The veteran protest musician takes a break from concept albums with his latest release – although all the songs are united in protest.
Mat Ward. Photo courtesy of the artist.
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)
Pitchfork seemed immune to the issues that had plagued – and often closed – its European peers. The dynamic American website, which launched in 1995, became known for its style and acumen to attract the largest daily site audience of any of the Condé Nast titles.
Its notorious rating system meant “death” for some artists and was viciously opposed by at least one DJ and producer. Other bands, in part, were made by Pitchfork. It was this power, along with its irreverent viral content and online innovation, that led the brand to be purchased by Condé Nast in 2015.
The layoffs that have taken place through the merger with GQ suggest great change for Pitchfork’s remit. GQ’s content is far more product and celebrity focused and rarely incites controversy. Pitchfork, however, is known for its often scathing reviews and uncompromising commentary.
GQ’s content is generally complimentary, verging on promotional for the brands and products it features. Listicles and recommendations dominate its homepage. Music reviews at present are similar to Bandcamp’s editorial, an online store and community that links consumers directly to music artists.
The news follows the closure in 2020 of venerated British music magazine, Q, after 34 years, as well as the end of the print version of NME magazine in 2018. Such changes to these iconic publications are indicative of what journalist Chris Richards calls an “ugly omen for the entirety of music journalism”.
When Condé Nast purchased Pitchfork, its president, Bob Sauerberg, described it as “thriving”. And, according to its chief digital officer, Fred Santarpia, Pitchfork was a site bringing “a very passionate audience of Millennial males into our roster”. So what went wrong?
GQ (formerly Gentlemen’s Quarterly) magazine and its obviously gendered remit doesn’t seem like an obvious home for Pitchfork. After all, nearly 44% of the brand’s readers are women.
When Puja Patel became editor in chief of Pitchfork in 2018, taking over from Ryan Schreiber, Pitchfork’s founder and longtime editor, her own story became part of the brand’s narrative.
A “week in the life” feature in The New York Times told of her taste making or breaking power, her position, her platform and the richness of her Big Apple life. Patel’s rise to prominence was allegorical to cultural shifts affirming her as a leader of new-wave feminism and a success story for those keen to promote diversity in the industry.
Puja Patel was such a force at Pitchfork. Possibly one of the most incredibly audacious editors of our time.
Women have topped Pitchfork’s album charts every year since 2018. And in the last five years, there has been a continual focus on covering musicians from diverse backgrounds, including female, queer and non-binary artists.
Patel’s tenure has been widely praised on social media as the unfortunate news of layoffs, including her own, broke. But as former Pitchfork writer Laura Snapes noted, the site had fostered a forum for a range of women and non-binary writers from around 2010 onwards. Together, they reshaped the brand’s output from the male-dominated indie-music heyday of the 2000s. It was in this period that hip-hop and pop started to be covered more regularly.
I've referred to my job at pitchfork as being on a ferris wheel at closing time, just waiting for them to yank me down. after nearly 8 yrs, mass layoffs got me. glad we could spend that time trying to make it a less dude-ish place just for GQ to end up at the helm
In bringing Pitchfork under the “Gentleman’s Quarterly” brand, Condé Nast’s leadership seems to assume that music is a predominantly male pursuit. Pitchfork is not merging with other Condé Nast titles Vogue or Vanity Fair.
And I find it curious that Wired, (yet another media brand that is under the same ownership) and its progressively geared, environmentally conscious content, was not deemed a better fit for Pitchfork’s current audience. Where will the artistry and writing of musicians who don’t identify as men find its place in GQ? It’s not yet clear.
In 2021, Patel said that listeners care about the “community and humanity” of music. Sadly, it seems this spirit is not being upheld. As Susan DeCarava, president of the News Guild of New York said: “the people who make award-winning music journalism … deserve better than to be treated like disposable parts.”
GQ and Condé Nast did not respond to a request for comment.
