To start with, the primary issue was that the majority of the original members were not skilled in the art of playing or singing. Most of the band sessions were clouded by inebriation, which obscured any sensible judgements.
This led the most accomplished member, Sammy Smith, to dust off the Yellow Pages and begin a search to recruit some prime Aussie talent.
It would send him on a journey deep into the unknown, often ending up at nomadic campfires or in country pubs; with his feet firmly stuck to the viscous, lurid carpets.
In 2018, with a stack of demos under his belt, Sammy visited the studio of good friend and ARIA Award-winner, Matt Corby, to play him some initial Beef drafts. Luckily enough, he loved the tracks.
Matt jumped in and helped produce the music, finger the ivory keys and lay down some sizzling percussion on The Beefs' first release, Country Member.
The EP showcased Sammy's tongue-in-cheek lyricism and his affinity for pub rock and classic Australian artists such as Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel.
As the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place Sammy tapped into his extensive network and lured in branding gurus Dave Gale and James Thompson.
They helped nurture the burgeoning Beef brand across social media platforms and gave The Beefs a visual presence. This was supported by Beefy Pubwear™ which has had multiple re-prints. The limited run of merchandise has felt the sweat of Joel Edgerton, Sophie Turner, Natalie Roser, Sarah Stephens, Fitzy and Casey James to name a few.
The standout anthems Country Member and Rubber Arm have been used as soundtracks to some great surf videos over the past few years. These videos were promoted on popular surf sites, including Stab Mag, Monster Children and Life Without Andy.
Plans to tour and get the Beef Bus cranking were halted by the pandemic. Unperturbed by this The Beefs were keen to crack on and keep the wheels in motion.
At this point The Beefs had reeled in over 7,000+ followers on Instagram and maintained strong engagement with Beleefers.
Word of mouth continued to spread with many more plays being racked up internationally. Recently, cities such as Japan, Munich, Chicago and Cape Town have taken our number one spot for listens on Spotify/Apple Music. An indication that Beef Fever has spread far and wide.
The local and international interest was encouraging and inspired Sammy to once again dig deep and extract a few more Beefy nuggets.
Sammy could feel the momentum building and with tracks ready to record he teamed up with legendary guitarist Kirin J Callinan and drummer/studio wizard Julian Sudek to create the epic Red Bellied Black Snake. The lads had just come off the back of creating a unique sound for Genesis Owusu. Kirin can be proudly credited for the extremely catchy lick in the chorus of ‘I Don’t Need You’ and added a similar spice to Red Bellied Black Snake.
The energetic single really tapped into the core Beleefers and created a yearning for all things Australian. The track spread like wildfire becoming the most listened to song across multiple channels and received radio play on stations such as Triple J. It's also notched up 300,000 plays on Spotify with 13,000 monthly listeners.
The song again featured heavily in surf videos, this time with higher profiles. The biggest being a feature in John John Florence's 'Maps of Home'. The video has amassed over 800,000 views.
The success of Red Bellied Black Snake has seen it crossover with commercial use on sports programs. There's also been requests for soundtrack licensing to other promotional videos.
With more tracks sizzling away at BeefHQ there's one ready to be unleashed leading up to Australian summer.
It's another upbeat banger called Punchin' - laced with spicy lyrics about a likeable but average battler who somehow finds himself with women way out of his league. Pretty much the story of most blokes. Once again The Beefs nail the social commentary, highlighting Australians incessant need to chop our fellow poppies down.
Check out a teaser for the latest track Punchin' below:
