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Averting A Crisis With MATT O'KEEFE From THE GREAT ESCAPE · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  My name's Matt. I've played the Great Awake, where a Sydney band we
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  recently well last year, about a year ago, put out a new album
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  called Quit, which is a lot of self deprecating songs about being too old
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  to be in a punk rock band still and this new style, the new
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  one is, well, what is the new one called? I Forgot a
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  shitty mid life process sort of fits bang on in there and it's about skateboarding
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  again and thinking about what the hell we're doing. And to go with it,
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  I decided I'd sort of work out that I probably have ADHD and spent
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  two days learning how to code a video game from scratch instead of doing any
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  work. So we made a playable video game to go along with it.
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  We can skateboard, it's got all that mates in it, it's got us
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  playing in the background and it's a bit of fun. Very cool man.
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  Thanks for joining to say, Matt, it sounds like we got a bit
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  to get through. Yeah, very good mate. Well we'll start off with
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  last month, The Great Away did release a music video with an interesting twist
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  with the playable video game for a shitty midlife prices, So start off,
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  tell us about the game and how it ties in with the song. Well,
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  yeah, as we were saying, the song is a bit of a
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  piss take. Our guitarists started skateboarding, well, as did I, but
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  he did first, and his wife was having to go at him saying that
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  he's he must be having a midlife crisis, because no man in his late
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  thirties should be starting skateboarding again. But I mean, it's it seems to
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  resonate with the people, with a lot of people, this this one particularly
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  has We've got messages from all over the world, from sort of eastern Europe
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  and the States and you know, the UK asking about this one particularly.
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  I think it resonates a lot with you know, the kind of people who
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  are listening to our music. And I just had this idea real early on,
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  and I was like, it would be really cool to make a video
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  game film clip, but I have no idea what, you know, what
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  you would do with it, how would it work? And then this song
• 2:19
  sort of came to life and I was like, Oh, we can do
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  that, we can do it. I was like, my thing is always
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  find that laziest way to be able to do something. And I was like,
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  oh, you could just do a flappy bird, but you're a skateboarder
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  and you just jump over shit and we have clips in the background. So
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  that's what we did. That was the That was the In my industry,
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  I work in advertising and they talk about the minimal viable product, was like,
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  what's the what's the easiest, laziest thing you can do to get out
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  the door? And that was it. That's that's that's the great Awake in
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  a nutshell, really fantastic and it is a great novel idea bro. So
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  like once we started actually learning how to code to agreement doing like, how
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  long did it take it from the first time you start to learn until the
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  time you're ready to do it it? Actually it probably took about a year.
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  Oh wow, But that is that is like I get lost in my
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  thoughts every now and then, but it's very much how the Greater Way udles,
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  where we have a you know, a you know, a burst of
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  ideas. We work for a little bit, we get distracted by life,
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  we get distracted by one other stuff. So originally I wanted to do it
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  to release it with with the album, but it's been a it's a year
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  later and we've I finally finished it, So it's a bit of a bit
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  of an anniversary release. Really. I love the way you've done it's sort
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  of like old school too, like it's it's not a hard game to play,
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  but it's it's it's better for it, you know, like too many
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  games. He says, you've got to think about ship and fucking bind maps
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  and this is in there and fun. Yeah, and this is this is
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  us and our self deprecating style is I was like, no wants to hear
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  from us now I wants to play. Yeah, you know, I wants
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  to give us too much of our time. Let's let's get in there and
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  get it quick, and you know, just make it a bit of fun,
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  you know, right from the start. And I think that's helping it.
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  But I played it or too, like you've got a few chicky comments
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  in there too when people die you take the piss out of a little bit
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  too, Like it's the whole, the whole in fun. Yeah, jeesus,
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  Well yeah, that's it. It's it's meant to be a bit of
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  fun. So I hope you're enjoying playing it. I have, but it
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  actually reminds me of moon Buggy on a skateboard. Remember moon Buggy. Ah,
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  Yeah, that's yeah, you've got to keep chug long and then fucking
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  jump the creators and jump the creators and keep keep the balance. Took me
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  back to my childhood days. Mate, it was I started running from the
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  covers straight away. Good. I'm glad I can bring a bit of a
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  stout but saying it's simple, but it's fun, but it also fits the
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  subject matter for a shitty midlife in a way. You're making a point of
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  ramming at home that we are here to have fund it's not a fucking serious
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  life. Yes, absolutely, I'm glad you got that from it. That's
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  that's our message. Keep doing the things well until you're too old to be
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  doing it. But I think you're ever too old to do that sort of
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  shit. Broy, Thank you. See this is the kind of encouragement we
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  need, well you don't need. The song is taken from your new album
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  Quit, which was released recently. So how was that received? Like,
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  has it got a bit of a kick since two songs come out? Yeah,
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  it's yeah, that's boosted it back up again, bring it up again.
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  We sort of we weren't sure what to what to think or how it's
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  going to get received. It's been a long time since we did our last
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  record, which is like twenty sixteen or something. We just chug along at
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  our own pace, and so it was it was time time to put that
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  out. And yeah, I think, you know, it kind of stylistically,
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  like lyrically, it's all a bit you know, on the surface,
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  pessimistic, but it's not really meant to be. It's it's meant to be
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  tongue in cheek and and sort of you know, thinking about the idea of
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  the Yeah, you know, we're getting older, life's moving on, but
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  we're still hanging on to those things that we love and we're still doing it.
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  And yeah, the end of the album is a big, big churuse.
