The veteran protest musician takes a break from concept albums with his latest release – although all the songs are united in protest.

Since releasing his debut album, Slow Car Crash – a jungle album about financial markets- in 2017, Australian-based musician Mat Ward has been anything but lazy. He has released seven topical protest albums in that time, covering themes such as surveillance, the media, and the climate crisis. He also produced the G.O.D. EP by his friend and collaborator, Aboriginal rapper Provocalz. On July 26, Ward is set to release his new album, Take The Rad Pill.

When I asked Ward about what set the new album apart from his previous releases, he told me that one of the main differences is that this is his first album that doesn’t revolve around a specific theme. However, although Take The Rad Pill is not a concept album, all the songs on it are bound together by one thing – protest.

Protest music is something that is dear and close to Ward, not only through his music, but as a journalist. For the last decade or so, he’s been publishing a monthly column for an Australian media outlet, Green Left, in which he shares contemporary protest music while covering political news from around the world. He has also published a book about Aboriginal rappers that was called a “must-read” by Britain’s I Am Hip-Hop magazine.

Another big difference with the new album is how Ward is exploring new genres. He told me he was listening to a lot of Rancid while making the album “which resulted in a lot of catchy punk songs.”

“I also had Happy Mondays on repeat, so that resulted in several songs that are like house music with indie vocals. One of these is about a notorious political staffer and tobacco lobbyist called Bruce Lehrmann. He has been making headlines in Australia for years for all the wrong reasons. It’s called ‘Bruce Is Snorting A Line’ and has been getting played on the radio, with the result that people have been ‘shazamming’ it – identifying the song with their phones.”

I asked Ward about his extra curricular activity, i.e. his activism outside of his music or his passion for hiking, and he told me that he can regularly be found on the streets, using his voice in protest:

“You can see me doing that in the video for one of the lead singles off the album, ‘Your Vote’s A Joke’, which has also been getting radio play. The idea behind this song is: If you live in a democracy, you’re lucky, right? But then why do so many people in democracies hate politics and politicians? I’d say a big reason is that they’re allowed to break their promises as soon as they’re elected.

“[The song is] mainly inspired by an interview I did with an author about accountable democracy years ago: He said: ‘The commonly held notion of democracy is not the accountable version originally defined by the ancient Greeks – democratia comes from demos “the people” and kratia “power or rule”. Instead, it is more like the version defined by Harvard political scientist and sometime government adviser Samuel Huntington. His widely cited definition of democracy is profoundly unambitious. He defines it as a system whose most powerful decision-makers are chosen through fair, honest and periodic elections… Huntington’s democracy is nothing like what we could enjoy with truly accountable governance, something we deny ourselves by accepting his democracy-lite version.”

In terms of hiking, as with his music, there is no lack of productivity there for Ward. He is about to finish a 250 km long hike from Sydney to Newcastle which he describes as having been “incredible”. Prior to that, Ward walked 110 km from Barrenjoey lighthouse to Bondi beach during which time he came up with the lead song of the new album, “I Wanna Be Like Violet CoCo”. Ward explained to me how he uses an app that reduces webpages to text only so he can read heavy loads of news offline while out and about and without all the distractions the internet has to offer. For that reason, he’d read news about Violet CoCo, a rather famous activist in Australia, but he didn’t know what she looked like.

“Violet CoCo was so inspiring to me because, like many protesters, I had been going to rallies for years, trudging the same tired streets, with seemingly little to show for it. This person was approaching protest in a whole new, innovative, creative way, that grabbed attention in ways less imaginative activists like me could only hope for. I wanted the song to capture the same emotion as one that had intrigued me in my childhood, The Jam’s cover of The Kinks’ ‘David Watts’. That song and its main lyric, ‘wish I could be like David Watts, conduct my life like David Watts’, left a big impression on me because it was such an unusual admission. Amid so many songs of braggadocio that boast of the writer’s greatness, here was a frank insight into a state most people feel but never share – the desire to be more like someone else.

“When I got home from that day’s walk and began Googling Violet CoCo to flesh out my verses, I gazed in wonder at the screen. I was shocked to find that she was nothing like the person I had imagined. She was young, photogenic, charismatic. The soft edges of her quiet, sweet personality contrasted with her jagged, wonky, lopsided rock star haircut. I hadn’t even realised she was the protester who had set fire to a pram outside parliament in Canberra. That iconic image had seared itself into my mind for eternity the moment I saw it.

“I was inspired and fascinated by one particular video of her outside court. Prodded by her interviewer, she admitted that, far from being hard as nails, she was ‘actually a very fearful person’.

“This is our problem. We’re all too stupid to be scared. Violet CoCo is one of the few people with the fear we should all have. That’s why I wrote this song.”

We’re thrilled to be able to offer a platform for the premiere of Ward’s new album, Take The Rad Pill, which can be streamed exclusively below.

TAKE THE RAD PILL

Out July 26, 2024 Genre: EDM / Punk

TRACKLISTING

1. Who Are Ya?
2. Your Vote’s A Joke
3. Stoop So Low
4. I Wanna Be Like Violet CoCo
5. Bruce Is Snorting A Line
6. Quiet Quitting
7. She’s Fighting On
8. PwC – Prison Waits for Criminals
9. Why’s It Always Us Who Get The Blame?
10. Low-Rung Thinking
11. You Gotta Be Kiddin’ (Bandcamp download-only bonus track)
12. Where Were You? (Bandcamp download-only bonus track)
13. Musk And Murdoch (Bandcamp download-only bonus track)

Check out more of Mat Ward’s music and work here: linktr.ee/MatWard

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗼𝗻! 𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮, 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂!