THE WOMBATS: BALANCING IMPERFECTION

Vasili Papathanasopoulos

5 hours ago

FEBRUARY 2025

Photographs and words by Vasili Papathanasopoulos.

Matthew Murphy, Tord Øverland Knudsen and Dan Haggis have spent the better part of two decades perfecting their craft. Now, they are embracing imperfection. Having debuted in the 2000’s, The Wombats have delivered fifth anthemic albums that pair brighter sonics with deeper lyricism that captures the human existence. Their latest offering, Oh! The Ocean, is no different. But it does deviate from their existing formula.

Entering a more mature and refined phase, the band never compromise their signature charm and electric energy. The record is fuelled by looking inward, inspired by frontman Murphy’s own personal evolution. “I have been through a lot of different change,” he tells me, “which I'm trying to integrate into this new version of myself [laughs].” This new found change presents itself in the albums unfiltered honesty, that perfectly blends into their established presence. “I think [that] kind of comes through on the album, but in a way that doesn't feel detached from older Wombats material or from the general kind of lyrical goofiness that, that The Wombats has.” That “lyrical goofiness” allows listeners to attach a sense of relatability, seeing their own lives and thoughts presented in a unique and easily digestible way.

Dan wears: Shirt, Venroy. Jeans, Afends. Boots, Dr Martens. Tord wears: Shirt, Afends. Jeans, Afends. Boots, Dr Martens. Matthew wears: Shirt, Something Very Special. Pants, Venroy. Boots, Dr Martens.

Across the album, Murphy offers up an internal examination, questioning his inner discourse and a disconnect from the world around him and the bands own successes. “I guess over the years I have come to notice that I'm not very good at stopping and smelling the roses or being appreciative of anything really. I spent the majority of my life just running away from things and trying to escape things, rather than tackling them head on. Spent a lot of time people pleasing.” With Oh! The Ocean, he’s striving to reconnect with his own life and ground himself. This revelation reared its head from a trip to the beach, hence the albums title. He notes this grounding is not from an ego point of view, but instead a course to understand and appreciate the good things present within his own life. "Your family loves you, this is good. You have a dog, this is good. There's sunshine and seas and fucking dolphins and stuff. You don't need much more than that to be thankful for what you have.” On the flip side, he shares with me, that when remaining unchecked he finds he needs “a gazillion things - and even then I'm still pissed off.” Instead, he has his sights firmly set on finding a balance, whilst trying to be as humorous about it as possible.

Take Oh! The Ocean’s opening track and lead single; Sorry I’m Late I Didn’t Want To Come. Its outlandish title is juxtaposed by acutely self-aware lyricism, setting the tone for the musical odyssey that is to follow. “I’m aware that I’m the problem, but that doesn’t solve the problem,” Murphy sings. The albums key thread is balancing real sentiments with the funnier, darker sentiments - ultimately bringing its wider overarching metaphors of introspection and perception together with its tongue-in-cheek side in a more engaging way. “That's kind of what I have always liked in music. I like the odd lyric where it's like, 'what did you just say?' And then by the time you figured out what just happened, you are into something wafty about clouds or something, you know? I feel like it's the balance of the two worlds, one soothing and one extremely jarring.” This is all fuelled by Murphy’s revelation that he had been caught up in his own head and not been living life in the present. Looking outward, he embraces his wild side and seeks thrills in living on the edge on Can’t Say No.

Dan Wears: Blazer, Venroy. T-Shirt, Afends. Pants, Venroy. Sneakers, Adidas. Tord Wears: Shirt, Something Very Special. Jeans, Break & Enter. Boots, Dr Martens. Matthew Wears: Shirt, Incu. Pants, Venroy. Boots, Dr Martens.

I Love America And America Hates Me documents an uneasy feeling on the current state of American life, and Kate Moss is a dissection of inner turmoil that leads to a breakdown - influenced by the musicians Los Angeles neighbourhood. Blood On The Hospital Floor muses how the difficult things in life can often have an easy resolution.

I ask Murphy about finding the balance and what he has learned on this new path. “I guess I've learned that is the game. You have to be able to be driven and to propel yourself forward and have lofty aspirations and goals. You have to be ready for people, places and things to knock you down. You're gonna have to take the rough with the smooth and you're gonna have to fail.” He pauses to consider if it is possible to live somewhere else outside of that realm. “Can you live in a peaceful state and go to that place when you need to and then remove it from your life when you need to? I haven't learnt how to do that, but I've learnt that I need to learn how to do that.”

