Muscle”isaboutovercominghisfearoflov-
ing again after the catastrophic dissolution
of that union. By the time we reach closer
“SayYesToLife”,which“istheculmination
of everything I believe the record is leading
up to”, the mood of the album has turned
joyous, with Le’aupepe extolling the virtues
of being part of “the new sincere” and, as its
title suggests, saying yes to life. “Obvious-
ly that will be received with a lot of smirk-
ing and cynicism,” he sneers, “but I don’t
give a fuck.”
The album is uplifting, raw, and chal-
lenging – most notably on the seven-minute
string-laden epic “Achilles Come Down”,
complete with soundbytes of French phi-
losopher Albert Camus – and clocks in at
just a tick under 80 minutes. Oh, and did
we mention it’s a double LP? At which point
you look Le’aupepe in the eye and ask him,
“Where, on your second album, which logi-
cally should be designed to capitalise on the
success of your debut, do you get the balls to
make a record like this?”
“I don’t know, man,” he smiles. “I’m gonna
die one day and I don’t want to fuck around.
This is the thing I care about, and I want to
do the shit I care about. I don’t give a fuck
about the commercial possibilities of the
music. I just wanted to swing for the fenc-
es and attempt not to care what people
thought and attempt to convey my thoughts
about life, my musings, my aspirations, my
fears, my anxiety, my empathy for others, in
trait when trying to converse in a bar blast-
ing classic rock like Journey and the Vines.
The band’s sole songwriter, he admits to
perceiving criticism of his lyrics and song-
writing as a direct attack on him. So while
a conversation with the singer is likely to
be littered with references to philosophers
such as Nietzsche, Lacan and Camus, it
will also contain passionately delivered ex-
pletives, often aimed at the “horn rimmed
dipshits on the internet” who have taken a
pop at the band. (“I’m starting to work to-
ward not caring, but it’s fucking hard.”) He
is confrontingly honest, but bears the bur-
den of a man painfully aware of the ire that
can draw. (“I speak with a lot of convic-
tion and passion about things, and I think
that upsets people, ’cause how fucking dare
someone speak with conviction?”) There are
complexities at play that one just has to ac-
cept – at one point, when talking about his
detractors, he says, “If it pissed me off in
2005 I’m plotting your demise for 2020; I
hold grudges”, the next he’s expressing that
the new record is “about empathy, I just
want to fucking relate to people” – but there
is no doubt that Le’aupepe believes every-
thing he’s saying with the utmost sincerity.
One of two children born to father Tat-
tersall and mother Fran – his sister, Giselle,
is three years older – his dad is a classical-
ly trained opera singer who used to work
in finance before stopping (“I have no idea
why...Hewantedtobewithus,whichIa way that I found pleasing. So it was heal-
ing for me.”A
day later, on a sunny
Friday afternoon with the
temperature hovering in the
high-twenties, David Im-
manuel Menachem Sasagi
Le’aupepe is nursing a beer
in a knockabout bar in West Hollywood
called The Den. Located in the shadow of
the famed Chateau Marmont, if the latter is
the playground of the A-list, The Den is
where the B-list go to sing karaoke. Earlier
in the day, Dunn referred to Le’aupepe as a
“complicated” man. Which as far as under-
statements go is like saying the Titanic hit a
large ice cube.
As passionate, warm and engaged a con-
versationalist as you could ever meet, he can
also be a removed, world-weary, brooding
presence. In those moments there’s a good
chance his brain is working at twice the rate
of which he talks, which, when he gets excit-
ed, is somewhere approaching lightspeed.
In such moments he has a tendency to run
his words into one another, or to reduce
his deep baritone to a mumble, particular-
lywhilefinishingathought,afrustratingGANG OF YOUTHS
50 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com September, 2017
ALL FOR ONE
Gang of Youths, Los Angeles, June 2017
(from left): Max Dunn, Dave Le’aupepe, Joji
Malani, Jung Kim, Donnie Borzestowski