Mashd N Kutcher On Telling 'A Classic Aussie Christmas Story'

Remember the song Get On The Beers (and its other remixes, including the Carole Baskin edition)? The duo behind the track, Mashd N Kutcher, have released a book called Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story, just in time for the festive season.

The book was launched in November and topped Amazon's Mover & Shaker Chart within 60 minutes on the website. Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story became the highest-ranked book title within a 24-hour period this year.

Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story

"As best we can tell, this was an important story which must be told, as the spirit of Christmas again brings joy to those all over. That's what must be done," the Aussie electronic music duo said about their inspiration behind the book.

Since releasing the song in November 2020, Mashd N Kutcher's Get On The Beers racked up millions of hits on YouTube and cracked the top spot on the iTunes Dance chart, as well as #2 on the overall iTunes list. Two years later, the group have a book: that's quite the mark of making it.

We caught up with one-half of Mashd N Kutcher, Matt Minor, to discuss Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story and the enriching experience it became.

"The song over the past 18 months ended up forming a life of its own; it only seemed fitting to tell it as a classic Aussie Christmas story," Minor notes about the motivation he and bandmate Adam Morris had behind turning their viral track into a Christmas book.

The duo learned "tons" from writing their first-ever book, and "although there are definitely some parallels to music, it was definitely humbling to start at the bottom of a totally different industry and begin learning the ropes of illustration and publishing, etc. etc."

The immediate success of Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story has been pretty unreal for Minor and Morris - how could they have anticipated Amazon's Mover & Shaker chart? Minor laughs and adds, "it’s a testament to Aussie culture and shows that people always enjoy fun, light-hearted entertainment." He's not wrong.

Perhaps, the coolest part of Mashd N Kutcher putting their first book together was collaborating on the illustration. "I was able to mock up very rough sketches and send them through to a super talented illustrator," Minor says. "He understood the vision from the start, and the project came together very quickly. It’s always surreal to see a crazy idea from within your head turn into something tangible with the help and talent of others."

Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story

While we're celebrating Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story, we can't forget that Minor and Morris are making music that delights people. 

When a metal drummer and a classical pianist joined forces, the end result was always destined to be something special. But for the Brisbane dance duo, their eclectic stylings and razor-sharp flair have seen them hastily take Australia and beyond by storm, a fact set to solidify further with the pair's most ambitious live showing yet in the near future. 

Mashd N Kutcher, for the uninitiated, are not your average DJs; from their debut track, Do It Now, going platinum in their home country, to sampling and/or reworking iconic tunes from Len (My Sunshine) to The Cardigans (Need Me), Journey (Don't Stop Believin'), and, more recently Aussie heavies Northlane (4D), the collision of two highly trained multi-instrumentalists into the dance and electronic realms has seen the group jump up on the decks nationally and overseas, recently take up a month-long residency with triple j - and even unwittingly concoct and release the COVID-19 Aussie anthem we all needed with Get On The Beers.

Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story

"Music, for me, and the process of creating it is one of the few personal times of solace, where I can actually fully focus and connect with something amongst a world of a zillion distractions," Minor comments. "The ability to spend time doing it during something like the pandemic is something I’m forever grateful for." And making music during the Covid-19 pandemic was hard. Ever the positive individual, Minor recalls, "2020/2021 was extremely tough, however as an entertainer, it was really a time to shine when people needed something positive the most.

"Financially, it was a massive hit for all of us and the industry, but collectively we’re working together to do what we can now, and I think it’s safe to say we carry forward a higher level of appreciation and respect for the ability to do what we love and consider it a career," he adds.

Of course, it's still a challenging time for musicians. A live music attendance boom is happening, but punters are often overwhelmed by the options of international superstars hitting up stadiums and buying tickets to local shows later, making it difficult for artists and their teams to anticipate and plan the turnout of a tour accurately. 

"It's COVID; it's inflation and cost of living... it's a perfect storm of really tough conditions that's bought us to the spot we're in now," The Zoo co-owner Cat Clarke commented to The Music. David Hunter from the Melbourne band Circles added, "What we did notice was a lot of people are waiting until the very last second to buy their tickets. That was difficult for us to gauge. We were looking at the sales and going, oh God, this is going to be horrible. And then all of a sudden, there's this burst, I guess. People are waiting to buy tickets; I don't know. It's just how [ticket sales] have panned out after the pandemic, so we were waiting on that last-minute burst and tickets sold at the door."

Minor agrees with the sentiments and offers his own: "It’s pleasing to see things moving forward, but it’s still challenging times; I would encourage people to rally around music events from grassroots and local bands to the bigger festivals and really go out there in the next 12 months and make time to see your favourite act live."

Get On The Beers: A Christmas Story is out now. Buy it here.