In a recent interview, Gang of Youths’ frontman, David Le’aupepe made reference to the “arc” of his, life. “The whole point of [Gang of Youths’ latest album] Go Farther in Lightness was to make … the arc of my life, more or less, about the process of repairing,” he told the Music.
It makes sense that Le’aupepe, lead singer of the Sydney five-piece, thinks of his life like a story, with character arcs, emotional journeys and Big Themes. The band’s albums are constructed like Homeric poems, full of lessons and trials and tests. They are grand indie epics made in the image of Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, which – coupled with electrifying live shows – have poised the band to clear up at Tuesday night’s Aria awards.
Gang of Youths are nominated in eight categories, including the coveted album of the year, best group, best rock album and best live act. But any wins will just be icing for the group, who have sprinted from Sydney buzz-band to festival headliners in little over three years.
The Positions, the band’s debut album, dealt with a litany of tragedies and upsets, including Le’aupepe’s wife’s cancer diagnosis, the breakup of his marriage and his 2014 suicide attempt. But it is also an aggressively welcoming record, which exudes warmth; imagining life as a story arc, Le’aupepe knows how to recast personal tragedy as wisdom, fable or even comedy.
Le’aupepe’s humour and charisma have made him a cultish, obsessed-over figure for fans. Some of his band – which comprises Fijian guitarist Joji Malani, Korean-American keyboardist Jung Kim, Kiwi bassist Maxwell Dunn and Polish Australian Donnie Borzestowski on drums – met in an evangelical church as children and, as a frontman, Le’aupepe seems like a character straight out of a YA novel: the mysterious new kid at school who wins over the cohort.
He’s fond of namedropping Kierkegaard and Philip Glass and sounding off about racism (Le’aupepe himself has a Jewish mother and Samoan father) and his technical ability is both immense and far-sweeping – all the string arrangements on their second record, Go Farther in Lightness, were his.
Go Farther in Lightness made its debut at No 1 this year and the band upgraded to 5,000+ capacity venues, including Melbourne’s Festival Hall and Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion. The record is less tortured than The Positions but it’s still by no means conceptually light; at an hour and 17 minutes, it’s a long journey but Le’aupepe knows how to build that story.
Also in contention for Aria awards is Indigenous hip-hop duo AB Original, who will be ones to watch for politics at the podium. Their debut, Reclaim Australia, is an explosive, charged record that tackled racism, deaths in custody and police brutality, and won them album of the year last week at Triple J’s J awards.
On Monday the youth radio station announced it would move the Hottest 100 from Australia Day, after a protracted public debate that was galvanised by AB Original’s track January 26.
Paul Kelly – the statesman of Australian rock and storytelling – is nominated for seven awards, after a surprisingly big year. Life is Fine was Kelly’s 23rd studio album but his first to debut at No 1. His national album tour ends next month at a sold-out stadium show in Melbourne, where he will be supported by Gang of Youths.
Amy Shark, nominated for six awards, is another serious Aria contender. The Gold Coast singer-songwriter came second in this year’s Hottest 100 with her track Adore. Since then, she has played a run of dates in the US supporting Bleachers, the main project of Taylor Swift and Lorde collaborator Jack Antonoff, and made her US late-night debut on the Late Show with James Corden this month.
The event will feature performances from former One Direction member Harry Styles, New Zealand pop star Lorde, AB Original and Daryl Braithwaite, who is being inducted to the Hall of Fame. And with Rebel Wilson, Ruby Rose, Sophie Monk and Jimmy Barnes also in attendance, Guardian Australia will there with all the tough questions. Many of which will be about birds.
• The 2017 Aria awards will be broadcast on Nine from 7.30pm. Guardian Australia will be liveblogging from around 4pm.
