The word “larrikin” finds a different meaning in Beddy Rays. The Queensland indie-rock band is full of quintessential larrikins, cracking jokes and messing around, with one key twist - they don’t shy away from sincerity. In fact, they tap into it. And that’s where their new LP, Do What Ya Wanna, comes in.

“I guess it's just, like, a really honest record,” frontman Jackson "Jacko" Van Issum explains. “That's what we sort of do here, in this band. All the songs are real true to us, and we write the things that mean a lot to us.”

Do What Ya Wanna drops today, and is a perfectly curated mix of sincerity, celebration, and humour - just the way we like it. It’s what fans have come to expect from the boys from Redland Bay.

“We've still got the classic Beddy’s happy party songs, you know, the happy vibes there, but we just sort of show another side of us as well,” Van Issum says.

One song in particular stands out from the album. Stay The Same, Beddy Rays’ QMA-winning single, is a cut above the rest - for good reason, too.

“Stay The Same was just a really personal song for us, because I lost my sister a little over three years ago, and I just spewed out a song for her,” Van Issum explains. “And yeah, it's just about her forever being 28. She'll always stay the same, no matter how we grow as a band, or as mates, or do this for, she'll forever be 28 and she'll forever be in our music. We have a sing about her every single night, and it just means it's really special to us.”

Guitarist Lewis "Lewy" McKenna echoes that sentiment. “When playing Stay The Same live, I like to look out into the crowd and just see what's going on. Because obviously, it's not like a big, fast, punky number, but it's more of a slow rocker and has that deeper meaning behind it, and I’m just seeing it connect with people. I've seen people crying and shit, and I'm like, ‘Holy fuck. Like, this song is actually touching people in a special way’. And I just love playing my little lead guitar parts. I love everything about it, like, it just feels so good playing it live and listening to it as well.”

“The good thing about being a player in this band is, even if you're gonna have the shittest day, you're gonna have not the best set you think you've ever had, or whatever, but like, those moments where you connect with the people in the crowd and they're singing along, and you can see in their eyes how much it means to them… everything else doesn't matter. Fuck everything else, that moment right there is all that matters. We're really lucky to be able to do this, and to have fans you know that appreciate the music,” Van Issum adds.

It’s clear, from that conversation alone, that Beddy Rays is a band who values audience connection. But it’s more than that. They create their songs predominantly with their live set in mind.

“We're more of a live band, so the record revolves around the live show,” Van Issum explains. “So we think of parts that will go well live, like we’ll say, ‘What's going to go well live?’ ‘Oh, this drop out here’ and ‘We come back here’, or whatnot, you know? So that's what wrote the record.”

“I think some artists would definitely want their music to sound the best it can, like in the studio and on the radio, you know?” McKenna chimes in. “And we want to do that as well, but, like, we're a live band. That's us. It's Beddy Rays’ bread and butter playing live gigs. Always has been, always will be.”

“We love playing outdoor festivals,” Van Issum says. “And I feel like, because we cater our music to that sort of crowd, I feel like it sort of all works together as one. We love big choruses. We love big sing-alongs. We love people, you know, arms around each other, screaming the lyrics, people on each other's shoulders, that sort of vibe. So if we can get that across in our music, we're winning.”

But how does Beddy Rays always manage to channel that “summer beach festival” vibe into every song they make? Well, the secret is in the sprinkles, apparently.

McKenna explains: “When we record an album, we've got a big whiteboard. We've got categories, like guitars, drums, vocals, lead guitar - all the stuff that we want to add. And there's a category called ‘sprinkles’. Like, ‘Well, what can we sprinkle in there?’”

“I think we’re just in the studio, and we’re flowing. We just go, ‘What else can we throw on it?’ ‘We’ll chuck a triangle in it!’ Yep, ping, ding, ding,” Van Issum laughs. “And in these little parts we’ll chuck, like, anything that you bloody learnt in primary school from your school teacher, like, ‘Yeah, chuck the glockenspiel in,’ bang, bang.

“It's all sorts of different things. It could just be someone yelling in another room or maybe, really far back, a little synth sound that you can't really hear - just a little sprinkle that'll fatten up the sound a little bit. We’ve done a rugby league whistle, and even a can crack in Sobercoaster.”

Thankfully, though, despite their trend of using primary school instruments, the boys assure us that they won’t be using a recorder as a sprinkle any time soon.

“I don't think anyone's allowed to do that one,” Van Issum says. “We’ve got PTSD from our primary school teacher, hey Lewy? He had a recorder about a metre long, and man, the sound coming out of that thing was pretty wild.”

“Yeah, we always gave that thing a wide berth,” McKenna laughs. “But no, we won’t use it. We wouldn’t wanna hurt anyone’s ears.”

So, as you can tell, Beddy Rays always puts their fans first. We love a band that values punters.

Beddy Rays’ sophomore album, ‘Do What Ya Wanna’, is out on all streaming platforms now. And, to celebrate, the band is going on an acoustic record store tour. Find details here.

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