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G2G unleash gloriously ragged, pep-charged post-punk tunes with a playful pop ingenuity and ramshackle charisma on their long-awaited debut LP The Gherkin, released back in September on Lulu's Sonic Disc Club (The Lewers, Rocky, Eternal Dust). It's confident, crude, and primal—all the hallmarks to great rock 'n' roll—and a reminder of what can be accomplished when you turn away from the hyper-stylized crowd and create art that speaks to you. Along with an exclusive look at the clip to the album's opening track “Up,” we spoke with the band all about the ideas translated across the debut album, the activities they're very into at the moment, and how exactly Daniel Stewart (Total Control, Straitjacket Nation) got involved as the band's new drummer.
First tell me what you've been up to lately? What have you been listening to, reading, watching, or spending a lot of time doing?
Georgia: Us G's have just finished playing shows in Melbourne, Canberra and a little steel works town called Port Kembla to celebrate our debut album The Gherkin. There was a great book seller at our Canberra show (@bookrunner) who I picked up some heavy hitting philosophy from: Human All Too Human, a Zizek book on violence and a Jean Genet book. Yet to start (whoops human) but now I will attempt. I'm listening to Linda Ronstadt, Richard Ashcroft and playing hacky sack down by the bay in Kings Cross.
Greta: After the tour, I started doing a painting of my good friend Janina who plays in a masterful Sydney punk band called Xilch. We went out on a boat for our friend Joshy's birthday and it's a memory I have of Janina looking cool laying on the hull (I think that’s what it's called) in the sun. Sydney harbor (where we were swimming and boating) was declared toxic and full of sewerage that day after a big storm. It was still a nice memory. I've been spending a lot of time doing that painting and also getting back into studying my business Masters. I have been reading a teen fantasy book called A Wizard of Earthsea and Tintin. Songwise, I've been listening non stop to "In the Year 2525"—if you haven't heard it I strongly recommend it. Any version but especially the Zager and Evans version.
Daniel: I have been reading crime stories, back to back Agatha Christie and Georges Simenon. Both have written a couple hundred books between them and I plan to read them all, I have read about 20 so far this year. Recently my football (soccer) team won our premiership and championship in the same season, this is a big deal as the team have been playing for ten years, I only joined three years ago when we moved to Sydney but it's a family affair. I only scored one goal this season despite playing striker but football is a very important part of my life and it was amazing to back up the win with the release of YEDAN GHERKIN.
Angelica: I've been researching for an article I'm working on about a group of Jamaican fishermen who are taking the government to court over beach access—so I have been reading The Jamaica Gleaner online newspaper a lot. I've also been reading the same Annie Ernaux book for months! It's a whole lot of short observations from her life and there's no through-line really and I keep forgetting where I'm up to/what I've already read until I get to this same paragraph: "On the motorway, level with the Marcouville high-rise flats—a squashed cat, engraved into the asphalt." I must have read this same bit maybe 30 times. One day soon I'll hopefully move past it and finish the book because the image of the squashed cat is gross but the book is very good.
For our readers unfamiliar, tell us about the origins of G2G?
Greta: The way I remember it is that my friend and bandmate in my other band DEN, Micky Grossman had a studio on Faversham Street in Sydenham—which was an iconic space and the spot where lots of great music was recorded like Low Life, Oily Boys, Sex Drive, LA Suffocated (and later G2G). He said he could rent me out the drum tracking room so I brought in all my music gear and put it on bricks because it flooded when it rained. Georgia and I had just started our friendship and I invited her to the studio. I was excited because I thought she was really cool and knew that she was a really talented bass player. We sat on the floor and just started jamming really funny long non-linear songs (including "Bloodmeat" and "Animated Satisfaction") that had lyrics like "magpie chasing magpie chasing dove…saints and sinners eating dinner—which one is the evil one?" and really mashed up, murky drum beats that reflected the feeling of darkness in the booth, there being no light in the studio room. We then realized we were both bass players and wanted to get our friend and talented musician friend Angelica involved and yeah… that's how G2G was formed.
Georgia: Greta and I would see each other at shows a lot. I remember bumping into her at video club (a much loved rehearsal studio in Marrickville that most musicians in Syd have lived in at some point) and joking that we should start a side project with 2x bass ONLY. That somehow turned into us deciding to learn how to play mangled guitar instead. Together we would sit in a moldy little room, write poems about eczema, and somehow try and shape stiff words into song. We were then very lucky to find Sydney's finest and most angelic bass player and from there we started playing live.
Angelica: I met Greta because we were both asked to play in a band we ended up leaving but we stayed friends! In that band, we rehearsed at a place called Video Club where I also first met Georgia—she was rehearsing there with her band Body Type and we'd all cross over in the kitchen. Greta and I used to drive around lots when we started hanging out- she had a car and a license and I didn't. Greta showed me two demos her and Georgia had written in the car and asked if I would play bass with them—they were the best songs I had ever heard ! So free and clever and fun. Then we got together and wrote more songs. I met Dan because he is good friends with my sister—they lived in a great house in Melbourne together and we played darts in the lounge room lots. Saying this, I realize G2G and friends are all very into activities. At the moment the activities are: hacky sack, making hats, going for ice cream, crosswords, the Saturday quiz.
