If Frenzal Rhomb received a school report recently, it would have read ‘Shows potential, just needs to focus more upon the task at hand’. As such, Whalley enthusiastically embraced the possibility to extend the breadth of styles on the album and focus on quality of musicianship rather than quality of mull. This newly forged work ethic is reflected in tracks like Cocksucker – which would be called power pop if the moniker wouldn’t earn the reviewer a punch in the face – and the affecting Lead Poisoned Jean. “This record I really like because we tried to write good songs”, he says, “The last time when we tried to do slightly different or slower songs, they were different, but the songs themselves really sucked. This time we just made sure that, regardless of the actual style of the music or how fast it was, the actual song itself was pretty good”.

“On the last record, I tried to write a few songs that were more introspective”, he recalls, “and they really sucked. They were fucking terrible, just awful, so we just realized that our strengths lie in the fact that occasionally we can be pretty funny, and most of the time we can be reasonably offensive to some people”.

They’re back in fighting form with the release of the album Sans Souci, the title of which reflects the band’s philosophy – it means ‘No Worries!’ in French. “Oh yeah. We were over in Paris, and these people were asking where the rider was, and basically they’d always say ‘oh, sans souci, sans souci’, and we’d be like [Strine accent] just say sanz soochie. We were sure they said Sans Souci, which is a suburb in Sydney. I can’t believe that someone actually called their suburb ‘No Worries’!”

It’s the kind of town that the Frenzals would probably be at home in, given their propensity for the party lifestyle, but underneath the dumb-punk veneer there beats a socially conscious heart. Despite his outward appearance and best efforts to offend, Whalley is a deeply thoughtful and aware individual. Surely it must annoy when critics conveniently ignore this in favour of Ray Martin-esque ‘what are the youth of today doing with themselves’ diatribes? “In a way. We were just talking about this yesterday, because we got this really funny review in Juice Magazine, which of course always deals with very adult and grown-up music. We’ve consistently gotten these sorts of reviews for the last ten years, every time we put out a record”, says Whalley, though he is accommodating of the situation. “The people that buy it and like it are going to get something out of the record, people that don’t like it don’t have to listen to it. It’s not the kind of music that’s for everyone, and we don’t try to appeal to any certain groups of people necessarily. I think if we did try and do that, if I tried to write lyrics like that… well”, he laughs,” We’re prepared to be branded as idiots – I’d much prefer that to someone writing a review saying ‘this is a very important record’.”

Frenzal Rhomb are certainly known for their vocal stance on animal rights, among other causes. How does that inform what they do, or do they try to keep politics separate? “The only real animal liberation song that we ever wrote was on Meet The Family, which was called Guns Don’t Kill Ducklings. But we just try not to preach about it too much, I guess, it’s one of those things we just do as a lifestyle choice. People find it really strange when they find out that not only are we all vegetarian, but our management and everyone are all vegan as well.
People kind of go, ‘oh what?! How come?’ I’m quite happy to sit down and talk to people about it, if they want to know our reasons for doing it – but as soon as we start singing about that stuff, people feel like they’re being talked-down to”. Having said that, Whalley admits that he’s not immune to the possibility of becoming a troubadour. “Lindsay and I wanted to start a band that only sung full-on straight-edged, vegan, political lyrics, and we were going to call ourselves The Self-Righteous Brothers. We ended up playing one concert, just the two of us acoustically, and we realised we didn’t actually have any songs”.

Taking a cursory glance at the track listing for Sans Souci and noting titles like Cocksuckers, Who’d Be A Cop?, and The World’s Fuckedest Cunt, it’s not hard to imagine what Whalley’s ideological leanings are. So who is The W.F.C? “Well, you know, at the moment, it’s a definite toss-up between the two bloody arseholes John Howard and George W. Bush”, he sighs. The current sociopolitical climate is a source of bemusement and despondency. “Oh, it’s horrible. It’s so depressing, you know? And there just seems to be a general leaning towards conservatism. People seem to be more earnest in art and music. There are people also trying to do stuff that is a reaction to that, but to me there seems to be a lot of café music around that you just put on and turn down so that you can talk over the top of it”.

Collaborations with US label Fat Wreck Chords and Japan’s Real Cool have allowed the band to broadcast their news to the world. Are the overseas reactions different to Australian crowds? “Yeah. People like us overseas”, deadpans Whalley. “The last tour we went on, we went to Taiwan, and then we went to Israel and played three shows there. It’s a beautiful place, though just a horrific political situation. We’re bringing out this band from Israel to tour with us, called Useless ID. They all went to their psychiatrists and masturbated so that they wouldn’t have to do their national service. So we’re helping them out by getting them out of their country for as long as possible”.

And then? “After that, I don’t know. I really want to go to Russia. It should be pretty exciting; we got this video with this guy on a cable TV station, walking around this park in Moscow with one of our songs playing in the background, and talking in Russian to these kids. The only word we could understand was ‘Frenzal Rhomb’. These kids were looking completely bewildered”.

He pauses, before the serious façade finally cracks, and he cackles, “In this day and age, you really have to be able to have a laugh”. Hey, sans souci – Frenzal Rhomb are on the case.