You may know them for their popular Secret Enchanted Broccoli Forest track a few years back and if you haven’t already heard Peace Blossom Boogy on triple j, it’s one of the songs recently released on new album The Babe Rainbow, a 60s, hippy-inspired, surf-influenced, psychedelic groove. The perfect listen for an evening with some wine or a cruise and some sunshine as Jack “Cool-Breeze” Crowther sits down with a coffee to chat to OLIVIA SENIOR all about recent activities and what to expect from the record, out on King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s label Flightless.
How are you?
I’m good, I’m just pouring a coffee, preparing a drink while I chat with you.
I actually played my housemate your album last night and she loved it, she drew this big picture of the sun and couldn’t stop dancing and smiling, how do you usually envision someone listening to your music?
That’s a nice question and that’s a nice setting. In the nice lit carpeted living room with all your beautiful things surrounding you. In the evening with some wine or in the sunshine in the fields. I don’t know, I guess all the songs have different context, like I really like listening to music in the car, on a nice drive you know, but I couldn’t honestly say or picture how people would listen to us.
Listening to your album a sense of 60s nostalgia entered my mind, which you probably get a lot. Is that the kind of vibe you’re trying to give?
I guess it’s not like we try for a vibe it’s just what comes out you. You can’t really pre-determine the vibe but the things we surround ourselves with and the music that we listen to that inspires us, that determines the vibe that you’re picking up. But yeah, lots of our favourite music is from then.
But also we are inspired so often for each of us individually as well, we go on journeys and tangents and go back to things, there’s probably too many to list.
I’ve read you met Angus in middle school, am I right?
Yeah, and we have a new member called LuLu.
And you met Louise in France, what’s that story?
We met him in Paris and he played based guitar for us at a gig on the coast. We drove from Paris, we had a big van, we were surfing and hanging out at the beach there and so we got to know him on the big drive and then went back to Paris and hung out and made a few songs in a squat, in the North of Paris, experimenting with instruments and things. And then he came over to Australia and is now kind of family.
I saw you guys like to surf, does having that lifestyle influence your music?
I’d say defiantly, it’s just so nice to be surrounded by nature so often and it just plays on your vibes and makes you feel really good, earthed, present, healthy and wealthy.
Something about the ocean…
Recently there’s been lots of starfruit on the farm and we’ve picked a lot of them and made star fruit juice, twenty litres of starfruit juice. That was an exciting thing that happened recently.
Aw nice, what does that taste like?
The texture is a little bit like mango nectar. It’s a bit like between a pineapple and an apple, really smooth not and too sweet. Pineapple and apple with the texture of mango nectar.
Was the music making process with Stu Mackenzie (from King Gizzard) quite easy?
It’s very easy, it just flows, he’s amazing to work with. But for the album it was mostly recorded at our friend’s farm in Coorabell (NSW), down the road from my place, then we went down and took it to a studio in Melbourne, did a little recording in the county and then to the city to kind of polish it up.
I feel like your songs create a sense of nostalgia, and maybe it’s because you do spend a lot of time at home – do your songs specifically relate to a part of your past, present and future selves?
All three definitely. Just the adventures we have, they are descriptive of that a lot of the times, or descriptive of how we are feeling, you know everyone goes through highs and lows, so it’s a combination of all of our experiences.
You guys don’t look like you’d go through lows…
Yeah well you know, like, relationships and things like that, which is all important, low in a way that is a time to grow from a lesson.
I really enjoyed the video clips to both Peace Blossom Boogy and Losing Something, and I’m sure you’ve had really good feedback on those, do you guys collectively come up with the ideas?
It’s just our friend from New Zealand. He’s really good friends of ours, he comes on adventures with us, all around the place. Like we drove around New Zealand with him and we were doing some surfing, filming and exploring; we were making a bit of a movie and we had filmed a lot of stuff… even in France! But then his film got stolen in LA so we had to come up with some money and redevelop the film. But anyway I’m just getting side-tracked. He just comes over and we do it quite impromptu, there’s generally a loose idea that flows and just happens naturally.
How would you describe your sound?
That’s pretty hard to do that, that’s too hard that question. When we were touring America our live show probably sounded like James Brown combined with the Beach Boys, but we probably don’t sound like that anymore.
Do you think you’ll ever be able to describe it?
No, I can’t do that, my friend could, Angus could, you should ask Angus.
Are you playing anywhere new in Australia that you haven’t played before?
Adelaide. We’re playing on the weekend then we go home and have a lovely week preparing for the next shining week. It’s a good way to do it you know.
You recently went on tour with Allah-La? Can you tell me something new you discovered while you were travelling?
There was a nice part, where we were in, we went to this little mountain town above the Canyon in Colorado and it’s just like a really nice bookshop and a really nice pizzeria and just like a beautiful stream running through the town and all the buildings were just small and had the same aesthetic and mad out of timber. We were surrounded by pine forests and really nice people. We spent two days, three days there, and that was nice to digest all the cities because it was quite a fast tour, a bunch of shows… and tequila! Californians love tequila.
Apparently you have the didgeridoo on your next album? What inspired that?
I guess it’s a very cosmic instrument, the indigenous connection to land, it’s quite a powerful sound.
And also the Cumbia?
Yeah we are, where are you getting this information? I can’t tell you much about the Cumbia.
The second album is already on it’s way, are songs something you usually create over a short period of time or do you have them saved?
It really just happens after a period of inspiration and when there’s an opportunity to have the times to have extended jam and to make the music, and if we’ve got the songs we are ready to record them but lately the momentum kind of picked up, picked up a lot.
What can we expect from the next album?
It’s very early days, and sooner than you think is all I can say. Maybe just say… childhood of the magician.
I have no idea what that means but thank you.
I think it’s nice, it’s all you get.
