“It’s sort of a reaction against the whole well-being mindset, self-care as part of capitalism,” says Geld guitarist, Cormy, on the themes of their latest release, Currency // Castration, out now via Relapse Records. “You end up deploying self-care against yourself, so that you just have to consume and buy shit all the time. We’re going, ‘No, this stuff doesn’t work, so I’m just gonna get drunk and take drugs and listen to punk music and do stupid things at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday night.’ Nothing too clever, just Neandertal philosophy.”
A philosophy many of us can relate to, for sure, and one that comes from the very basics of punk ethos. Like most of their music, the latest release from Geld is gritty at its core, despite the slightly higher production level.
“For this release, we were in a studio with proper gear for recording demos, and we demoed at a higher level and did a couple of pre-production demos, which was really helpful in terms of composing the songs and pulling them apart, just being really anal about, ‘OK, how can we improve every little thing,’” Cormy says. “One of the biggest bands we all love is Poison Idea. They have that energy of just screaming into the mirror, punching the mirror, and then going, ‘That’s fine; let’s go have a beer.’ It’s not fine, but you have to keep going.”
All this, added with the layer that everything is a little different down under in Australia, gives the album a surreal yet crusty quality.
“Here, everything is a bit Southern Gothic and has kind of that weird uncanny kind of feel to it,” Cormy says. “There are a lot of little things in Australian culture where it’s just little things that aren’t obvious; it’s under the surface, but you start realizing it’s something a bit different. There are a lot of things that feel familiar, but then there’s the colonizer aspect where we’re actually in a country in the middle of Asia and don’t belong here, so it’s all a bit strange.”
Currency // Castration is available now from Relapse Records. Follow Geld on Facebook and Instagram for future updates.
