BRIBES

CAUGHT IN THE CORNERS IS OUT NOW A huge thank you to the people behind the album: @bennyjward__music at @pink_house_studios for recording us and enduring our endless bits @seremyjegal / @troubleinthewaves for knocking it out of the park with mixing from the other side of the world @encodersound for fantastic and finessed mastering Thank you to our special guests @saskia.robin (flute), @maddy_bluee (violin) and @naoko.uemoto (sax) - incredible chops, impeccable vibes Couldn't have done it without you all!

We hope you enjoyed the peek behind the songs! 'Caught in the Corners' is out NOW come party with us at The Bird tonight 💕

12. Undercovers This is a grief song. In November of 2024 my sister and I lost our mother to cancer, only six months after her diagnosis. Undercovers is about a conversation that my mother and I had in her final months about wanting to buy birthday presents to give to my future children, her future grandchildren. Living in Australia with an extended family far away in Ireland I didn’t get to have the experience of a grandmother, and I looked forward to my children being able to enjoy that relationship and all the care and protection it entails. The song celebrates the woman that Kathleen was, gives thanks for how she raised my sister and I, and grieves the lost futures we dreamed of but were not meant to be. Writing, recording, practising, and performing this song is something I would not and could not have done if not for the support of the band, and I thank them for all they’ve done to hold me during this time. If you yourself are going through the loss of someone irreplaceable, my heart goes out to you. ~ Ronan

11. Deceased Estate Chiselling away 20 years of tobacco from the walls of a deceased estate was frustrating and disgusting in equal measure. In my fugue state of nicotine poisoning I wrote a short, fast, eggy track. I think we drove ourselves a bit mad writing the weird timing of the final few bars and working out where on earth to place this during album sequencing but it feels worth it, such a fun burst of energy in our album and live sets. Recording gang vocals with Ronan and Danyon on the choruses as we were all crowded around one mic was very fun and wholesome. @naoko.uemoto really went bonkers on the sax with this one, we asked for discordant queasiness, the feeling of ingesting nicotine third hand, and she delivered ~ Ange

10. Spider & The Glass ‘Spider’ seems deceptively straightforward. It’s so pared back until we snap into this much more energetic section that undulates between moroseness and madness. The song is about having intimate information about one of your friends (that maybe they would not want you to know), and how you then sit with that knowing. On first listen, that outro might seem to blindside a listener, for me, it’s the high point of the album. Danyon was able to throw a lot of cool synth parts here, (all of us are obsessed with that siren screech patch) Ronan’s hyper-processed vocal mantra just added perfectly to the soup. In live performances that end section is a jam which changes each time, sometimes it runs longer than the whole first section of the song. When it came to recording, we had to consider how to capture that live energy. The decision to DI everything whilst we tracked drums meant we could ‘lock in’ with each other rather than a click. @bennyjward__music was amazing at capturing this for us. Although it can be a bit controversial to do away with a click track, I think that choice and the drums in particular really shone with this track. We just had to choose the drum take that Aaron was most happy with and then built up from that rock solid foundation. ~ Ange

9. Don't Let It End I daydream a lot. Mostly it’s about shoes that would fatally wound my bank account. Sometimes it’s about chord progressions, and when I find myself frequently wandering in this kind of reverie I know that I’m due to write another song. As the chorus of 'Don’t Let It End' made its way from my mind’s ear through my hands into my MIDI keyboard, I knew that I hadn’t been fantasising for nothing. The sounds evoked sensuality, urgency and the nocturnal, so for lyrics I chose to write about an exciting (stressful) casual relationship. This song became a way of processing that experience, perhaps a little like the painter protagonist of the song 'Imbue' ~ Danyon

8. As A Vice The sibling song of 'Undiagnosed', made in an exchange of lyrics between Ange and myself. On my initial read of the lyrics I thought that I’d been set quite the challenging assignment to put them to music. But bless, on one sweaty summer evening holed up in my bedroom in North Perth, I got the chords and melody out all at once. Aaron totally nailed the whimsically militaristic rolling snare beat, and Ange saw the perfect spots for emphatic backing vocals. This theatrical, jazzy number was finished off with the addition of a sizzling analogue synth and @naoko.uemoto 's variegated saxophone sorcery (we are eternally grateful). ~ Danyon

7. Imbue The spark of inspiration for this song was a short comic by trans Australian cartoonist and painter Tommi PG. As we scan the panels we witness a disappointing sexual encounter between a straight man and queer woman, and the feelings of frustration, confusion and emptiness in the aftermath for the latter. I interpreted the comic as somehow autobiographical, and then wrote Imbue from the perspective of the artist, who processes this experience through an act of creation. ~ Danyon

6. Undiagnosed Danyon and I tried a writing exercise where we wrote lyrics for one another. This is my attempt at writing music to compliment Danyon's words; it was a new experience for me fitting music around language I haven't written myself. And I sure crafted a somber number, love the Big Thief-esque drums Aaron has rolling through the verses here, catching us back in together at the end of each line. I tried to do a bit of a Wednesday/Karly Hartzman scream in the final chorus. You can still hear it somewhere in there, it didn’t really end up turning out how I envisioned it, but @kileosmilin plays an insanely graceful guitar solo which works a lot better in its place swirling around with Danyon’s keys. ~ Ange

5. Carnage This was a pretty late addition to the album, but every project I'm in I can't resist writing at least one song about public transport infrastructure. 'Carnage' took a bit of wrangling to make into a song rather than a collection of parts that we judder between. There are still a few elements which are tricky to get down live, like Aaron needing to quickly flick on the snare lever during the intro and multitude of Danyon's synth patches. Danyon actually used the classic Beach House Synth, the Yamaha PS-20, in this song which then promptly blew up after recording. The banalities of riding the bus never sounded so ethereal.  ~ Ange

4. Gidge Ridge I wrote this song after getting home from my first @gidgeridge fest experience. @anniikamoses and her folks are the absolute legends behind it and I implore you to cop tix to the next edition. 'Gidge Ridge' is an unabashedly earnest love song to the hills, made more meaningful that Danyon sings the chorus with me because we're both hills’ kids and went to primary school together in Roleystone. One of our highlights from recording at Pink House Studios up in Mt Helena was hearing the insane bassline Ronan has written for this in isolation, the rest of the band had not fully clocked how bonkers he went on this track so we were collectively mind blown. @maddy_bluee and @saskia.robin could not have done a better job at ratcheting the emotion of the song, hearing that interplay between flute and violin gave me chills the first listen. So thankful to everyone for helping me actualise this sincere folk track. ~ Ange

3. Pale Blue Bowl One of Ange’s best traits as band leader is pushing us to be better and a little out of our comfort zone. On Bribes album one Ronan and I each wrote a verse for NPC, but on album two we both wrote a full song solo. This is my first full writing credit on a physically released album, which has always been a dream of mine. Turns out I can only write about super old, sad subjects, so this is a classic break-up song based on lyrics in my old notes, and a catchy little acoustic 6/8 riff I couldn’t stop playing that week. Ange wrote the lyrics to the ending which perfectly matched the tone I was going for, and @maddy_bluee came up with the gorgeous violin loop to round out the melancholic sound. ~ Aaron