Ocean Alley on Festivals, Growth, and Going Deeper in their New Album

Photo: (Supplied)

Back in April, we spoke with Angus from everyone’s favourite psychedelic Aussie rock band, Ocean Alley, to talk about their creative process, new album and Groovin’ The Moo 2023.

So, for anyone who's never heard an Ocean Alley song before, how would you describe your style of music?

It varies a lot between songs, but there's an underlying, laid-back kind of characteristic that kind of comes out in music now. It's not intentional, but that's what comes through to our listeners.

Are there any musicians who inspire you or have influenced your style of music?

I think it's pretty varied. Over the span of time that we've been playing, we've obviously been listening to a lot of different artists, and I think collectively we all listen to different people. Artists who I am getting into at the moment & are inspiring me are Khruangbin and instrumental guitar bands like that.

What's your creative process like when you are making music?

Generally, it's kind of difficult and a little bit harder now since we all live in separate places, but we'll generally just meet up for like a week or so. And then everyone will bring some chord progressions or their ideas or things they've kind of recorded, and then we'll just dive into it with all six of us and kind of, I guess everyone puts their approach on that song and it kind of just turns into Ocean Alley from someone's single idea. It just evolves once everyone adds their parts.   

You guys were formed back in 2011...

Yes. We were kind of just hanging out as friends in one of our mates’ backyard sheds. And it was just a bunch of kind of crappy instruments in there and kind of just evolved from there. We started having fun with it and then kind of took it a bit more seriously. & Yeah, just went from there.

Did you guys ever expect to be performing in places and going on tour in places like America, UK & Europe? 

Back then? No. I mean, you never expect that. But I guess it's the dream. When you're younger, you kind of aspire to kind of want to do that stuff, and I guess it drives you to keep pursuing and pushing yourself. But, there were never any expectations.

This Friday, you will be performing at "Groovin’ The Moo". What does performing there mean to you?

We've done it once before. I think it was in 201,8 and we had a great time. Yeah, it's kind of going to all of the regional places, so you only go there often. It's nice to go to these places. Throughout the months and years when COVID hit, we didn't do any festivals besides Falls Fest on New Year, so Groovin ’The Moo is kind of our second full-on festival run in Australia in the last three years. Everyone is pretty excited to play it, too!

Amazing! & six months ago, you guys released your album, "Low Altitude Living". Could you tell me a little bit about what that project means to you and the band?

It was a project that we spent pretty much all of COVID working on. I think this time with the album, we put much more effort than probably all the other albums we've done previously. We just tried to refine everything and pay a lot more attention to detail. So it took longer than previous records. I think we're pretty happy with it in the end. Yeah, it just feels like an evolution of our sound, I guess. Everyone's stoked about it.

Do you have a favourite track off Low Altitude Living?

I like "Simple Pleasures" and "Drinks and Cigars" from the new album. Neither of which we've played live yet. So I'm looking forward to doing that at some point.

Does Ocean Alley have any pre-show rituals?

Nah I mean generally, we'll get there and we will just find an area either at green room or wherever. I guess we will have some beers and just relax and maybe hang out with some other artists. Nothing crazy. Just pretty chilled. If there are bands that we want to go watch, then we'll go and watch them.

What is Ocean Alley's Wildest Dream as a band?

Our wildest dream? It'd be unreal to perform at one of the massive festivals overseas that you see, you know, Glastonbury, Coachella, things like that. I guess that excites all of us, kind of playing those huge volumes of people in different places around the world. 

Where do you hope to be in five years?

I feel very lucky that we're just doing this at the moment. I hope that we keep writing music and keep having people who want to come to our shows. We're all loving what we're doing at the moment. I think we want to just continue progressing as musicians and as performers. But yeah, we're just happy with where it's going.

Finally, is Ocean Alley working on any new projects at the moment?

Yeah, we're in the initial stages of trying to write some stuff. So we'll just start doing some weeks together where we try and write a few songs, and then eventually, once we have enough for an album, we'll go and record it.