“It’s a lot more insular and self-expressive”: The Empty Threats on ‘happy birthday’, creative chaos, and capturing a moment in time
The Empty Threats. Photo credit: @snappedbykay
Interview by Jordan Royal
With their new album happy birthday, released last month, The Empty Threats are looking inward. Where 2023’s Monster Truck Mondays was more restless, political, and sharp-edged — happy birthday retreats into something more personal and self-reflective. Across 14 tracks, the Kaurna Land/Adelaide five-piece trace the contours of identity, queerness, and neurodivergence, confronting the chaos and clarity that come with self-understanding. Written in an intense two-month cabin sprint and carried by their signature balance of noise and delicacy, the record captures both the urgency of creation and the intimacy of reflection. “It’s a lot more depressive, a lot more kind of insular and self-expressive,” Stu says. “But it’s a nice little snapshot — a reflection of where we were emotionally, going through different things at the time.”
Jordan recently caught up with Stu and Matt to chat about the album’s release, spending two months in a cabin and playing the album live. Read the full chat below.
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Jordan: I want to start by talking about your most recent single, want someone, because I feel like it's really intense and chaotic and has that Empty Threads energy, but it very much relates to, I want to say the core themes of happy birthday, too, of closeness and connection and self-reflection. Can you take me a little bit into that track and how it fits into the world of happy birthday?
Stu: Yeah, I think that one's like one of the darker ones on the album and kind of like, this album in particular is a lot more self-reflective and insular compared to the last album, Monster Truck Mondays, which is a lot more outwards and kind of viewing the world and political and like, you know, what's happening in the world right now. And this one, a lot more depressive, a lot more kind of insular and self-expressive. want someone, I think, is maybe just like touching on themes of depression and where that can kind of ride, you know, the rollercoaster of it and the ups and downs.
Matt: I feel like it kind of hits towards, discomfort from needing other people's kind of interaction and other people's input and a lack of that causing a bit of frustration.
Jordan: I feel like that comes through, like waxing and waning of dealing with your emotions.
It's sort of taking me to the question is that it's less of a political lens of Monster Truck Mondays, and it's more personal delving into challenges with identity, queerness, neurodivergence as well. I feel like you would really connect with a lot of these songs, they're very personal, but they were written and recorded a little bit ago now. Quite a bit of time has passed. How do you guys reflect on that chapter and how do they resonate and connect with you now?
Stu: It's kind of a nice little snapshot, kind of like how Monster Truck Mondays was a nice snapshot of 2023, 2022. And then this is a nice reflection of 2024. And where we were all emotionally, going through different things at the time. I think at the start of that, that's when a bunch of us were going through the journeys of discovering our own neurodivergences. And now that it's coming out, we've kind of gone through that and have been diagnosed with different things, like me personally with ASD. And it's nice looking back and being like, oh, that was like a pretty painful time and kind of just a lot of information at once. And it was nice to write about all of that and the struggles.
Matt: I feel like it still hits home as well. It's, even though it was kind of in a period of us discovering what our neurodivergence kind of meant and stuff for us. It's still, a lot of the things we kind of say with it still hold quite true. Even though we understand it way more, it's still confusing and frustrating.
Jordan: I feel like too, when you listen to music or in your case, listen to your own music, it does take you back to like that time capsule too. When you were going through those things and experiencing those things. So, it must've been a bit helpful to maybe explore them and then understand yourself through writing.
But I can't have you both on a call and not talk about the instrumentation because like, holy shit, it's huge. Stu sent me the album and I was like, my God, like what the hell, what is going on? It's so insane. Stu, you’re juggling vocals and clarinet and Matt, you’re on guitar. How did you approach your instruments this time around? Did you come at it with something different in mind, try anything different, like mindset or technique effects?
Matt: When we first started writing all of it we went away to this place in the Flinders Ranges, kind of just a bit past Blinman, which is what, like five hours drive. So, we were isolated and we were thinking, all right, less, less gear, less like noise kind of thing. So, we focused a bit more on cleaner sort of sounds. That informed how it was written and where parts sit and stuff like that. So, it wasn't too dense to begin with. When it came to production, I was just in my studio for a month, because I think like Michael had gone away for a month and Stu had gone away for a month. And then we finished it after a month of touring Europe. So, there was a lot of solitary time for me to go crazy and make really loud noises. So, it got pretty dense with that. There's like a lot of synth and heaps of guitars, everywhere. So, it's just, very busy, ideally in the right moments.
Jordan: I think it's actually my next question, is I don't understand how it can be really intense and screaming, noisy guitar and then really delicate at points. I was like, you've balanced it really well, which I feel would be quite hard to do. Thinking to the transition from want someone into skye's theme is insane because it goes from really heavy to then, are they harmonics?
Matt: Yeah, yeah.
Jordan: How do you balance that throughout each song and then also across the album?
Matt: I guess we were kind of trying to emulate the live show. That was one of the things we went away with as well when we went to writing. We've always kind of enjoyed and felt that it was a strength that we are quite dynamic in our performance. So, having really jarring moments and really quiet moments is something that we really aimed for. I think it comes naturally to us, so it didn't feel crazy to do. And I think having that confidence in making any creative decision kind of means that it comes across okay.
