Formation The Basics were formed after Schroeder met De Backer at the March 2002 "going away party" in
Melbourne of now LA-based engineer/producer
Chris "Tek" O'Ryan. The event was to see off the young aspiring producer, who was about to depart for Los Angeles, and together with a number of musician friends, the two jammed on some blues-rock standards. Later that night, they bonded over a mutual love of
The Beatles, 1970s and 1980s cartoon theme songs and old
Sierra adventure games. Initially, they played around Melbourne as an acoustic guitar/drums combo, starting at The Opposition in
Frankston and the House of Fools in
Footscray, where in late 2002 they met Michael Hubbard and later invited him to join them on electric guitar. Though lacking any real experience with the instrument, Schroeder willingly purchased his first bass guitar, and the trio was born. During this time, the group start performing songs with more complicated three-part harmony. During late 2002 and early 2003, The Basics recorded and released an album called
Get Back through
MGM Distribution. They began what was to become regular tours of the East and West coasts of Australia.
2004–2005: Current lineup Tim Heath joined the group in June 2004, after Hubbard decided to pursue his solo career, which has included being one half of Down Hills Home. They also toured twice more up the East Coast, one of which was with popular Japanese band
The Bawdies. Their song "Rattle My Chain" was used in a series of commercials for
Volvo Australia. The song "Hey There!" featured in the British film
The Bank Job – starring
Jason Statham – and was used as the backing for a February 2007 short film directed by Tim Longhurst called The Rip. Their song 'Better' was featured in a surfing documentary about the invention of the
shortboard in 1967. In 2008, the band appeared on Australia's
Channel 9 for
Australia Day celebrations, performing two of their songs – "Just Hold On" and "Hey There!" – to an estimated audience of 2 million. Securing an Australian Government grant, they embarked on a two-month tour of Australia, specifically targeting "culturally underprivileged groups" in rural and regional schoolchildren and Indigenous communities. The programme had them holding masterclasses and performing alongside Indigenous groups in the remote Northern Territory and Queensland. Their initiative also had them raising money for the charity
Lifeline, their contribution to which was recognised with a plaque at the end of the tour. Season two of
Californication starring
David Duchovny featured their cover of the classic "
Have Love, Will Travel", most famously covered by
The Sonics. In 2009, The Basics for the first time enjoyed the support of Australian radio network
Triple J, which had reportedly snubbed the band's previous material. The singles "With This Ship" and "Like A Brother" were added to the station's playlist, and momentum carried The Basics overseas for a second tour of the United Kingdom and Norway, and also a series of shows in
Dublin,
Ireland. They were joined by the longtime front-of-house engineer Stuart Padbury, who had been mixing them since 2005. The band was often seen in the Grafton Street Mall in Dublin,
busking to promote their concerts there. Their second show in
Oslo, Norway, saw the band perform with Hot Tub, one of the members of the Norwegian boy band "
Boyzvoice", in his first performance for several years. Season Eight of
Scrubs featured the song 'Lookin' Over My Shoulder'. Despite all this promise, the band's album
Keep Your Friends Close – produced and part-recorded by Peter Cobbin at London's
Abbey Road Studios – though enjoying many favourable reviews, failed to impress
Richard Kingsmill, music director of Triple J. This effectively ended the band's apparent upward spiral and the resulting album launch tour was reportedly "trying".
2010: live album In 2010, following the band's fourth stint at the
Tamworth Country Music Festival, and the recording of a yet-unreleased live album, an indefinite hiatus was announced on the band's websites. This was in part due to the impending release of a new album produced by De Backer for his
Gotye project, and also to reported tensions within the band following the previous year's disappointments. However, this hiatus was soon broken with a two-month residency at the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne, which saw an apparent return to form. The band's EP "
Wait For You" enjoys airplay on Triple J. The Basics also played a one-off show at Sydney's Oxford Art Factory. On 20 August 2010, The Basics released their fourth LP , available free and exclusively from their website for digital download. The band had reportedly moved to expand their listenership through this free giveaway, though 300 "Deluxe" CD/vinyl versions have been printed. was recorded at the Northcote Social Club on 6 February, "in front of a live studio audience", and like the previous record, was mixed by Peter Cobbin at Abbey Road Studios. Technically a self-titled album, the phonetics spell out the accurate pronunciation of the band's name. Kris Schroeder: "For years we've worked at bringing our live energy into the studio and thus far it's been a bit hit-and-miss. Our trick this time was to pull a switcheroo and bring the studio to us instead; the result is the best and closest to us we've sounded yet." Melbourne thespian and Dog With Wheels bassist David Bramble – friends with Heath from university days – has occasionally joined the band on tour, playing keys, often while sporting a large moustache. Other guests have included Jake Mason (
saxophone), also of Cookin' on 3 Burners and
The Bamboos, Gideon Brazil (saxophone,
flute), Simon Imrei (guitar and vocals) and Monty MacKenzie (saxophone). Covers have often made an appearance from various sources: to date, some of the bands covered have been
AC/DC,
Cream,
The Kinks,
The Rolling Stones,
The Police,
Neil Young,
Bob Dylan,
New Kids on the Block, Richard Berry, Sonny Curtis and The Crickets,
JJ Cale,
Harry Nilsson, Bill Scott,
Ryan Adams and
The Coasters (via
The Beatles for their cover of
Three Cool Cats).
