Overview

David McComb, the driving force behind The Triffids, shaped one of Australia’s most revered albums, Born Sandy Devotional ( 1986). But after the band’s breakup, illness curtailed his solo career. He died in 1999, age 36. Truckload of Sky: The Lost Songs of David McComb Vol. 1 (2020) revives his final, unrecorded songs through the efforts of longtime collaborators, friends and admirers, including Graham Lee, Robert McComb, Phil Kakulas, Rob Snarski, JP Shilo, Romy Vager and Angie Hart. The book traces how McComb’s last songs extend his thematic preoccupations—love, loss, exile and the lingering pull of the past—through the framework of hauntology. Engaging with the ideas of Jacques Derrida and Mark Fisher, it places his songwriting in a broader cultural and philosophical landscape before turning to his lost compositions, revealing an artist still in full command of his craft. Exploring connections between music, memory and artistic legacy, D’Cruz positions McComb as not only a singular songwriter, but a literary voice of lasting significance.

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Glenn D’Cruz is a writer and filmmaker based in Melbourne, Australia whose work spans theatre, film and cultural theory. As a former academic, he is the author of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (2018), Teaching Postdramatic Theatre (2018) and Hauntological Dramaturgy (2022)—a trio of books that explore the edges of performance, pedagogy and spectral aesthetics. His short film Vanitas (2022), a reflection on migration, mortality and delayed grief, premiered at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival before being broadcast nationally on SBS television in Australia.

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