Stu: And also, the way that we recorded this one as well, we learned like the whole A side back to front and then the whole B side back to front. We wanted to make sure that everything flowed into each other nicely. So, having that hectic, you kind of need a palette cleanser. So that was a purposeful decision doing that. But recording it back-to-back was definitely a process and a half. So, we did the whole, all the drums live back-to-back and then took away all the scratches and then recorded over that.
Matt: Yeah. I think we left some bass in there. The intention was to do it fully live, but it was just a massive undertaking, and we didn't really have the time to set aside for it. I feel like it holds the energy of it being live because the drums are kind of consistent throughout and continuous.
Jordan: It definitely holds that live energy. When you listen to it, you feel like you're in the room or something. But, there’s 14 tracks, which is truly a full-length album, 14 tracks are quite insane. But what really struck me was how fast it came together too. If I'm correct, it was sort of recorded, written in two months on the cabin trip. So, 14 songs in two months are crazy. Can you take me into that creative sprint and if it was nice having to trust your gut and just go for it and make fast decisions, or if there were any downsides of that?
Matt: There were some downsides, I think. It forced us to be more ruthless with decisions.
Stu: And then we would have had more songs as well. I think that the 14 is kind of a whittled down version of probably what we were hoping for.
Matt: I think it's like we try and have more than we need so we can pick the best out of the time. Maybe it was a good length.
Stu: We could release a demo, a complimentary album that goes alongside it. That's just like all the shit ones, all the terrible 30-minute jams of just us sitting on three notes for a while. Yeah, this feels great. And then we play it for half an hour. We tend to, because of how we write, we all have to be in the room together. And it has to feel good. But sometimes we just get stuck on something for way too long, and nobody says stop. So, we're just sitting on one phrase forever. And if we still like it after sitting on it for 45 minutes, then it will probably become something.
Matt: It was such a rush. And I definitely felt it from a recording and producing standpoint. I think we kind of push the limit of what we can, like making something good out of how much time we have kind of thing. And I think it's going to be better for us to kind of take more time and write things over time instead of just smash it in two weeks.
The Empty Threats. Photo credit: @snappedbykay
Jordan: There would definitely, as you said, be upsides and downsides of like, you do just have to not be as perfectionistic, but you have to continuously push through things. But I don't know about anyone else, I would love to hear those 30-minute jams. I would love that.
Stu: Like a private SoundCloud link.
Jordan: Yeah, like only the true fans. But I know that you've started playing some of the tracks live. You guys have been just everywhere, shows with Wet Kiss, Dark Mofo too. And I'm chatting to you a couple of days before your happy birthday tour across Sydney, Wollongong, Adelaide and Melbourne. So, what's been your favourite live moment and what are you most looking forward to?
Stu: Dark Mofo was pretty cool, doing the 2:30am Night Mass show. That was, it was sick. We're sad that we don't have Meanjin/Brisbane there for this run. We were going to; we just have run out of money before going to Europe. So, we are in the works of putting a show together with Anti-Dismal later in the year. Which will be good. And I think the album runs just going to be for the next like eight months, nine months, whatever show is in that.
Jordan: Just milk it. Just all the way.
Stu: Yeah. Because I do feel some of our best shows are in Brisbane anyway. Like that Goth Prom show a few months ago. That was like a highlight of this year. And yeah, Dark Mofo and Aotearoa with Junk Mail. Did you meet Lara from Junk Mail?
Jordan: Yeah, she's so nice. Such a legend.
Stu: Yeah, she's the best. Legend. Absolute legend.
Matt: I think Aotearoa is always the spot. I think it's such an incredible place to be and beautiful people to be around. I think that those have been the most rewarding tours. There’s always great shows that kind of pop up out of nowhere that you just don't expect to be the best.
Stu: I reckon Brisbane. And I'm not just saying this because we're on an interview with someone from Brisbane. It's probably my favourite place in Australia to tour.
Matt: Yeah, Brisbane's kind of crazy. People are hectic. It's great.
Jordan: Brisbane has such a love for like Kaurna Land / Adelaide too. Everyone that I've spoken to says that they're very similar music scenes, a similar vibe. So many people I talk to, they're like, you need to listen to Adelaide music. I'm like, trust. I love Adelaide. Keen for you guys to come back.
Stu: We will be.
Jordan: Sick. My last question is, I remember you saying Stu that the title, happy birthday, came from when you guys were touring in Europe, and you would sing happy birthday every night. So, I have a fun question is, if on tour, you could choose one other song to sing, make everyone sing every night, what would it be? And why?
Matt: It could be Happy Birthday, Mr. President. It's a different sentiment.
Stu: It's like the sexy Happy Birthday, Mr. President, where like, who was it? And they like did the sexy dance around the...
Matt: It was Marilyn Monroe, right?
Stu: Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's the one, especially when you're overseas, it's the one song that everyone knows. Everyone knows.
Jordan: Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time to hop on the call. I really appreciate your time.
Stu: Thanks for having us.
Matt: Thank you. Thanks for having us. It's always a pleasure.
Listen to happy birthday by The Empty Threats below.