Daniel, how did you get involved behind the kit?
Daniel: It's no secret that G2G is the greatest band in Australia and while jealous of their computer drummer for her precision, I felt computer drummer and rock music's make inconsistent pairing and pleaded with the ladies to give me a chance to play drums with them. I took a computer job and I do not fear the AI takeover—it is important to focus on areas you can defeat machine. And while my style is ignorant and has no nuance, I was accepted into the G2Gang. I am G2Grateful.
We've been fans of yours since the 2020 release, but how do you feel looking back on your catalog? Do you still like or relate to your past releases?
Greta: The process of writing and recording the self-titled 7" was so fun and filled with so many hilarious moments that it feels impossible to separate the experience from the songs themselves. These memories and the feeling around the past release even includes tracks that weren't included or even finished like this idea we had to cover that song "Maria" from The Sound Of Music—we learnt it in a G2G shonky way and started singing the lyrics from one of our iPhones and scrolled down to the bottom of the page with the lyrics only to find the most hilarious looking dog with rabies as some scammer ad at the bottom of the dodgy website and we all just lost it laughing. I think I have a recording of it somewhere—I'll send it to you when I find it. People say our band and music often feels like a series of in-jokes or some display of memories of funny times we have had together and I really think it's true—but we want everyone to feel part of it too as much as we do and we hope that comes across.
What insight can you share about your latest album The Gherkin and how exactly did it all come together in the studio?
Daniel: We wrote a couple songs when I joined the band—"Anthem" and "Pop Song"—and decided to record a single. I play football with John Duncan, who produced the first Low Life LP. I always admired the arctic brittle of the top and the iceberg huge bottom end—it sound like a barbaric beast—perfect for G2G! Greta and Gel had recorded with John with their other band VVUNDERLUST and they vouched for his character and skill. We went in for a weekend session and recorded the two songs and a couple older tracks before lunch. While we were eating our pad Thai's, I proposed we try and record all of the tracks we knew and make it an album. After a couple back-and-forth's, it was decided to give it a punt and the next couple days were frantic and left John with a lot of random tracks to scrub up and mix, and he did an amazing job.
Greta: In addition to Daniel's perfect retelling of the album, I think it's important to emphasize the immense effort, patience and wisdom we were all so lucky to have in the form of John. His curiosity in the way we could play our instruments in the room has a huge role to play in the tone we were able to get out of them. I don't know how but he made this warlock looking busted up guitar I bought off a centurion antique seller for $50 in Redfern sound as pure as nuns tears. I also really enjoyed the way we recorded our vocals in one room together—I think that was crucial because we are three but we are also one, jumping in and out of each other's phrases. That's how G2G has always done it so it felt really true to who we are as friends and a band.
What's the story behind its opening cut "Up"?
Angelica: Georgia, Greta, and I were all living across three different states for a while. We would all send each other short voice memos of song ideas or jokes or words or phrases or poems. So much G2G is written together in the same room but the words for this one were an email exchange between the three of us all writing something about the sun.
What can you tell me about "Pop Song" and how its accompanying music came about?
Georgia: "Pop Song" was written on Gelly's living room floor. We had been getting ready to reopen a Sydney venue called The Gaelic Club and decided to have an afternoon snack, nap and song. After sleepy gs, we found a guitar line that might work. We then did that thing where you start mumbling random words over chords and see what dribbles out (pop music obviously). I think the words have something to do with us driving around town trying to find a million venue mics and a drum rug.
What was it like putting together "Punkdom"?
Georgia: "Punkdom" is a philosophy pun by G2G friend and family member Annabel Blackman. Bab, as she goes by, plays with me in my other project called Body Type. Bab and I like to email each other dumb n fun things from time to time and I think some suck thumb lines were taken from an email probably sent in the year 2016. I think we put this one together to fill out the twelve minute set we couldn't shake.
What do you recall about the writing session for "Anthem"?
Daniel: Greta and I arrived early to a jam with Gelly, this is when Georgia was living in Perth and we were flying down to Melbourne the next day to meet up with Georgia and play my first show with G2G. This jam was actually in the same room where G2G recorded their 7". The spirits of that session were still in the walls, a mischievous sprite name Josh Neutron, he seeped out of the carpet and asked us to write a song while we waited for Gelly. Greta played a dumb riff that reminded me of football hooligan oi and another dumb riff that reminded me of football hooligan oi and we played it through. Then we played it through twice and we had a song. Gelly arrived and we played it for her and she loved it. We wrote it in five minutes and it's the same structure and mostly the same lyrics. Next day, our flight was delayed and we jammed with Georgia for an hour or so and learnt "Anthem" and we played it that night. The important thing sometimes is don't think, don't prepare, don't stress, don't worry, just pick up guitar and play the dumbest thing you can and there are plenty of forces out there waiting to find expression through your impulsive gestures and G2Genius.
