The Ocean Party: Good Times & Bad Times

Releasing three albums in under two years, Melbourne’s Wagga Wagga transplants The Ocean Party are getting more prolific – and more democratic – by the day. And better and better all around. Interview by DOUG WALLEN.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] It’s fitting to be interviewing four of the five Ocean Party boys – Lachlan Denton (guitar), Jordan Thompson (keyboard), Zac Denton (drums) and Curtis Wakeling (guitar); missing only is Liam Halliwell (guitar, bass) – over beers in the sun. Specifically, in the exposed tail of the Northcote Social Club, where cold pints and warm rays double the lazy-Sunday-after-a-shabby-night glow much in the same way the band combine sweet, heavenly guitar-pop with sad, true-to-life lyrics.

Starting with The Sun Rolled Off the Hills early last year and growing up quite a bit with the quick follow-up Social Clubs, the Wagga Wagga-formed Melbourne band have honed their craft, graduating from pleasant indie-rock niceties to something deeper and more profound. And something worn increasingly on their sleeves, as evidenced by the new third album Split, self-recorded at the Dentons’ grandparents’ farm in Tarcutta, NSW. It starts with a song unabashedly called ‘Quarter Life Crisis’ and proceeds to highlight every self-perceived flaw between the five contributing singers and songwriters. ‘Got It Wrong’ and ‘Something Stupid’ go two other titles, while the title track finds a chorus in the naked admission “I am finding it hard/I am split.”

If you’ve somehow slept on the band so far – which would be pretty tough, considering their ubiquitous profile around Melbourne and a spate of side bands that include Velcro, Shark Alarm, Turvey Park, Pencil, Jordan Thompson, The Removalists, Snowy Nasdaq, The Menstrual Cycle and Ciggie Witch – now is the time to get on board. Split puts the nagging regrets and mundane developments of 20-something life under a microscope, setting it to wintry guitar threads and hangdog exhalations. It’s a portrait of five friends (including two brothers) who are all experiencing the sea-changes of young adult life together, living in the same Brunswick sharehouse and documenting it all in song.

So the band started in Wagga Wagga. How many years ago was that?
Lachlan: Well, the band spawned out of a bunch of other bands that were going years ago, when we were in high school. Ocean Party actually didn’t really start until we came to Melbourne. Curtis and I, who had the biggest hand in starting the band and had played together in other bands, moved here to play music. It was always the plan. It sort of came out of another band we were in, which I won’t mention. Because someone might look it up and find it.

What were your previous bands like? Was it the same sort of sound?
Jordan: No, not the same. [Laughter] It was a bit more grunge, bit more rock ‘n’ roll, bit more contrived.

“You’re not gonna find many twee-pop bands in Cootamundra.”

As you’d expect from a high school band.
Lachlan: As you’d expect from anyone who grows up in the country as well. You tend to have to play, like macho-ist music. You wouldn’t really be accepted if … you’re not gonna find too many twee-pop bands in Cootamundra.

Yeah, what’s the ‘scene’ like in Wagga Wagga? Where would you play?
Jordan: Well, there’s a couple pubs that play live music, but it’s hard to get past the cover bands because they bring a crowd and a lot more money. If you’re gonna play original music, you gotta play really long sets. And some covers in there to keep ’em happy.

So you guys used to play covers?
Curtis: A little bit.

Lachlan: As far as the original music scene, it seems to be the same with most regional places. The metal scene’s quite popular. A lot of metal, hardcore. I think when we were leaving – I left about six years ago now – it was popular enough that there were ‘indie’ bands popping up. I guess it was when bands like Arctic Monkeys were starting to do really well. That kind of thing was starting to pop up. But it doesn’t really happen until it’s in full swing. Then it’s maybe accepted to do something like that.

Jordan: We were lucky enough to have, when we were in high school … a couple things going on. Little independent concerts where a bunch of independent high school bands would get together and play original music in the park. Or there’s an amphitheatre near the lagoon. Or in the library. Every month I think they used to have a night in the library where original bands would play original music to people who wanted to hear it. Which was good.

Lachlan: But it died. It died shortly after. When we left it was no more. Council stopped funding it. It was too much money, I think.

Jordan: That was important.

Lachlan: Yeah. It helped us for sure.

So then you came to Melbourne and started Ocean Party?
Curtis: I guess it started in 2009, just after we did an album as this other band and didn’t like it. We got a gig supporting Oh Mercy and we changed our name. Then we did an EP, and that’s when the sound change happened as well. It’s got ‘Shakin’ Like a Leaf’ on it, which was on the first album.

Lachlan: We didn’t really push it at all, I guess. And after that came out, we didn’t really do anything for a long time. We kind of went into a weird thing. It was like two or three years between that and coming out with the first album. So it was like nothing and then, in the space of about six months, we wrote and recorded and mixed the first album. Jordan joined after that on keys. So we weren’t really doing anything in that first period. We were just floatin’ around.

