These Last Words

ORIGINS: Engadine, NSW

GENRE: Pop-Punk. Emo

YEARS ACTIVE: 2003-2006

 

MEMBERS:

• Mark Barnes - Bass
  
• Camilo Bustamante - Vocals (2003-2005)
  
• Jimmy C - Guitar (2003)
  
• Gummie - Drums (2003)
• Sean - Guitar (2004-2006)
• Curt Hannagan - Drums (2004-2006)
• Tim - Vocals (2006)
  

RELEASES: 

• The Life and Death of a Perfect Couple (2004) - Download Here.
  
• 1. Life and Death of a Perfect Couple
• 2. Missing
• 3. One Thousand Tears
• 4. Somebody Else
• 5. Entitled
  

SUMMARY: Developing out of the demise of a previous pop-punk band called Fed Up, These Last Words were a Sutherland Shire based punk band who predominantly played All Ages shows in Engadine and Jannali. The band broke up some time after changing singers.

 

SHOWS: 

• Jannali Community Centre, Jannali - 7th June, 2003
• Engadine District Youth Services, Engadine - 26th September, 2003
  
• Annandale Hotel, Annandale - 3rd March, 2005
  
• Arncliffe Hotel, Arncliffe - 13th March, 2005
  
• Caringbah Bizzos, Caringbah - 8th April, 2005

ORAL HISTORY:

MARK: When Jimmy the drummer from my previous band Fed Up left to focus on another band, we got Kurt as a replacement. Around the same time I also had a mate who had just gotten back from overseas and he gave me copies of the first EPs and albums from Thursday, Finch, The Used, and that was the direction for our new band, which we called These Last Words. We ended up getting an additional singer, Camilo, so we could do the dual vocals/screaming thing. 

Mark Barnes (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

CAMILO: Mark, Gummie, and Jimmy C were three friends from the Engadine area... they had a pop-punk band called Fed Up. I met those guys at a house party and started coming to jam with them as a singer. Emo as kind of taking off at the time so we changed the direction of the band and the name to 'These Last Words'.

Camilo Bustamante (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

MARK: We did a lot of shows at the Engadine District Youth Centre and Jannali Community Centre. There was one show at Jannali that was Kiss Chasey, Braxton, Better Than Boredom, and us. It was probably the biggest crowd we'd played to at the time. 

Mark Barnes (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

CAMILO: It was a real buzz - playing with mates, trying songs that we'd be jamming at practice. Good time! Most of the shows while I was in the band were around Engadine and Janalli. I always remember the weeks leading up to them.

Camilo Bustamante (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

MARK: We did a lot of recording. I was really into it from a young age so started my own multi-track recording set-up for demoing my earlier bands. By the time These Last Words was around we were recording demos of each track as we finished them. It wasn't release-worthy but we got everything down. The only studio recording we ever did was the 5-track EP, which we did with Adam Barnes at Smoking and Joking Studio in Artarmon. We did those five songs over two days, so it was a pretty quick turn around. It probably took longer to burn and label the discs to sell! Gummie left just after we tracked the EP to join Chrysolite. 

Mark Barnes (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

MARK: We got stuck in a writing cycle trying to find the direction we were going and Camilo ended up leaving, so we spent ages writing and finding a new singer, who we did a few shows with. It was all new tracks by this point but I have no idea what we played because I don't feel like we ever finished anything. I then joined a band called Fifty Sixx that were touring and jamming a lot, so I left to focus on that. 

Mark Barnes (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Straight Edge Junkies, Chrysolite, Fed Up, Fifty Sixx, Strangers, Lowe