths appeared on the podcast to celebrate their return and first new music in four years with the track, “Things Take Time.”
Watch below or listen to the full episode on Apple Music and Spotify (subscribe and follow!).