And you were doing Velcro at that time as well, Curtis?
Curtis: Yeah, that’s kind of when it started: 2009. Pretty non-serious. Just messin’ around.

Have you always recorded everything yourselves?
Curtis: Yeah. Except for that EP.

Jordan: I think we’re getting pretty good at it now. When we did the first album, we just mic’ed everything and knocked it out in like a day. Then that night we did vocal takes. The next album, we just did the same thing. Same formula; we were just getting better at it. So this time when we went to the farm … because we didn’t have any distractions and also now we’re pretty good at that, I think we really nailed it. We had friends lend us mics, so we had better gear this time.

How did you work it out with everyone writing songs?
Curtis: It was pretty clear. There was a few that were close to being on or off, because we did like 20-something songs. But it was pretty clear which were album songs, for the first part. Then we just had to take a vote on the last couple.

“It was about the best [songs] and not about who wrote them.”

Lachlan: The plan was always to just record everything and see what was the best. We said before we did the album that the aim wasn’t to [divide up songs evenly] … if every song Curtis wrote were the best songs on the album, then we would just use those songs. It was about the best and not about who wrote them. And I think we did that.

Jordan: It came out as a pretty even balance of everyone singin’ their songs. But I think that’s just a coincidence. It just happened that way because they were the best songs to go on.

Was it mostly you, Lachlan, singing most of the songs before?
Lachlan: Yeah, on the first album I sang everything. And wrote all the lyrics. Second album, Liam had a song and Curtis had two songs. It was always going that way because … there was never a dictator. I don’t think I was ever a dictator in the band. Everyone wrote their own parts and then it just got to a point where it didn’t seem to make sense that I would be singing all the songs.

And hearing bands like Dick Diver [where everyone sings]: they pull it off really well. I don’t think we tried to be like Dick Diver in any way, but it’s definitely an influence. The fact that someone can do and it works so well and sounds so good.

Do you think it’s because of your side bands that no one’s as precious about getting their songs into Ocean Party?
[All say yes] Lachlan: I would say so. Yeah.

Is it ever hard to know whether a song’s going to Ocean Party or your own thing?
Curtis: It’s pretty clear for me, I’ve found, but I couldn’t say for everyone else.

Jordan: Yeah, it is for me as well. I think it’s a good thing as a filter as well. You get a feel for what fits where. I felt like I was bringing the best songs to The Ocean Party because they fit better, rather than just everything I write going to The Ocean Party no matter if it’s good or bad.

Lachlan: Yeah, I find everything that I’ve ever written for my side projects – it’s not that I’ve really had many, but I was doing a band for a while – it’s all, for me, a lot more half-arsed. Most of the stuff I bring to The Ocean Party is definitely my best stuff.

When did [your label] Osborne Again start?
Lachlan: A few months back. It’s not really much behind it. It was just something I talked about for a while, because people were starting to make note of the fact that all these different bands were coming out of the same house.

Curtis: We were all self-releasing stuff anyway.

Lachlan: Also, I don’t really have a side project anymore. Apart from playing drums in Velcro and Ciggie Witch. But as far as personal output, I kind of took it on myself to start Osborne Again. So in a way it’s my side project. It’s very much a house thing, bands-wise, but it’s my project. I fund it all and put it all out.

And it’s just cassettes and digital?
Lachlan: At the moment. I’ve done three cassettes and I’m doing another one. I plan to put out the Ciggie Witch record, once I can save pennies. That’ll be the first [vinyl] record release, and I’ll go from there. I’ll either get really stressed out in the next year over it or I’ll really enjoy it and get the hang of it.

You mentioned the twee-pop thing before. It’s interesting because a lot of people in Melbourne might hear you guys and just associate it with the jangle thing of Flying Nun or The Go-Betweens, but to me it’s a lot like Sarah Records too. Was there a catalyst for you to discover that sort of sound and move in that direction from a more grunge thing?
Jordan: It probably was The Go-Betweens, a little bit.

Lachlan: Yeah, but … I think I was, in a way, probably more influenced by Paul Kelly than anyone to move away and…

Not be ashamed to sing about Australian things and sing in an Australian accent?
Lachlan: That’s it. I was so used to growing up in a place … you grow up in the country and it’s weird to sing in an Australian accent, because they’re so … I don’t wanna say close-minded, but they’re so influenced by mainstream popular culture. And in mainstream popular culture, that doesn’t exist – any kind of personal references to your life. Anything that doesn’t sound like it came off a TV screen or off commercial radio is just something that you don’t do.

“Melbourne always seemed too cool. Like we wouldn’t fit in.”