Tord wears: Shirt, Afends. Jeans, Afends. Boots, Dr Martens. Matthew wears: Shirt, Something Very Special. Pants, Venroy. Boots, Dr Martens. Dan wears: Shirt, Venroy. Jeans, Afends. Boots, Dr Martens.

The band worked on Oh! The Ocean with John Congleton (St Vincent, Wallows, Death Cab for Cutie) over six weeks in Echo Park, LA, in July 2024. Murphy concludes there was approximately fifty songs in the running to form the final track list of the record, noting thirty six were written specifically for their sixth studio album and sixteen taken from sessions working on the latest record from his solo project, Love, Fame, Tragedy. “It was a shit storm, basically. I would say that it was the hardest part of the album,” he says of curating the album down to a tight twelve tracks. “[We] just threw them all up into one link and we kind of relied on ourselves and the wider team, you know, what the best songs were.” A key factor in song selection for The Wombats is the opinions of their inner circle. Murphy tells me this process allows them to remove their own emotional attachment to their music and what they are personally connected to, and receive a guiding hand or in his words - “data.”

When it comes to the albums sonic palette and production, Murphy says there was one major inlfuence: AI music. Having heard an AI made song that featured American rapper Future - “I remember thinking I quite liked it and then I started pranging out” - Murphy was intrigued by the limitations of AI and its lack of space for human error. Having initially thought AI could revolutionise the human existence and affect perfection itself, upon further thought he began to ponder the hindrance of perfection. “I was like, 'well what's one thing it's not gonna be able to do? It's not gonna be able to like fuck up or it's not gonna be able to mess up like a human being can or make mistakes that a human being can or it's not gonna be able to input human error into its algorithm very well.” This wavelength altered the way they record and created Oh! The Ocean. “I was like, well let's just make an album full of errors then.” To achieve this, the trio implemented one simple rule: there is no going back to create perfection. This in turn meant they leaned more into recording live, and tracking the songs from start to finish as opposed to perfecting individual parts. “Dan and Tord really liked this idea too, and so did John. That was kind of the goal going into the recording.” The result is a dynamic and textural body of work that brings The Wombats signature 2000’s indie-rock into a contemporary setting. Oozing with zesty synth work and beguiling production, the twists and turns Oh! The Ocean will sting you like a sunburn in the best way possible. There is in-your-face moments that pack the summer heat, bringing feel-good energy. In erasing perfection from the creative process, The Wombats have been able to create an uninhibited body of work that propels them into the next stage of their career.

Matthew Wears: Shirt, Incu. Pants, Venroy. Boots, Dr Martens. Dan Wears: Blazer, Venroy. T-Shirt, Afends. Pants, Venroy. Sneakers, Adidas. Tord Wears: Shirt, Something Very Special. Jeans, Break & Enter. Boots, Dr Martens.

Off the back of the albums release, the band will be embarking on their first full arena tour of the United Kingdom. Known for their energetic live show, The Wombats have toured the globe over - and understand the importance of connecting with their audience in-person. “I feel like just hearing the album is 50% of the full connection you can have with it. By seeing it live, assuming we do a good job, it kind of cements it as an album that the listener wants to return to. So yeah, it is tremendously important that we get out and we do it justice.” Throughout their career, the band have developed a unique bond with Australian fans, visiting our shores each album cycle. Hitting some of the countries most renowned stages, including the Sydney Opera House, Murphy is aware of the importance of the bands relationship with fans down under. “Well also it's like we should be there a lot as well, because Australia were the first people to kind of open their hearts to us. Our relationship with Australia is as important as our relationship with the UK in terms of keeping us going and spurring us to keep doing this. The shows and the reaction that we've had is important. It's very important to us and gives us kind of like the steam we need to move forward and make more albums. So we wanna be respectful to that and treat it with respect and not take it for granted.”

It’s been seven months since the band recorded the album, and for Murphy this release has a different aura surrounding it. He tells me he tends to not listen back to records once they are completed and ready to hit the ears of listeners around the globe. “Album two, three and maybe five to a certain degree, I didn't really listen back to them. When I did listen back to them I ummed and ahhed about what could be changed. It was almost as though they were still unfinished to me.” I ask him his thoughts on Oh! The Ocean as we lead up to the albums release. He tells me he feels more comfort in sharing this record with the world. “My thoughts on it are like really good ones, which is kind of unusual for me,” Murphy notes. “This one just sounds like its own thing. Sounds like it's already kind of got its own life force, so to speak. So I feel pretty relaxed and confident in the album we've made.”