2010–2016: Hiatus and resumption The band took a three-year hiatus, with an announced return to the stage together in late 2013. De Backer embarked on his solo act as Gotye with the release of the album
Making Mirrors in August 2011. Tim Heath toured and recorded with Blood Red Bird. And Kris Schroeder recorded a solo EP titled, Patience in the Face of Control, before leaving Australia to work with the Red Cross in Kenya for a two-year sabbatical, during which he contracted Malaria. On 9 November 2012, the 'best of' album
Ingredients was released into stores and digitally.
Leftovers, a record full of 38 unreleased tracks, was released 22 February 2013, via a limited-edition 500 copy vinyl package. A one-off gig was performed on 24 October 2012 at the Northcote Social Club to launch
Ingredients and
Leftovers, however without the presence of De Backer (though he did make a brief appearance and performance of "Just Hold On" via Skype from New York). The Basics announced an Australian tour starting September 2013 following the release of a new music video for
Leftovers track "So Hard For You". Put on sale 6 December 2013, a CD/DVD live album + digital download ''My Brain's Off (And I Like It)'' was the first post-hiatus release. The live album was filmed on location at the Northcote Social Club and edited by Ryan Gaskett under close supervision by the band. Between March and April 2014, the band recorded new music at the famed Abbey Road Studios in London. This new music was released in the form of an EP entitled "The Lucky Country", which was released on 7 November 2014. The title track was released as the lead single in partnership with the progressive social justice movement "GetUp!" and was premiered by Richard Kingsmill on triple j. Another track "Tunaomba Saidia" was also released with an accompanying video clip filmed in Nairobi and Machakos Town in Kenya, where Schroeder had spent nearly 3 years working for the Kenya Red Cross Society. The band toured extensively across Australia in support of the EP release, featuring shows at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne and the Newtown Social Club in Sydney. On 14 August 2015, The Basics released their 4th studio LP
The Age of Entitlement, recorded at the same time as
The Lucky Country EP in London. The album proved to be critically successful, being described as "important and incredible" by Stack and "never less than gripping" by Rolling Stone magazine. Australian digital radio station Double J gave it "Album of the Week". Singles from the album include "Roundabout" and "A Coward's Prayer". The band toured the album extensively throughout October/November 2015, featuring critically acclaimed shows at all capital cities around Australia, including Elsewhere Festival, Melbourne Festival, the Triffid in Brisbane and the Railway Club in Darwin. The band performed at Dawes Point for the City of Sydney's New Year's Eve 2015/2016 and a follow-up hometown show in Melbourne at the Northcote Social Club on 2 January 2016.
2017–present: In the Rude!, B.A.S.I.C., The Songroom and new material The band released a new live album titled
In the Rude! on 21 May 2017 to commemorate their 15-year anniversary. It contains a selection of tracks from their performance at The Howler in
Brunswick,
Melbourne, on 29 December 2016. On 22 November 2019, the fifth studio album from the band titled
B.A.S.I.C. was released, on limited edition CD, vinyl record and cassette tape formats. Drawn from their award-winning TV series
The Songroom, the band released an album of material from Season 2 Episode 9 which featured Wally performing under his Gotye moniker. Released on 3 July 2020 and also featuring West Australian artist Monty Cotton, the version of "Somebody That I Used To Know" performed by the group has gone on to be their most-heard track on streaming services, and hailed by fans as even surpassing the mastery of the initial track, particularly because of De Backer's emotion-laden vocals. The album is also available on the band's Bandcamp site in its entire near-two hours under the name "A Toot and A Scream in '16", a nod to the 1974 bootleg featuring John Lennon and Paul McCartney. On 8 May 2025, the band released " (Don't Be Deceived)", the first song written and recorded in Russian by a Western act. Despite some initial criticism by some who protested the use of Russian language in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the song was later celebrated as a tribute to the legacy of anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny who lost his life under the regime of Vladimir Putin. ==Members==