In a local industry that is hardly overflowing with innovation, Gerling find themselves neatly boxed as ‘them crazy electro-noise merchants’. Audiences become spectators as they wait for Gerling to do something zany/madcap. Do they feel this is an accurate depiction of what they set out to do, or a convenient pigeonhole? “Um… I don’t know. It’s kinda hard to describe yourself in that sort of way. We’ve been locking ourselves up for the last little while, and experimenting and working hard. The new stuff goes right from our guitar-based roots up to some really left-field electronics”.

Is it hard to find a balance between what they want to produce, what the fans want – and inevitably, what is commercially viable? “Yeah in some ways. Some things that we do, we feel that it’s going to relate itself easily to more people, and that’s really good to have, because you don’t want to be all up your own ass and avant garde, and [adopts mad professor voice] ‘No-one can understand my music but ME!’” he laughs, though he is quick to clarify, “That’s all good, but when you’re at home or at a party you want to put something on that you can listen and relate to”.

For all their dedication to subversion, Gerling have certainly flirted with the zeitgeist. The singles Enter Space Capsule, and – most notably – Dust Me Selekta kicked down hitherto unopened doors into commercial radio play and mainstream consciousness. They suddenly found themselves sitting simultaneously in the Hot 40 and playing underground shows. Was it intended, or just a happy coincidence? “[When] we wrote it, we were really getting into Stardust, and I guess it really rubbed off on us. So our intentions were to see if we could do something of that kind of caliber, [and] pull it off”.
Was the single a ticket to mainstream legitimacy? “It opened up a few more doors for us, I guess”, Burke says, “but the people in the mainstream who would have gotten around to buying our album would have found out that the rest of the stuff is not like that at all”.

But surely that’s a good thing, the gentle brainwashing of Joe Public and Jane Citizen?
“Well yeah. We’ve had people you would never expect saying they like our album. We were down the road shopping the other day, and this lawyer guy started chasing us down the street: ‘Oh! I saw you guys when you played this really underground show in Sydney once! I really can’t wait for your next album! But I’ve gotta go!’, and he just took off down the street. And we were like, man – that looks like our grandfather”, he laughs, though Burke is clearly committed to this public enlightenment: “If we can lend ourselves to people in that way, and then introduce them to other things that they’re maybe not familiar with or wouldn’t necessarily go and listen to, then that keeps the balance between the two – and that’s where we like to fit in”.

New single Who’s Ya Daddy? looks set to capitalize on this newly forged fan-base – if it doesn’t freak them out with its übersleazy explosion of come-on lines and suspect synthesizers first (sample lyric: “we can play doctors and nurses / you can examine me”). Burke degenerates into fits of giggles when recalling the track’s genesis. “It’s pretty gross isn’t it? That record came together in a couple of hours – we just couldn’t stop laughing. We were playing with pitch changers and just being all sleazy into the microphone. To me it sounds like a real fat dude who’s just won at the casino, walking around with bills spilling out of his pockets and a couple of blondes…”

Despite the comedy opener, the new EP continues to push the boundaries of genre in typical Gerling style. They mix guitar-based music with Speak & Spell (“We just spent hours hitting the buttons and recording all these random words”, he laughs) and prank calls to Mexico: “We record breaking glass, all sorts of things. We’ll take organic sounds and throw them in the computer, and then mix them up so you come up with stuff that sounds really weird”.
Do they compose a lot of the material on computer now, or do they prefer a more oldskool technique? “We’ve done a lot of the stuff on computer this time. It’s really changed the way we practise and rehearse. I think it lends us to a more different approach”.
Does he find it easier? “Yes and no. I come more from the feeling sort of vibe, how it feels when you play it live. With the computers we’ve found ways of incorporating that, you play the guitar, then find a way to transcribe that into the computer. I think by doing that it gives a different sound: trying to program the computer so it sounds live, but you can tell it’s not live. Does that make sense?” he laughs.

So with a new album and a tour on the horizon, will the trademark Gerling backpacks be aired once more? “We’re kinda putting the backpacks on the hook for a while”, Burke says somewhat hesitantly. Have they found a new accessory du jour? “Not at the moment, we’re a bit in limbo.” He pauses. ”But I don’t know – maybe we’ll just be ourselves this time”.

It could be their most daring incarnation yet.