28 Days – Still Rippin it Up

When 28 Days announced themselves to the world with their debut self titled album in 1998 it is fair to say neither the band nor the music loving public had even an inkling that within two years 28 Days would be well on the way to Australian music royalty.

It was the release of ‘Upstyledown’ at the turn of the century that, in effect, revolutionised Australian music forever. Blending nu metal, metal and rap together to form a bastardised hybrid that was more infectious than the Plague, 28 Days would soon become the voice of disenfranchised youth across the nation, with their two singles “Sucker” and “Rip It Up” sweeping music lovers across the board from skaters to punk rockers up in a sonic frenzy of rebelliousness that continues unabated nearly 30 years later.

After a massively successful capital city tour to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary earlier this year, public demand and a renewed love for touring sees 28 Days expand that tour to include regional dates from Torquay on October 2 to Frankston, Cairns, Townsville, Airlie Beach, Duncraig, Perth and Dunsborough before finishing in Forth on October 23.

With the band on the cusp of Ripping It Up around the country once more, frontman Jay Dunne joined me to take a trip down memory lane.

“We’re just happy to have people there and wanting to see us play,” he smiled when asked the reasons behind taking the show to more remote areas. “We always planned on going regional, but we thought it was probably best not to book everything at once. It’s for the pubs as well. They don’t want to commit to something if they don’t think it’s going to work in this current economic climate and all that sort of shit. The success of those capital city shows helped get a few more dates in, which is really cool.”

“It was a bit of a tease only doing four shows for the national tour and just doing the major cities. It’s fun in the big cities. Obviously, they know how to turn on a party but some of those country towns, man…” his voice trailed off as though stuck in a memory. “In some of those country towns we have nights we’ll never forget.”

With music being very much a personal, yet still generational experience we ask Jay if the crowds so far suggest the bands fan base is still predominantly made up of faces from the past or if the youth of today are discovering what the youth of yesteryear felt nearly three decades ago.

“I’m usually that nervous before the gig,” he laughed, “that I don’t notice. We go out and do a signing and say g’day to people and I have noticed people coming up with their kids, which is really cool for us. I think with how crazy the world is now and how much you can’t trust things, I think everyone’s looking back to a time when things were a little simpler. And I think the kids probably romanticized the ’90s and the noughties and stuff, so they are interested in music from that era, which is our era. We definitely haven’t broken to a new generation. I see a lot of this out there (strokes his greying stubble on his chin). A lot of snowy beards (laughs).”

An obvious statement, I know, but by virtue of this being a 30th anniversary tour we point out the fact that we are now 30 years older than our crazy carefree days, asking Jay if he has to remind himself of that fact before going on stage or whether his body does it for him.

“I’ve been doing it for a while, so I just go into autopilot,” he smiled. “Well, my body does. It just knows what to do. I love getting up there. I love singing 28 Days. I just… I fucking love it and always have, so that comes to me easily. Getting up and doing it again and everything leading up to that first note is hard work but at the end of the day, shows are what I do.”

28 Days’ music is now so engrained in our DNA that it is hard to imagine these songs were once in their infancy and unknown to all except the band. We ask Jay if, looking back, there was ever a part of him that dared to dream he would still be on stage singing those same songs so many years later.

“Nah,” he shook his head. “We were just ticking off a bucket list, you know. We were just using our youth properly and what do you do at that age? You join a band. I remember my wife literally asked me what do you want to do? What would you do if you could do anything? And I said I’d draw. And she goes, why don’t you draw then? I said because I’m garbage at drawing (laughs). So she asked what else and I said I’ve always wanted to be in a band. Ever since I was a little kid I had a couple of little bands and I had a couple of things that I did when I was in Grade 5. I think me and a couple of the guys tried to do an INXS cover band in his garage and I was the drummer (laughs). Plus my Nan played music and I was around live music a little bit as a kid and I fucking always loved it.”

The troubles of youth are only fading memories as we get older, and there’s no denying 28 Days were full of anger when they wrote ‘Upstyledown’. While it’s easy to channel that anger and maintain the rage in the moment, we ask now, with the wisdom of time and mellowing of age, if it is difficult to tap back into that younger psyche when Jay hits the stage.

“It’s cathartic to sing, and I get to scream a lot in 28 Days,” he measured, “and I get to really dig in. My lyrics over the years… lyrics are my least favorite part of the song. I like putting music together and putting the rhythmic points in to get the basic vibe of the song, but the lyrics bit… I don’t believe that I’m someone that, especially back then, had much to say that was important. I wasn’t a deep thinker, you know what I mean? I hadn’t really experienced enough of life to really have much to say that was so good. Which is why I stuck to party stuff, because that was really more me. More honest.”

With the benefit of reflection we ask Jay why he thinks so many people did – and still do – resonate so deeply with ‘Upstyledown’.

“Music was so glamorous and stuff in the late ’80s,” he replied. “It was great. The good thing about the ’90s is you didn’t dress up to go and play music. You just wore what you were wearing and the music sort of told everyone who you were. Just because we played music it didn’t raise us above you. Like we used to say, we’re the thinking man’s dickhead (laughs). Australians don’t take ourselves too seriously if we’re good at being Australians.

And we were influenced by Frenzal Rhomb, they introduced us to Australia. Them and BodyJar took us on our first couple of big tours that really introduced us to the rest of the country. Both of those bands are the consummate professionals but they never take themselves seriously. When they’re playing music for you they are going to do their job properly, and play as best as they can for you, but that’s the only time I’ve ever seen them take themselves seriously.”

We ask if there’s one thing above all others that 30 years in the music industry has taught Jay about friendship and surviving in the cut throat world of music, to which he answered.

“I think just not taking yourself too seriously and knowing that it’s a gift,” he measured. “But we obviously went through a stage where we were

pretty big and we suffered from a lot of people blowing sunshine up our ass. I really enjoy playing music more now that I don’t get that. Now I’ve got all these other parts of my life to make it a bit more balanced.”

28 Days play The Edge Hill Tavern on 8th Oct – Tickets

Kris Peters – Also Published in Heavy Mag