The cover of Old Mervs’ debut album features drummer Henry Carrington-Jones and vocalist/guitarist David House sitting inside the farm shed in which they first started jamming in 2017. Located on a property in Kojonup, a small town southeast of Perth, Australia, it was there the childhood friends learned how to play and write music together, despite a fundamental flaw in the setup: “Tin’s a horrible acoustic-treatment option,” Carrington-Jones tells Apple Music. Though they’ve since graduated to a proper rehearsal space, it was in that shed that the duo carved out their spirited hybrid of ’90s grunge, buoyant Britpop, and indie surf rock, a sound that propelled their first two EPs, 2022’s Get Better and 2023’s Give It Up. With their self-titled debut album, however, the duo wanted to introduce some fresh sonic elements, a desire that led them to Byron Bay to work with producer Chris Collins (Matt Corby, Royel Otis). “We went over there with an open mind; [we wanted to] stay true to what we’ve been for the last few years and then take on any ideas or advice,” says Carrington-Jones. “We wanted to delve into a few different sounds to keep people excited and interested in the record.” Those sounds include strings (“Best I Know”), synths (“Forget It”), and piano (“Feel It”), not to mention the odd birdcall (“Waiting”). Thematically, the album delves into the duo’s personal lives, with one caveat. “There’s a lot of exaggerating certain feelings,” says House. “It’s almost storytelling, but don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.” Here, House and Carrington-Jones walk Apple Music through their self-titled debut album, track by track. “Parched” Henry Carrington-Jones: “We thought it would be cool for people to open up the record and be like, wow, this is a bit different. Hole was definitely an influence; I kept thinking of [the song] ‘Malibu.’ That’s what we were trying to put the Old Mervs spin on.” David House: “Channeling ’90s Californian surf-rock kind of stuff.” “See You Again” HC-J: “This is just a fun one. We got to a point where we were like, let’s not take things too seriously. Let’s have some fun.” DH: “Channeling Oasis meets The Rolling Stones.” “What You’ve Lost” DH: “I’ve never been through a breakup; I’ve just observed them. I’ve watched enough rom-coms that I can just make shit up. As far as being a lead single, it was perfect—intentionally trying to write something for a live set and then throwing in lyrics that people can relate to.” “Best I Know” DH: “It nearly didn’t make it. It was supposed to be on the first EP, and then the second EP, and then it finally made it onto the album, and I nearly didn’t want it on there. But then, Chris [Collins, producer] put a bit of cello and strings on it. I was like, this sounds like The Script or The Fray, which is really cool ’cause I listened to a lot of that when I was younger. I couldn’t tell you what the song’s about; I just know there’s a lot of sad phrases in there that join up.” “Forget It” DH: “I love Brit rock. It’s one of my favorite genres. It’s just good guitar rock. Really melodic. That song took a while. We couldn’t work the chorus out. And then, Chris put a synth on it and bent the synth, and I was like, that’s the coolest thing. Then, he bounced it out without any lyrics or vocals, and I wrote the lyrics that night and went back in the next day. It was really cool.” “Waiting” DH: “It was me on the couch on the veranda, and Chris just plonked the mic in front of me. It was one take. That night, the birds ramped up, and we put the mic outside the door and recorded three minutes of them and laid it on top.” “Don’t Go” HC-J: “The festival song of the album. Just a nice, hooky chorus.” DH: “When we’re writing singles especially, we write for it to be good in a show. You’re literally trying to picture yourself playing that song in front of heaps of people.” “Everyone Will See It” HC-J: “It’s about someone being a dickhead and everyone will see it in the end.” DH: “It was really slow, and Henry was like, ‘This is so boring.’ And then Chris put on a drum loop, and Henry’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s way better.’ Twelve seconds later, I start going, ‘Everyone will see it in the end’ and Chris is like, ‘That’s it, we’re building the song off that. That’s the chorus.’” “Feel It” HC-J: “It was a full-band song, and then Chris pretty much said it was shit, without saying it was shit. He said, ‘It’s kinda like The War on Drugs if they weren’t good,’ or something like that.” DH: “We were just laughing, but it was kinda true—we were just trying to push it uphill.” HC-J: “Then Dave was outside singing it on acoustic, and Chris came out and was like, ‘That song’s so good!’ As soon as you stripped it back, it was great. So, we were like, fuck it, it’s going to be an acoustic tune.” “Focus” HC-J: “I’m definitely a blues fanatic. It’s what I grew up on. This probably does have a touch of that, a bit of soul/blues.” DH: “On an album, once you’ve got the singles, you’ve got the freedom to play with what’s going to be an album song. You just don’t think about it as much. You’re not writing for radio or anything like that. It’s just serving the song.” “Steady” HC-J: It’s a bit of an ode to a mate of ours, a family friend who was the biggest legend ever. It’s a take on life in general and not taking everything for granted. Acknowledging how good life is, and on top of that, having a red-hot crack at everything. It’s probably got the deepest lyrics.” DH: “[The line] ‘never let it rust’ [means] ‘never leave shit out.’ Look after yourself. If you leave stuff out, it’s gonna rust. Take care of yourself and each other.”