I also very much like the tune "Wrong Way." How did that one come to be?
Angelica: My grandad used to tell this story or kind of limerick about the navigator of a zeppelin. The navigator's name was Corrigan and he was obsessed with climbing up the side of the zeppelin while it was in the air and strapping himself to the top to ride up there. But because he was up there no one was navigating and the zeppelin would end up way out over the Atlantic Ocean or somewhere else it wasn't meant to be. So he became known as "Wrong Way Corrigan."
What were the inspirations behind the cover art by Elliott Shields?
Angelica: We gave Elliot Gus MacLeod's amazing swan on a flaming lake drawing and a photo Sam Stephenson took of us at the Gaelic Club and said "make of it what you will." He came back with so many cool options and made the rip version as a sort of a joke idea but we all loved this one! I don't know what inspired him, but it is absolutely inspired. And it pairs beautifully with the G2G pickle sticker Elliot made. The only regret is that the sticker is not scratch and sniff. But G2G will keep pickling gherkins so there's time for scratch and sniff.
What do you enjoy most about playing these songs live?
Georgia: The best thing about these songs and this band is laughing with each other all. The time. The laughter never stops.
Greta: The laughs and the fun. We love each other a lot and have been through so much together. I get a lump in my throat every time we play because I feel so lucky to be in a band with my best friends. I don't care if people think it stinks, we have fun.
Angelica: Yeah, same for me! I love making songs with G2G so much and just hanging out together. I love having G2G in my brain and what comes out when we all bang heads is honest and sometimes unhinged and makes me smile a lot.
Daniel: What I love most about drumming is not thinking about anything, just becoming a meat machine directed by the songs to move your body and make a lot of noise. I am often accused of being heavy handed, I break a lot of things in ways that normal people wouldn't, not necessarily out of being clumsy but by being a savage, I am quite brutish and I like the sound of broken glass so drums is a way to be at the center of the storm and feel armies tremble beneath my feet and great beasts tamed under the force of the sticks. But then, to come out of this state of ignorant bliss and see Georgia, Gel, and Greta hamming it up and having the best time and laughing too hard to be able to sing, finding myself laughing so hard I can't drum and having to squeeze my eyes shut and find that composure, this is the best thing about playing in G2G and something I treasure, that contrast of extremes is life at its best!
Aside from the new album, what else is on the horizon for G2G and your other projects?
Daniel: I have been writing songs with my friend Buz from R.M.F.C. We are playing our first show early November in a band called Station Model Violence. Georgia is rocking with us.
Later this year, KX Aminal hope to record our album. Straightjacket Nation is celebrating 20 years, playing with Annihilation Time in a couple weeks. Total Control are on indefinite hiatus. UV Race have a science fiction movie and soundtrack to release sometime in the near future.
Greta: G2G will keep pumping tunes—we have our album launch in our hometown of Sydney at the end of the year and I expect we will continue to write tracks and hang out. My other band DEN is in the process of finishing our second album and another project I am involved in, Honey 2 Honey is releasing a few songs later this year. I also will be part of a painting show in December. In the mid-long term, I'd like to prioritize trying new experiences, reading more and staying off social media.
Angelica: We want to make a movie. Maybe find some new activities. It's getting warm in Sydney and I want to spend the summer hanging out with G2G and other family. I'd like to take the ferry more!
Georgia: Working on a new album with Body Type, working on a new album with G2G ;).
Thank you for taking your time. Any advice or last words you'd like to share with our readers?
Daniel: My advice is to avoid give or accept advice from a friend! My last words are thankyou for your interest in our band and quote our friend Frederik Valentine, "ROCKNROLL WILL NEVER DIE" or my pal Ben Trogden, "RNR FOREVER."
Angelica: Advice: Gherkin goes well with most things! Also, I saw the filmmaker Stephanie Rothman give a Q&A recently. She's 87 and someone asked her what was the project she had the most fun making in her life and she said "my whole life has been fun!" It's not advice, but just something I'd like to think at 87 too.
Greta: My advice is corny but it is simply to be kind. My last words are: Thank you for your cool thought provoking questions! And—"In the year 2525, if man is still alive If woman can survive, they may find. In the year 3535, ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lie. Everything you think, do and say. Is in the pill you took today. In the year 4545, you ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes. You won't find a thing to chew. Nobody's gonna look at you"
Georgia: I agree with Dan's sentiment: MUSIC IS LIFE AND LIFE IS NOT A BUSINESS. Biggy Pop. Come play hacky sack with us if you find yourself in Australia.
The Gherkin is out now on Lulu's Sonic Disc Club.