Coastal chaos

The Murlocs from Down-Underground
By Alex James Taylor | Music | 13 August 2014

Still from ‘Loopholes’, premiered below

The Australian invasion is upon us. From HTRK to Tame Impala, the Aussie underground is proving it to be a hotbed for exciting, nascent music. The latest risers? The Murlocs.

Donning a mellifluously retro style the Victorian five-piece spins music that ambles down the path of the canon founded at a Mississippi crossroads and later progressed by the meanderings of 13th Floor Elevators, the punch of The Seeds and the guitar wailings of Jack White. They represent a living, breathing, shaggy haired connection to past decades, ones spearheaded by Hendrixs, Hepburns and Harrisons, to the way music once was, when trousers flared and tassels reigned supreme.

With a rhythm section adopting a distinct Blues framework, jangled guitar is born in a seedier world of swampy sonics and paisley psychedelia. The band’s talents are rooted in the smooth unison of these two influences. Though fusing two such iconic genres is a bold move, it’s through this group’s progressive mentality that they formulate a beguiling new soundscape – and one that’s very quickly gaining a more expansive global momentum. Psych rock is enjoying a new rising but it’s only through this new generation’s future-gazed creativity that it’s taking shape as such a transfixing movement.

Latest record Loopholes (for which we premiere the clip to the same-titled lead track below) continues this guise, their refined starry-eyed sound is robust and fluent, showcasing a maturity in composition. Harmonica player and singer Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s vocals are ballsy. Piercing with desert mirage psychedelic reverb he recalls tales channeling the ecstasies of young love and the wallow of young lust. It’s an awareness of that revivalist ethos fused with a determination to innovate and create new that pushes these kids to transcend their influences, becoming an entity in their own right.

Alex James Taylor: You’re all from coastal Victoria, Australia. Did that scene have an impact on your music?
Ambrose Kenny-Smith: Yeah definitely. It all probably started when we’d go down to The Nash, the Geelong pub that was around when we were teens, when we were underage we’d go and see our mates’ garage bands play there. It’s that surf coast vibe, people tend to either get really folky or go down the more rock trail which we’ve followed.

AT: How did The Murlocs start up?
AKS: I got the guys together in late 2010. I was finishing high school and realised I wasn’t going to go to uni. Instead I wanted to keep up the same shit, playing music and skating. I was in a band called Sambrose Automobile in high school with my mate Sam Cooper, which was more traditional blues based stuff. I wanted to start my own band where I could sing and all that jazz so I got together with Cal Shortal, who’s now the guitarist in The Murlocs and a few weeks after jamming with him we started jamming with a drummer who lived around the corner. We had our first gig in November 2010 and it went from there!

AT: You’ve said previously that you are really rooted in blues, personally, what about as a band, where do your influences mainly stem from?
AKS: It’s what we grew up as a collective listening too. That 60s garage, psychedelic avenue is what we’ve always known and loved.

AT:  You’ve gone on to support the likes of Thee Oh Sees and Gary Clark Jr. How was the transition from smaller to bigger audiences? Any really nightmare gigs?
AKS: Oh yeah! Pretty much every gig is a nightmare with The Murlocs [laughs]. If it’s not the booze, there’s always something going wrong in the mix. That’s been a constant thing for us, we’re sloppy and not prepared for what’s coming next. It’s the mentality of the band. We’re friends so it’s more laid back than it should be a lot of the time, especially as we’ve started playing bigger and better shows! Playing Meredith Music Festival was sort of ‘it’ for a few of the guys, the peak. It was like, “alright, that’s it, that’s as good as it gets!”

AT: So after that you went on to write Loopholes?
AKS: Yeah it was after that point that we started drawing on that experience for the album, a lot of it came from around that time.

AT: You had a pretty disastrous experience with losing some of the album, right?
AKS: Yeah, we lost pretty much the whole album because our producer’s laptop was stolen. That was pretty shit, having to start from scratch just about. It also probably wasn’t helped by the way we were recording, it was quite a tedious process. So we’ve learnt a lot and will have heaps to put into the processes involved in the new material, that’s for sure. And we’ll back it up and make second copies!

AT: So, why the harmonica?
AKS: Since I was really young I was obsessed with Muddy Waters and his harmonica player. My Dad’s a musician and I was always stealing his records to play, I was really obsessed with the Blues Brothers, and Howlin’ Wolf, and then when I discovered Little Walter playing harmonica, wow. I’d go to sleep listening to his records, and Jimmy Reed and Sonny Boy Williamson. I kind of brainwashed myself into learning it, I actually don’t know a single song on the harmonica! I just worked out how to play with other people and play along with the guitar. That’s the beauty of the harmonica, you can just pick it up and wing it.

AT: The everyman’s instrument.
AKS: [Laughs] Yeah though I should probably learn a song, right? I’ve tried reading harmonica music and it’s pretty straightforward but I end up getting halfway through and start doing something else. Short attention span for reading music!

AT: So you’re in the US playing with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard at the moment, how long are you over there for?
AKS: Only a few more days, but we come back over with Gizzard in October. Things are popping off for that band slowly but we’re doing as much as we can. When I’m back in Melbourne we’ll whip ourselves [The Murlocs] into shape and get into gear with some gigs and new material for the next album.

AT: Moving fast, really getting your shit together!
AKS: Yeah, we’re trying our best!

‘Loopholes’ by The Murlocs is out now on Flightless. 

Find The Murlocs on FacebookTwitterSoundCloud and Bandcamp

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