“Is it ‘Nothing’s Immortal’?
WRONG. It’s ‘Broken Little Boys’. ‘One Day’ has the ambitious concept of being written and recorded in the space of 24 hours…
“It was the idea of ‘What can be done in 24 hours?’. We all adhered to the 24 hours rule. For my vocals, it was probably around six days in total, broken up to a few hours each. Mike putting that limitation on us was interesting because some of our previous records were recorded over the span of six months, and I think that’s what originally drove me out of the studio.”
‘Broken Little Boys’, a comment on the toxicity of alpha masculinity, seems especially timely at the moment.
“It was inspired by raising sons and realising how much gender is a manufactured thing that is put on us, and how much of our fucked-up society is ultimately created by broken little boys creating the next generation of broken little boys. It’s one generation inflicting its trauma on the next.”
This is the first time you’ve contributed lyrics to a Fucked Up record since 2014’s ‘Glass Boys’…
“It felt liberating to be back writing songs. After the backlash ‘Glass Boys’ received from everyone, I felt rejected and thought, ‘I don’t know what to write about any more’. Someone within Fucked Up said: ‘People don’t want to hear Fucked Up sing about what it’s like to be in Fucked Up’, which I totally get. But when you’re out there making your trade from your traumas and people reject your insecurities and mental health issues, it feels like they’re rejecting you. Now I feel I can write about whatever and it doesn’t have to fit anybody’s expectations.”
