If you happened to visit The Basics’ Myspace about a week ago, you may have come across Triple J doyen Richard Kingsmill’s verdict on their latest single Lookin’ Over My Shoulder: “I just don’t get it”.

“Yeah, I’ve changed it now to ‘Men at Work for the 21st century’, quoted to anonymous” laughs Kris Schroeder (bass, vocals). “Basically, [Kingsmill] just thinks that The Basics project is taking Wally away from conquering the world with Gotye.”

For those who have been living under a rock, Gotye is the side project of The Basics drummer and vocalist Wally de Backer. Hearts a Mess recently snared the eighth spot in the Hottest 100 voter’s poll, making de Backer a veritable golden child around the J’s. The delicate and otherworldly solo composition is the antithesis of The Basics’ boisterous snap, crackle and pop-rock.

The projects are obviously two very different beasts, and Kingsmill’s resounding disapproval smacks of a school teacher confronted with the rebellious younger sibling of a former straight-A student. Which begs the question, does de Backer need saving from The Basics?

“No absolutely not, and Wally has told that to him as well.” Schroeder says. “If it wasn’t for The Basics, a song like Learnalilgivinanlovin would never have existed. It was the direct influence of us playing Motown stuff for three years that bought about that song.”

“Wally writes a lot more songs for The Basics than he does for Gotye,” Schroeder continues. “People pushing that on him too much is actually taking the enjoyment away from the time he gets to go and hide himself away in his room and do that stuff and be creative in that way. So it’s just a real shame that people don’t recognize that he’s a much greater artist than one or the other.”

“I mean, Wally’s a guy. He loves playing live and Gotye isn’t really a live act. It’s a recording project which has, potentially, a live component. It’s a different thing.”

The key to understanding The Basics’ brand of retro-rock is to embrace their unabashedly feel-good attitude towards music and performing. At live shows, new and old Basics songs like Better and Second Best rub shoulders with a host of moonlighting covers including New Kids on the Block The Right Stuff and the eponymous Clapton Mega Mix. At a stretch, all this hopscotch rock could be interpreted as a reaction to the endless shoe gazing of the indie scene, but not so according to Schroeder. “We were always daggy,” he explains. “There was no decision. We are just three different facets of dagginess that combine into this triad of ultimate dagginess.”

Having set the record straight, Schroeder is mollified somewhat by reports that Triple J presenter Caroline Tran enjoyed the Melbourne single launch. It seems there might be hope for reconciliation yet. Until then he says, “we’ll just have to remain in caves and cabins underground. It will be like when Christianity started, and Triple J is the Roman Empire.” 

Far from hiding out, The Basics are preparing to tour the country with tri-state residencies planned to promote their upcoming album Stand out/ Fit in. Along the way, they are set to revive dance floors, tailored suiting, classic tunes and the oft-maligned variety show format. Old-school showmanship and a preference for entertainment value over style are a point of pride for the band, who enlisted the support of a master of ceremonies, stand-up comedy from The Shambles and “The world’s grooviest white R&B vocal group” Little Red for their most recent single launch.

“It’s something that I want to develop with doing more variety show things.” Schroeder explains. “It’s something that we’ve sort of touched on before, at the end of June last year we did an album preview at Chapel on Chapel. That was a real turning point for us. I thought, this is the type of thing that I would really like to invest in, rather than perpetually playing in clubs.”

“A friend of mine wrote on her blog the other day that going to a Basic’s gig is like stepping onto the set of Cheers, where everybody knows your name. I really like that, that really sums up what we’re about.”

“The Basics is whatever you want it to be and we’ll just play some songs and entertain people. We don’t really take what we do seriously, it’s fun for us and it’s fun for the audience and that’s the crux of what we do.”

The Basics’ new single Lookin’ Over My Shoulder out now through MGM. The Basics play The Hopetoun Sydney Tuesdays, The Troubadour Melbourne Wednesdays and The Empress Melbourne Thursdays throughout April.