Making Good, in Life and Music /
Audiences here and around the world are falling for the beautiful vocal harmonies and engaging lyricism of Terrible Sons, husband/ wife duo Matt and Lauren Barus. Their gently reflective songs have a way of touching the heart and inspiring hope.
The creative world of musicians Terrible Sons
THERE’S A KIDS’ SWING SET OUT FRONT AT THE old brick house in Addington that is home to Terrible Sons. Matt and Lauren Barus welcome me inside and put the kettle on. The kitchen table is stacked with recipe books and a big bowl of fruit.
In these times of closed borders and travel restrictions, music is still free to fly. Terrible Sons has had more than 10 million streams on Spotify and is averaging more than 180,000 listeners a month.
Original songs made here, in a modest garage studio, are being heard from Sydney to Montreal and Moscow. Streaming really has changed the music industry and certainly makes it a little easier for musicians like Matt and Lauren, who are balancing songwriting/recording around family and part-time work commitments. The couple have two daughters, Serafina, seven and Mila, four, and find that regular touring is simply not a practical option for getting their music out to people.
Matt, who has a strong connection to Southeast Asia through his Indonesia-born father, says it was gratifying to discover a receptive audience in that part of the world soon after they first began uploading songs to Spotify in 2018. It opened their eyes to the possibility of what could be achieved beyond these shores. ‘We decided to invest in a PR company in Singapore – it made sense,’ he says. ‘We had this idea that we might even perform in Indonesia one day as a way to see family there.’
By that stage, the couple had plenty of new material they wanted to release. Through their Singapore agent, they were picked up by influential Canadian label Nettwerk Music Group which has made a long-term commitment to them and is supporting their artistic development. ‘We’ve been doing writing camps online – there are lots of people still working in lockdown so we’re trying to utilise the technology and navigate our way using Zoom and an app called Audiomovers,’ says Lauren, noting that they have a co-writing session through Nettwerk coming up after our interview with a Scandinavian artist. ‘Hopefully this will lead to us releasing music with other people as well.’
Terrible Sons has put out three EPs over the past two and a half years, including this year’s powerful statement, Mass, released in February. It was finished just before the COVID-19 lockdown last year, the title channelling that universal sense of global crisis. Auckland producer/audio engineer/musician Tom Healy came south to work with Matt and Lauren on the EP and this winter is working with them on their next project – a new album, due out in 2022.
The Mass EP traverses a landscape of love and unsettling truth, offering up a kind of resistance – through compassion – to the forces that drive us apart. There is recognition that life is fragile and difficult. In one of the songs, ‘You Are the Gold’, existence is described as being like ‘clinging to a tin ship, swaying’ where love is the only true treasure. ‘The World is Walking Over Us’ describes a messed-up world while positing a solution through slowing down and connecting. ‘What a Friend’ is a poignant reflection on how we cannot always heal the pain our friends may be going through. There are other
compelling songs here, musing on love and life.
Matt and Lauren were bandmates long before they tied the knot. It took a while for their relationship to find steady ground but they have now been married for eight years and share a trusting, close relationship (even having the courage to mine their personal backstory through ‘Love Will Make Fools’, off the new EP).
‘As we get older, we want our voices to count and we want to be truthful with what we do,’ says Matt. ‘We want to make good, to give hope … Creating music is the buzz part of it for us. It’s exciting to have a way of working that now feels really sustainable. Our manager often talks about our “pure recording”. It hasn’t been done in a big flash studio – we can’t just take two or three weeks out. What would we do with the kids? It feels easier and so much more comfortable to do it here in our time, at our own pace and working with the people we love.’
Terrible Sons has some great videos up on YouTube too, directed/edited by their good friend Dan Watson. ‘What a Friend’ is a standout. Shot at remote Waitata, Little Port Cooper, it is a brooding, haunting evocation of the song’s heavy subject.
The couple are disciplined about making the time for Terrible Sons around school and preschool routines, and part-time jobs (Lauren is a vocal tutor at the University of Canterbury, while Matt works in a local church). Lyrics are drawn naturally from their daily experience of life within their intentional community. ‘It’s a way of living that is a bit more connected,’ Lauren explains. ‘You make a point of getting to know the people who live near you and have them in your life, have them round for dinner.’
Change, for these two, is personal. If you want a better world – and a safer world – then it starts with you and you have to live it. The ethos extends into how they work, how they spend and other personal decisions.
Terrible Sons is joined in the studio by Matt ’s brother
Change, for these two, is personal. If you want a better world – and a safer world – then it starts with you and you have to live it.
Jo (bass) and Joe McCallum (drums). Both are also busy with their own acts; Jo regularly tours with Dave Dobbyn’s band. ‘Joe is our favourite drummer in New Zealand and
Jo is our favourite bass player,’ Matt says. ‘It ’s really nice to have them over and make music together. We’ll stop for lunch and then someone goes back to the studio and someone else picks up the kids. There’s something about being here, hanging out with people you like – you can make better art; there’s no pretence.’
The name Terrible Sons is actually a reference to the Barus brothers – ‘terrible’ because they chose creative careers when their parents might have preferred a more conventional choice with reliably good pay attached. ‘Actually, Mum says that’s not true, but if you’re in this to make money then you’re probably in the wrong industry!’ says Matt.
In an earlier phase of life, Jo and Matt formed Christchurch rock band The Dukes, local legends in their own right. The band won the New Zealand leg of the MTV Kickstart competition in 2007 – the same year that Lauren joined as keyboardist. In 2010, their single ‘ Vampires’ went gold, and they won awards for both Video of the Year ( Juice TV Awards) and Best Up-and-Coming Act (Choice Awards). The Dukes also toured as support band for Blondie and The Pretenders.
Lauren has had a productive solo career of her own – both in and out of the studio – as L.A. Mitchell, with openers for Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie, and she still tours with Fly My Pretties. As a child growing up in Marlborough, Lauren’s mother insisted she take piano lessons for several years. She was always praised for her musicality and suspects her love for music started there. She attended jazz school where she further honed her vocal and keyboard skills and studied the complexities of chords and chord progressions. ‘In The Dukes, they just wanted octaves and fifths – it was a good lesson in doing what is required for a song!’ Lauren says.
Matt doesn’t share Lauren’s music school background but plays guitar and has great ear for harmony. He and Lauren make a heavenly combo on vocals. Terrible Sons embrace a folk tradition that’s all about lyric, voice and knowing the value of space. ‘It’s a different way of singing compared to The Dukes,’ says Matt. ‘It’s softer – it’s like we’re saying, “Come on into our story.”’
From a garage studio in Addington to a record label in Canada and a streaming platform near you, this is Terrible Sons.