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  It's all our mates in the studio screaming on the top of their lungs.
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  Maybe we're too old for this, but we're too stubborn to quit.
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  And that is of our that is our anthem for the whole thing. And
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  you know, I think I don't know what it is with the world at
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  the moment, but that seems to be resonating with the audience. And if
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  you look at analytics, it's it's it is mostly dudes in their late thirties
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  about Yeah, so, I mean, you know, we love it.
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  Everyone's you know, said a lot of nice stuff about it, so you
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  know, we couldn't be happier. Yeah, I just say someone's only heard
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  a shitty midlife crisis. Would you say that's a good representation of the whole
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  album? Yes, I think it's very much. That's probably the the most
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  anthemic of the whole thing. Vercalle conceptually, skate punky, that's it,
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  that's us. That's actually one thing that I really like about you guys.
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  In the modern age music people are trying to mix too much shit together that
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  doesn't need to go together. But gear guys, it just made a skate
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  punk, fucking complection of songs unashamedly and you're not trying to gloss over with
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  anything else. And it's fucking refreshing these days. Bro. Absolutely, that's
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  nice to hear. And you know that's you know, as a as a
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  creative project, and that's it for us. It's you know, playing playing
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  songs we like and love not you know, we're not chasing you know,
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  we're not chasing fame at this point, so it really is a creative outlet.
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  For us to get together and write what we we want to do and
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  you know, stay true to the things that influences from the start. M
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  h This is a little bit tongue in cheap, but it's also serious,
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  bro, Like it will just becoming tougher and more serious every day. How
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  important the songs and albums like this that upbeat and happy and just urge people
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  to have fun and not take it too seriously. Yeah. I think I
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  think back to the to the songs that resonated with me as a kid,
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  the same the same things, and it's like, you're right, it is
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  important to sort of have something honest and pretty and you know, to hold
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  on to and hopefully, you know, hopefully that's what this is. It's
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  probably not our intention going out to do that, but I think our intention
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  of just writing a truthful, you know song, just put it, you
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  know, writing our own experience, not trying to ham it up, not
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  trying to be a rockstar or whatever. I guess that's that's the outcome,
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  and that's kind of cool. Mm hmmm. I've read through your pressles man,
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  it says that you've been working on your live show like I have never
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  seen your lives so I can't got nothing to judge it by. But but
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  what sorts of things you've been working on, you know, playing at the
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  same time, stopping at the same time, starting at the same time.
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  Yeah, no, we are. We are. As I said, we
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  sort of work in births. So we'll do a bunch of shows to it,
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  you know, as much as we can for a little bit, and
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  then you know, back to real life, back to jobs more than just
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  kids. You know, two of us in the band have kids now,
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  so it's it's real life. So where I think it's just about getting tighter
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  and trying to represent you know, the well represent the records as best as
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  possible, you know, you know, trying to sing harmonies properly, and
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  you know, find a group every night who's going to come up and do
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  those big sing alongs, because a lot of a lot of the tracks in
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  there have some big, big old sing alongs with lots about you know,
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  Sydney band friends in there. So I think I think trying trying to trying
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  to get that happening is is probably the biggest part for us. And that's
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  you know, that's what I remember from you know, my favorite shows is
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  you know sweaty based on bars with everyone singing the lyrics st of sing.
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  It doesn't have to do too much to work. I knew you were getting
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  at something there. I just took into it. Yeah, So what what's
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  coming up to the Great Awake made? You? Got any shows planned?
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  We have got well, we're putting some shows together now, but nothing,
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  nothing solid book. We've got one show. I'm not sure if we're allowed
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  to talk about it, but it's probably gonna mean outson is. We're jumping
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  on us port slot for the Belvidere tour, which will be pretty fucking awesome
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  because we've been fans of them for you know, forever, so that'd be
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  cool. And then yeah, trying to set up books, some stuff for
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  the for the rest of the year. Get up get actually get up to
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  Queensland because we didn't get get up there on the last tour. Get back
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  to Melbourne because on the album tour I got I got hand foot and mouth
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  disease from my daughter. She started started daycare and gave me some real horrible
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  shit. So it'd be nice to actually go there with the band and actually
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  see because this is so fucking inconsidered, aren't they? Yeah, My girls
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  are the same. They bring all this ship home from school and they fucking
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  they don't want to show you any affection us where they come home sick and
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  then they just want to hug out. Yeah, then they want cuddles.
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  That was the cliche that that I heard. Everyone was like, oh,
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  as soon as you're doing the hits daycare shit, you're going to have weeks
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  off. I was like, no, no, no, and then I
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  had, Yeah, I reckon two months of just every it was under the
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  sun happens. I remember when my when my daughter went the daycare, she's
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  I used to just joke around with her and sell her that I bury her
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  in a shallow grave if she was giving me the ships. And we got
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  a phone call from the school one day and the teacher she's gone, Your
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  daughter told me today that she was going to bury me in a shallow grave.
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  And I what the fuck did you say to her to make her say
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  that? That's the point. Yeah, that must have been your fault somehow.
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  She wanted to say it to you if you weren't fissing her off.
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  Wrote Well, thanks for your time, le Matthew, You've got the song
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  and shitty midlife prices. They're great, easy to play fucking moon Buggy on
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  a skateboard, and lots of plans for the future. Yeah, keep an
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  eye out for all the Sydney faces you might know in the background too.
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  We sort of making most of that, but yeah, thank you mate,
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  I appreciate your time.