In 2016, when Eamon Sandwith, 16, started Chat with his friends in the small Australian surf town of Coolum Beach, the goal was simple. “To get free pee and play parties,” he said. (To clarify, in this context “piss” means beer.) But high school parties are often punctuated with DJ music “oontz oontz,” so “nobody likes us,” Sandwith said smiling. “We were always booed.”
Then he wrote a song called “Smoko.” It’s wonderful, it’s shockingly joyful, it’s all about the glory and the agony of vanishing into smoke. Float by a little DIY video, “Smoko” has become an internet disruptor. Technically, the cost of making the video is 5 AUD (about 3.44 USD), with the entire budget going to buy a sausage roll eaten on screen. It now has nearly 17 million views on YouTube. And almost 5 years on, it’s helped The Chat take their hyper-local punk rock out around the world. There’s just something about the special world they live in that ordinary people and legends are attracted to. Like Sandwith told Guardians“When we met Iggy Pop, he said, ‘What is Smoko?'”
On August 19, the Chats team released their new album, Get fucked. (To clarify, in this context “get fucked” means to be fucked.) Before the release, Sandwith was calling from his well-lit home in Brisbane, a city a few hours north of Coolum. male. On either side is a classy black-and-white photograph of a flying Jello Biafra, mullet cascading behind. Even on a video call, things got so hearty that it was scary.
“I was walking around and I had the chorus in my head,” Sandwith said of the origins of “Smoko.” “I said, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good, I should try and keep that in mind. And I really tried not to think differently.” When he got home, he took his guitar and wrote “Smoko” in less than 15 minutes. After they shot the video, the band got excited to show it to friends. Their instant social circle has gone as far as they thought. Sandwith recalls: “I didn’t think it was like that, it was amazing. And then “it got out of hand.”
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