"Shaolin Monk Motherfunk," it was one of the first songs we ever wrote together as a band
As in, from scratch, it's quite often I'll bring a song in that exists just, like, with guitar and vocals
But Shaolin, I think, was the first one where we just kind of puzzle-pieced it together
Lyrically, there's a lot going on
The breakdown; it says, "In this heat don't doubt, I own the hour"
"Hour" as in, like, the time measurement but also "our" as in yours and mine
I do that a lot in my writing
"I own the hour, white ochre shower, howling as it falls to find the form of dust once more"
On my 21st birthday, I found myself at Uluru in the centre of Australia
I played a festival up there and we were travelling around and making our way back
And we didn't plan it, but we just happened to be there on my birthday
And it was overcast, and the sky was purple, and the sand is red and there's these
Like, really harsh silver trees with these golden orb spiders
And it was one of the most magical settings I've ever seen in my life
I came to an ochre pit and I saw a cave in Uluru, and you're not supposed to climb it, it's disrespectful to
And I came to this opening, and I saw this, like, perfect circled cave in Uluru and I scratched it into my finger
And then was rubbing ochre into it to heal it
It's so, dry and hot and you're in the sun
And if you rub ochre on your body it cools you down but also protects you from the sun
And so I was bleeding from my finger just from like
I don't know, there was something enjoyable about it
And I came to this pit and I buried my hands in it
And uh, just had a big grieve, you know, I was
21 and uhm, by chance found myself in this really powerful place in the desert
And I was singing and weeping from a really pure place
And it started raining, and the rain was running down Uluru
And it was like the sky was crying with me
And it's really rare that it rains out there 'cause it's really dry and it's the desert
But it just happened to be this, like, purple storm
You know, you hear of people's 21st where you like, go out and get wasted and go to karaoke and stuff
Which, you know, I've definitely had birthdays like that, but it was just a really beautiful coming-of-age ritual
And so, yeah, that lyric in Shaolin Monk Motherfunk is a-
Yeah, lyrically uh, it's a map of my life and there's elements all throughout my song writing
That can be pinned down to like a key moment, and that's just one of them