It’s hard to deny that Australians can rock. Accadacca are from there, and that’s the whole argument. There are several new indie bands as well, rocking at breakneck speeds. Hitting the hardest jams that you would want to see, the window panes of your pub visibly vibrating. OSPREY are a young indie band that are trying to shake it up, and Tantrum is their first single of this year.
I got a chance to interview them about the same, so the following is our conversation. Creating a catchy rhythm with a simple riff, OSPREY let their music do all the talking. However they had to answer my questions because that song was way too catchy for a drop and go.
1) You’re riding the high/low tide of riff-based rock. Did all your interests confluence to this style of songs?
All the band members are very different in our interests, so we’ve kind of found our own sound through the joining of those. Pete and Nick have a very heavy rock influence – that’s where the riff and overall sound was generated. Jaz came from a pop background and got into rock more once she joined the band. One of our influences Greta Van Fleet was very much inspired by Led Zeppelin. Jaz got into them and loves the singer. She brings those genres (pop and rock) together, and definitely puts her own spin on it.
You hear these influences, but Tantrum shows OSPREY’s raw energy. This was heard in Gemini as well, however has reached a more polished delivery from their side. As a band, they’ve never sounded better, and their production quality is top notch. Letting the riff sink in before the other instruments march in leads to a great build up. Texturally, the group is experimenting, as you hear in parts of the song. They could have had a simpler outcome, but OSPREY are here to rock, not sit in for The Carpenters.
2) You might have touched every genre by the influences OSPREY states as influences in your Spotify playlists. Is your songwriting process just as unique?
Our song writing process isn’t so unique, though every musician is unique in themselves. With a lot of our songs, it usually starts with a riff, so the guitar comes first in most cases. Once the full riff structure is down the band then adds their own elements. We jam it out together and Jaz kind of sits in the song, humming notes and the lyrics are formed from there.
One of our favorite bands is the Beatles and we know John Lennon would often make a song starting with the lyrics. Because he was fitting music around the words, not the other way around, it led them to some pretty interesting places musically. So there’s plenty of unique ways to write songs, we’ve just found a way that works for us.
It shows, especially as it comes thematically in this song. The guitars lead by sound, as the lyrics and other instruments form a mould around the same. The sound is mature enough to know when to leave space for each of the four members to shine.
3) From Gemini to Tantrum. What has changed for OSPREY in this time?
The lineup has certainly changed. Our previous band members were Jeremy Nunan and Jack Miller. Jeremy and Nick collaborated on the riff for Gemini, so the band had two guitarists at one point. We’ve since recruited a new bass player, so it’s changed a lot in that sense.
At the time of Gemini, we were still in school and really absorbed in all that. So, I guess when we wrote Tantrum, we were starting to see the bigger picture; that we were at the bottom of a big mountain, trying to find our way up.
The time aspect is different, as well. At school we could rehearse during lunchtimes, and now we must figure out how to schedule four different people, which can be challenging.
We hadn’t done many gigs at that point (when Gemini was released). Now we’ve done more live stuff, and really worked on our presence and who we are as performers. Doing more gigs and meeting new people has been the biggest and best change. We didn’t expect such a support base. We’ve made so many new friends doing live gigs, being part of the Newcastle music community and meeting new people has been a really cool thing. And being out of school now, there’s so much more to do and see, writing more about life experiences as they come.
From kids who had a passion for music in school to full blown musicians. Now if that’s not the Neil Young’s Guide to A Music Career, I don’t know what is. Most importantly, they have fun making their music, clearly visible in their YouTube video for Tantrum. Here they tell us about their process:
Yeah it was a lot of fun, breaking stuff. The first time we tried to shoot it the drummer got sick with food poisoning so we were getting it all ready and then we realized Pete had gone, and he came back and looked terrible so we had to reschedule, then with COVID we had to delay it even more. So, when we finally got to shoot it was great fun. We shot it at Pete’s house.
We will do some more music videos because we love doing those kinds of skits, it was just a funny thing our bass player thought of and so we just did it. We’ve shot a couple of videos now and learning about how people do things differently has been an interesting learning experience. You can’t buy that kind of thing, you just need to learn as you go.
I really admired their music process and overall energy their tracks give. Though each of them has an interesting playlist uploaded on Spotify listing their influences, I wanted to know artists they would like to collaborate with.
5) Who are some artist peers you admire. I don’t mean your inspirations, but artist you could see yourself collaborate with?
Some of the people or bands we’d want to collaborate with include Royal Blood, The Rions, The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Spacey Jane. Nick would like to collaborate with his guitar teacher, Justin Nariki. He’s cool and has done the yards with the music industry.
The Snowfish boys were great to collaborate with, we have done before. We have a similar taste in music. We’ve jammed and it would be great to take that to a new level with them.
Soloist Abbi Yeo would be great, we enjoy playing with solo artists. As a drummer, Pete would like to explore more styles to refine his skills, take inspiration from different drummers and genres like Jazz.
On an aspirational level, Paul McCartney, or Dave Grohl – as people, aside from the music, they both seem like very genuine and it would be great to have a chat to them. As a guitarist, Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd. We’d love to talk about sound with him.
All solid inspirations for a strong foundation in music. It’s very possible that you won’t be able to catch OSPREY when they skyrocket. They’re on tour next month, and you can check out further details on their Spotify. Riffs, drums and powerful vocals make for a perfect cocktail of rock we’ve missed for a long time. All of it might be worth it, seeing as to how they’re born to rock. Might not be worth the tantrum you’ll throw if you miss the heat this comet gives off.
Listen to OSPREY here:
Check out our playlists here!
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
