How a Near-Death Experience Led to ‘Like Liam Gallagher’
Punk Head: Like Liam Gallagher feels like a gloriously bad idea on paper. Why was that the perfect way to announce your comeback?
Lewca: Haha, I am notoriously fond of pursuing bad ideas, I guess. Just ask my wife 😅. In truth, I wrote a bunch of pretty dark songs after being hospitalised, but I decided to put them aside for a later album… I wanted to make something joyful, like a celebration of being alive or whatnot. Furthermore, I wanted the first single to have lots of swagger, and if you look up swagger in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Liam Gallagher, innit?
Punk Head: You've described the album as "reggae-infused alternative punk rap pop if that makes any sense." At what point did you stop worrying about fitting into a scene?
Lewca: I generally try not to do what others expect of me, not out of any rebellious instinct or anything like that, but just because it kind of bores me. What I love about music is how many different ways there are of expressing the human experience, like Tom Waits said, “it’s a very interesting way of moving air”. I find that genres are just a way for us to try to see order in the chaos, but in fine, the only thing that matters is how the music makes you feel.
Punk Head: You almost died and came back expecting "absolute world domination and unfathomable wealth." How's that plan going so far?
Lewca: Hmm, not very well if I’m to be honest, not quitting the day job just yet…. but in the end I guess all the fun is in the journey, not the destination.
Punk Head: Was cold-calling Elephant Man while drunk the most punk thing you've ever done, or just the most effective?
Lewca: In truth, I didn’t really expect Elephant Man to pick up, so that turned out really well for us. I’m not entirely sure how to define a punk thing, but having children is definitely the craziest thing I’ve ever done by far. Very glad I did.
Punk Head: You started making music, as you put it, "just before you were too old to die young." There's a lot of mythology around youthful self-destruction in rock music. Has surviving changed the way you look at that mythology?
Lewca: Yeah, I mean it’s the age-old dichotomy between life and death, and the closer you get to death, the more you feel alive. The downside is the terrible tragedy of losing lives to excess, but I definitely understand the temptation to go overboard.
I’ve got to an age now where you have to choose your battles. If I pull an all-nighter and get drunk and take a bunch of drugs, I’m going to be in dire straits for at least a week, so it’s obviously not something I can do every weekend… that said, I think it’s important to live life to the fullest of our abilities. Simply staying alive to live dull, uninteresting lives seems kinda pointless, so we need to take risks, try new experiences, and constantly get out of our comfort zones. I try to make a point of making my home on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, and I try to always remember that it is vital not to die without scars.
