For Matt and Lauren Barus, it’s been a long journey from The Dukes and LA Mitchell. Through the noughties, both acts were stalwarts of the music festival scene, The Dukes getting the punters up and dancing, jazz singer and pianist LA Mitchell chilling them out later.
Their meeting is a rom-com script – guitarist Matt and the rest of The Dukes were supporting INXS on the Australian band’s 2007 tour when he broke a wrist on Porters skifield. “Someone said there’s this singer and keyboardist that can cover your guitar lines. That was Lauren. She jumped on board for the tour and then she stayed.”
The husband-and-wife duo now have two charming girls, Serafina and Mila. No terrible sons. The name they have given to their musical partnership comes from Matt and his musician brother, Jo, another Duke. They joke sometimes that their parents must be very disappointed by their terrible career choice. Mum says not.
Matt and Lauren settled in Christchurch, enduring the earthquakes as best they could. Matt got a new laptop around this time and starting working on some “really scruffy demos, mostly depressing songs about Christchurch in the quakes”. The songs didn’t fit with The Dukes’ sound. They were a lot quieter.
Meanwhile, Lauren’s musical style was changing too, maturing. Somewhere along the way, the dreamy folk sound of Terrible Sons emerged, almost by osmosis. Then came 2020’s lockdown and the duo started writing a lot of songs about hope.
“We were thinking about hope a lot then. All the things we loved were signalling hope, even though what they were up against was hard. Black Lives Matter, the occupation at Ihumatao. Melancholic hope, sure, but still hope.”
For Matt, his own kids are a source of hope. “We acknowledge that the world is hard and messy but then our kids will tell us off about what we put in the recycling or for having too long a shower. Let it mellow, Dad, don’t flush it! They’re really aware.”
It’s these songs of hope that have made it onto Terrible Sons’ debut album, The Raft Is Not the Shore, which will drop on 28 April. The mood is sombre at times but then the sun peeks through. And there’s a lightness to the music throughout.
They recorded the songs in their Addington garage, pulling in their favourite local musicians and flying in a producer. They even roped in Serafina, Mila and their school choir friends for one song.
So now there are four musicians in the house, who controls the music choices? “I thought I did but when I look at last year’s Spotify wrap-up, there were lots of fart songs there from the kids. I’m losing the battle. The girls think my music choice is pretty rubbish.”
The Shelter, Fri 5 May, see this Facebook group for tickets.
The Loons Club, Sat 13 May, Christchurch album release concert.
terriblesons.com