Page 30 - the Noise March 2017 Edition

BY BEVERLEY NAPALM
THE OCEAN PARTY POP BLISS FROM DOWN UNDER
FROM LEFT: Zac Denton, Mark Rogers, Curtis Wakeling, Jordan Thompson, Liam Halliwell, Lachlan Denton PHOTO BY MATT CRIBB
From Melbourne, Australia, The Ocean Party are an aural delight, mixing heartfelt warm sounds into well crafted and beautiful shiny pop. The six piece play Firecreek Coffee in Flagstaff on Sunday 19th March. There will be free gifts on the door for early attendees.
The author caught up with Lachlan Denton in between packing and preparing for their imminent US jaunt.
Culturally, it seems a rite of passage for many Australian bands to travel overseas with dreams of fame and fortune. Historically so in the 1980s, when apparently you couldn’t move in the London pub scene, for bumping into members of The Birthday Party, The Go-Betweens, The Moodists etc. Is this due to lack of audience back home, or do you think Aussies just have natu- rally itchy feet?
It seems to me that bands have often had an idea that Australia is impossible to break and that if you are going to have a career in music there is no point hanging around. Most bands in the underground don’t venture outside of the capitol cities where there is strong community radio support. But Australia is so vast, that driving between capital cities is un- realistic a lot of the time. The early ‘80s exodus of Australian bands like the Go-Betweens or the Triffids, from what I’ve read, fit with this idea but I think for the most part bands that exist in the Australian underground in 2017 don’t think of success overseas as attainable or worthwhile, so touring overseas is just about meeting like-minded people and seeing the places we’ve grown up being bombarded with in Music, Film and Art. How much of it is our inferiority complex is hard to say.
Is the band a full time venture? I know this isn’t your first US jaunt, how often do you manage to tour overseas?
Most of the Ocean Party work low paying jobs that afford us the freedom to take off work whenever we need. Although we don’t make a living of the Ocean Party I would consider it full time at least for myself. I certainly spend more time working on it than anything else. This is only our second trip overseas with the Ocean Party, but we do tour in Australia extensively.
With recent events, do you have reservations about coming to the US at this time?
It’s certainly not the ideal situation to be coming into but then again it seems to me that this could be a really exciting time to be in the states. I follow a US daily news cast called Democracy Now and it seems from what I’ve watched and read that progressives are banding together in a really great way under the importance of the situation.
How does it work having two brothers in the band? The Jesus and Marychain famously strug- gled to keep their band together due to sibling rivalries. Any good brotherly punch ups in The Ocean Party?
We’re pretty good. I’m the older brother and I know when Zac is sooky to leave Zac alone. I would say we are friends first when it comes to the Ocean Party.
Your sound is unapologetically pop. It’s polished and expertly delivered. As a 5-piece, how easy is it to arrive at your sound without individual compromise?
The Ocean Party are actually a 6-piece. I think there is always compromise in the Ocean Party but that is actually what makes it what it is. We like to think of The Ocean Party as a functioning democracy, everyone has the freedom to write and change their own parts and I think in doing so it brings cohesion to our albums.
A Six-piece? Golly. Does that ever put a crimp on your ambitions when booking a tour?
We actually have a 7-seater van with 6 bunks in it here in Australia so we are able to tour here and make ends meet. Overseas is a different story and means a lot of putting in our own cash. It all comes back to making sure we love doing it. If we all didn’t love touring with the Ocean Party we wouldn’t want to be fronting our own cash. Needless to say we’ve gotten pretty used to sleeping on the people’s lounge room floors over the years.
I have to ask you about your video “Back Bar” – It’s hilarious, if not a little squirmy viewing. Whose concept for the video was it?
The video for Back Bar was a loose concept that me and my friends Matt and Bree (who shot the video) came up with. In saying that the concept was loose and we mostly just got a bunch of oil and a camera and messed around a little (this makes it sounds like a porno).
{Note:- The video is on Youtube, and is well worth 2 1⁄2 minutes of your time.}
THE OCEAN PARTY play Flagstaff Firecreek Sunday 19th with an International cast of likeminded pop recluses. Featuring support from Amatuer Hour (Phoenix), The English Teeth (p.k.a. Boyracer, from the UK) and Arden Klawitter and the Power Claps (CA). And don’t forget, there will be free gifts for the early attendees. Show starts 7.30PM. Grab your date and don’t be late!
30 • March 2017 | the NOISE arts & news | www.thenoise.us