Gang of Youths like ’little brother’ to Counting Crows

The rock band, best known for their hit ‘Mr. Jones’ will headline Bluesfest 2023.

Adam Duritz performs with his band, Counting Crows, at Bluesfest 2023 in Byron Bay. Picture: Josephine Cubis

Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz is bummed out. He wishes he could have made it to Bluesfest a day earlier to catch the headline set by the four-time ARIA-winning Sydney band Gang of Youths. 

Duritz, a longtime fan (and friend) of the Australian rock group, has spent the past five years recommending them “over and over again” to people in the US.

“David Le’aupepe is like my little brother,” Duritz says, referring to the frontman of Gang of Youths. “He talks to me about how their songwriting is so influenced by us. I mean, musicians love music, but I don’t know, they’re my friends. I can’t trust anything they say.”

Australian rock band Gang of Youths, (from left) Max Dunn (bass), Jung Kim (keys/guitar), David Le'aupepe (vocals/guitar), Donnie Borzestowski (drums) and Tom Hobden (violin/guitar/keys). Picture: Ed Cooke

As he bemoans missing out on the Gang of Youths performance, Duritz is gearing up for his own headline set at Bluesfest. The concert marks Counting Crows’ first appearance at the festival in eight years, and he is feeling “really good” about it.

The American act is among a raft of global stars at this year’s Bluesfest, which ends its post-pandemic comeback on Monday.

Bluesfest has faced a series of struggles this year. Headlining act Elvis Costello & The Imposters were forced to cancel their performance – one day before the festival kicked off – due to a band member contracting Covid-19.

It also courted controversy for inviting controversial Sydney indie-rock band Sticky Fingers to the line-up. The band ultimately withdrew after other musicians pulled out over a litany of accusations levelled at Sticky Fingers, including sexism, racism, misogyny and transphobia.

But the festival has still had a stacked line-up, featuring Grammy-winning artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Beck, the Doobie Brothers and Mavis Staples, as well as popular international singers Paolo Nutini and Joe Bonamassa.

What’s more, this year’s Bluesfest coincides with the 30th anniversary of Counting Crows’ landmark album August and Everything After. The record produced hits like Mr Jones and Round Here, and, according to the New York Times, went platinum faster than Nirvana’s major-label debut Nevermind. This titbit Duritz can’t quite believe. “I remember being back at the concert on the release day for In Uteroand talking to Kurt (Cobain) backstage …”

He doesn’t finish the thought.

Despite the milestone anniversary, Duritz says August is an album he doesn’t think about often. Still, he gets a kick out of playing the hits.

“I love playing those songs. They’re all my favourite songs. It’s a point in your life. They’re all moments in your life and what you translated that moment into. It’s a strange way to process emotion.”

Duritz was in his late 20s when he wrote August. It is an angsty album, brimming with lyrics that paint a picture of a man who is having a rough go of it emotionally. “Believe in me, because I don’t believe in anything / and I want to be someone to believe in,” he sings on Mr Jones. Critics at the time derided it as being self-absorbed, self-pitying and whiny. But Duritz has struggled with severe mental illness, something that he didn’t want to talk about for a long time.

“While I felt like I was losing control, I didn’t talk about it publicly. So I just wrote about it and didn’t say anything. People would make comments like ‘he’s a whiner’, and I’m like, well, I’m not going to get into it with you. But this is difficult.

“When you’re losing your mind, and it’s not something you have a grip on, it’s hard to want to talk about it,” he says. At a low point, he checked into the UCLA medical centre to “have myself locked up for a little bit”.

While he was there, pop star Mariah Carey also checked in, and Duritz saw how the media made fun of her struggles with mental illness while claiming to care about it. This made him reluctant to speak up about his own mental health woes, especially while coping with the struggles of fame.

David Le'aupepe performs with his band, Gang of Youths, at Bluesfest 2023 in Byron Bay. Picture: Josephine Cubis

“All of a sudden, we were so big that walking down the street was an issue.” It probably didn’t help that at the time, Duritz was rocking his trademark gangly, shoulder-length dreadlocks.

“Mixing that with a severe mental illness before I had a handle on it was difficult, so I wrote a lot about that.”

Now 58, Duritz says he’s learned to live with mental illness, but it’s not something that ever goes away. “I don’t feel like I’m slipping anywhere. I have a good life.” And while being a “lunatic”, as he puts it, he’s managed to keep a band together for 30 years.

“I’m making music with seven of my best friends. I mean, I’m in Australia right now, and most people never get to go here. I can do that because I’m in a rock and roll band. That is pretty cool.”