Folk the haters: Great Aunt muse on homophobia and hurt in ‘Rock Paper Neighbour’

What does it mean to be ‘neighbourly’? asks Great Aunt.

A quick wave across the fence, a friendly word, a welcoming smile?

How about nails in your driveway?

Great Aunt’s new song, ‘Rock Paper Neighbour’ is a musical retelling of a series of events between neighbours at odds. Why at odds? Because Great Aunt are a queer couple, and that didn’t quite sit right with the folks next door.

‘Rock Paper Neighbour’ is contemporary folk and progressive bluegrass turned on its head, and made deeply personal. In Great Aunt’s trademark spare and bold style, the song opens with a catchy percussive interplay between mandolin and double bass, while vocalist Megan Bird begins the story from the perspective of the kids next door:

‘Like catching a ball or flying a kite
Dad said, it’s easy if you try
And nanna said words that you hadn’t heard
But she laughed
You like it when she does.’

Serious and dark subject matter abounds, made accessible by rapid-fire instrumental exchanges, and elements of musical and lyrical tongue-in-cheek: the duo gleefully sings us a series of ‘folk-rap’ verses, with increasingly sinister subject matter.

‘Ringing the doorbell
And running like hell
Putting nails in the driveway
You're yelling obscenities
Meating vegetarians
Everything is spam now
It isn't fucking hard now.’

“It hurt us a lot at the time,” says bassist and vocalist, Chelsea Allen. "We were deeply fearful to go outside for a while, wondering if it would continue to escalate. We went from having spoken a few friendly words across the fence to our neighbour, to finding attempts at spiking our car tyres, meat on our doorstep, rocks being thrown, having homophobic epithets shouted at us by their kids. We’re quiet and private but friendly, and although we potentially had lots in common with the father and would have happily returned many a lost frisbee for the kids, now we’re at a very sad and hate-driven impasse.”

The film clip for ‘Rock Paper Neighbour’ was directed and animated by their long-time collaborator, director Vanessa Cox, who quickly turned plans foiled by COVID-19 for a live action clip shoot into an opportunity to use animation and motion graphics to tell a powerful visual story:

Cox says, “[…] Covid19 hit. As with the majority of creatives, our work was almost immediately compromised and then put on hold. Eventually we came to the idea that perhaps we could do an animated clip. Live action projects can have their content somewhat capped by resources, whereas an animation allows you to take the story literally anywhere. Feeling a little spoilt for choice with my sudden plethora of options, I began to tap into the metaphor and somewhat surreal nature of the song and the lyrics. Drawing on the initial conversations about the origin and meaning of the song we had before Covid19, I was able to put together something that worked both with the percussive and rhythmic nature of the song, but also communicated what the song was about.”

Over a series of weeks, Megan Bird contributed a huge array of hand-drawn stills for the animation, and the marriage of Cox’s powerful visual storytelling, and quirky and personal drawings by Bird work to heighten the narrative.

The song has its denouement after a distinct mood shift in the bridge, written again from the perspective of the neighbours’ children. It represents childlike innocence and simpler times, but also Great Aunt’s own wishes: that we teach our kids, and each other, the possibilities in equality, community, and the beauty of difference.

‘Summer days, sweet lemonade
Forever climb, no yours and mine
Mountains of rock and paper for planes
Jump the fence,
We’re all the same.’

But the world of ‘Rock Paper Neighbour’ gets dark before the dawn again - in the final scenes of the film clip, a glass of lemonade is slowly poisoned, and the youngest drinks.

‘Rock Paper Neighbour’ is striking and important new music by Great Aunt, and a subversion of a real and hateful situation. Be neighbourly and take a listen.