So I guess moving to Melbourne and actually seeing other bands around that were doing it … it’s just as simple as it being OK to like these bands that you probably always would have liked, but you wouldn’t have felt comfortable telling anyone. So yeah, I got really into Paul Kelly and that was a big one for me. Almost a catalyst for the way I started to write songs. Probably got a bit over-the-top on the first album with that kind of thing, doing referencing.

Did it take you a while to find kindred spirits in Melbourne?
Jordan: Massively, yeah.

Curtis: Yeah, Melbourne always seemed too cool. Like we wouldn’t fit in. It seems like a pretty clique-y scene with the cooler bands that we all like. But I don’t know…

That’s why it’s interesting to see people just make their own scene, like you guys did. Living together and having the label and playing in each other’s bands, it’s just making your own little pocket. And other people will gravitate towards it and discover it. Instead of you trying to infiltrate someone else’s circle.
Lachlan: Well, I think that’s the thing. I was always really bitter about the Melbourne music scene when I first moved here. But then you get to know these people and realise that … to be honest, most people aren’t looking to make new friends in bands. I’m sure they’re open to it in some ways, but no one’s out…

Recruiting?
Lachlan: Yeah, recruiting new friends. In a way we did, out of necessity, just all start playing music together. And slowly, more and more people gravitated towards us and we made friends that way. And since then I’ve met and became friends with a lot of bands that originally I did really look up to.

I interviewed Fran [Gibson] from The Cannanes and she talked you guys up. I thought that was really cool, like coming full circle.
Lachlan: Yeah, those guys are really great.

The songs that made it onto the new record: did it have anything to do with the themes and how they fit together that way?
Jordan: I don’t think we thought about lyrical themes at all while we were doing it. It was more thinking musically about the highs and lows and the dynamic of the album fitting together. But I think there is a string of common themes with the lyrics. I think that’s really just a product of us all living the same life.

Lachlan: Pretty much every one of our albums [is centred] around change. That’s been a pretty common theme since the first album. When I wrote my songs for this album, Curtis had just gone to New York and I hadn’t really spent a lot of time away from him, because we’ve been friends since we were so young. So he was writing songs about New York and I was writing songs about him being in New York, and Zac had just moved here from Wagga so he was experiencing all the things we experienced years before. So change is a common theme in our music. It probably is in all music, really.

“I’m not really into love songs. I got a point where I was like, ‘Don’t wanna hear that.’”

Well, a lot of bands just lean on clichés. You guys write about your lives in more explicit ways than a lot of bands. It’s not as vague…
Lachlan: I think the good thing we do is we tend to not write love songs. I’m not really into love songs. Not that I haven’t written love songs in my life, but I got a point where I was like, ‘Don’t wanna hear that.’

The record definitely has these themes of being in your 20s, drinking too much, being hungover and reflecting on that. [Laughter]
Lachlan: That’s a pretty consistent theme of mine.

Do you guys ever actually write songs when you’re hungover?
Curtis: I guess so. It’s hard to remember.

You have this weird clarity but also this detachment from everything, so you might not be able to trust if something’s a good idea or not. But you also might be able to tap some unguarded thing.
Lachlan: Maybe this is a good one for Zac. Zac, do you write songs when you’re hungover?

Zac: No, I write songs when I’m drunk. [Laughter]

Curtis: [Someone] told me once that you write the best songs when you’re hungover.

Lachlan: I don’t ever tend to write songs when I’m in the state that I’m writing about. I usually separate myself from it, because otherwise I feel like I get … for instance, if it’s an emotional situation, you go a little overdramatic with everything. I think sometimes it’s better to step away and write it the next day, when you can look on it from a pair of realistic eyes.

It’s often if people move overseas, then they can finally write about where they’re from. Which is probably how it is with you guys and Wagga, to some degree.
Jordan: Definitely.

Lachlan: I couldn’t agree more with that. I think it’s very true. When I left Wagga, it was a place that I’d wanted to get away from for a long time. But then, at the same time, you realise how much you did not like but also how much you liked it. No matter where you grow up, you have good times and bad times.

+

‘Split’ is out now through Spunk. Launch tour dates below.

Sat, Nov 2 – Boney, Melbourne, VIC [w/Sam Cooked, The Clits + Totally Mild]
Fri, Nov 8 – The Metro, Adelaide, SA [w/Swimming + Wild Oats]
Sat, Nov 16 – Black Wire Records, Sydney, NSW [w/Beef Jerk, Shopgirl + Nathan Roche]
Tues, Nov 19 – The Inn, Cairns, QLD [w/Nathan Roche]
Thurs, Nov 21 – The Rec Room, Townsville, QLD [w/Nathan Roche]
Fri, Nov 22 – Beetle Bar, Brisbane, QLD [w/Thigh Master, Dag + Nathan Roche]