Across the ocean with The Wombats: Matthew Murphy talks new album and Australian tour

British indie darlings The Wombats are returning to Australia on the back of their latest album, Oh! The Ocean, released earlier this year. As part of a major international tour, they will be headlining a Summer Salt concert at Fremantle Prison on Saturday, October 4, alongside DMA’S, Ball Park Music, Del Water Gap, Bea and her Business, and Ra Ra Viper—with tickets on sale now. SAMANTHA ROSENFELD spoke with frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy about the sound on the new album, the meaning behind its title, and life in the US.

Congratulations on the new album, Oh! the Ocean. How would you describe the album?

Well, it’s very different. It’s more like the first album than it is like two, three, four or five. We purposely worked with a new producer, and we just recorded it a whole different way. It has a very kind of organic, weirder, maybe slightly more left-field quality to it, compared to some of our other albums. But it just felt like an album that it was time for us to make, maybe. I’m very proud of it, and it’s something that I think is one of our best bodies of work, even though it’s probably a little bit weirder and less poppy than the other albums.

In what way is it like the first album? Is it just that it has more freedom of expression?

I think the way we recorded with John Congleton. He didn’t listen to any of the demos, which was highly unusual, and every song was recorded basically with me playing it start to finish, either on acoustic guitar or the keyboard or whatever. And then we’d record drums and bass around that, and then we’d kind of delete that, and I’d add my stuff, and then we’d build on it from there. It was quite unusual to record from start to finish. Usually, we’ll just jump into one of the main sections, work on that for a bit and build out. This was more of an old-school or retro way of making an album, I think. A more musical way of making an album. It’s full of mistakes and happy accidents, which the first one was as well. Like, a lot of weird stuff would happen, and we’d be like, “Well, that’s cool. Let’s just keep that in,” rather than trying to perfect it.

So more playful and organic?

Yeah.

And can you explain the title?

I’d had a particularly weird and stressful week, and I took my family to the beach. We stayed in this hotel, and I’d hardly slept, and I was just staring at the ocean, and I had… It wasn’t like an out-of-body experience, but I realised I’d gone my entire life just accepting that all these amazing, natural things exist, and I’ve never really seen them before. So it was like I saw the ocean for the first time. It’s very hard to describe. It’s like a mushroomy experience where I was just staring at it like, “What is this? How did this get here?” kind of feeling. I was awestruck. My wife thought it was hilarious. She has a video of me just dressed in black on a beach, sleep-deprived, staring out at the ocean. So that’s why it’s called Oh!, with an exclamation mark, because I was just shocked; I was seeing the ocean for the first time.

So the image on the cover of the glass eye of the teddy bear is you being glassy-eyed at the ocean?

Pretty much, yeah. We were thinking about how best to show that. I think she actually took the picture of this deer in my daughter’s bedroom to use on the album cover.

You live in Los Angeles now, and on the album, you write about your love/hate relationship with the US. What is it like living there now, and do you plan to stay?

I really do love and admire the US. I say that I’m 15% happier there. It is certainly important for me that I don’t watch the news all the time and that I go outside and touch some grass or whatever. But I’ve also got kids there now, so there’s no chance of me moving around for a while.

I mean, I’m in London now; I spend a lot of time in London still. And it’s not clear to me that it’s much healthier to live here. But I love LA and the general US ethos. People are more positive there. I definitely grew up with, well, we call it tall poppy syndrome, where, you know, if someone gets ahead, you really don’t talk about it, or you bring them down, or they bring themselves down. Whereas in the US, it’s a very competitive environment, but a very healthy form of competition. And I think that’s good for me. I’ve got no plans on moving.

This year you are doing a massive tour throughout the UK, Australia and the US. What would you say is the key to a successful tour with your bandmates?

Australia’s a hard place to tour, because there are no tour buses. You’re up early, and you’re flying. If you don’t take care of yourself, and I’ve done many Australian tours where I’ve not taken care of myself, it becomes so, so difficult. But we’re a bit older and wiser now. I think as long as we get at least five hours’ sleep a night, we’ll be fine. That’s kind of the most important thing; that’s what I’ll be focused on. Because if I don’t, I’ll be truly fucked.

The Wombats have been playing together for twenty years now, but you still attract fans in their early twenties. Why do you think that is?

I still have no real idea why, when I’m doing a show, it’s not just full of people my age, to be honest. But I’m very happy that it’s not. I don’t know what it is. I do like to think that lyrically it’s a bit weirder and goofier than the majority of bands that came up in 2006/2007 when we did. And I think it’s kind of put us in good stead that The Wombats are a little bit odder than their counterparts, and I think maybe that’s helped? I’ve said before, and I took a lot of flak for it, that maybe we are 15-year-olds in 40-year-olds’ bodies or something. I mean, obviously, we’ve worked really hard, but that still doesn’t explain why younger audiences would find our music. So I just don’t know.

Do you think that those kids in their early twenties have changed much in the time you’ve been playing?

They’re obviously quite different but still kind of hungry for art and new cultures and subcultures. Kids these days are probably the same as we were, but maybe just more inundated with things.

The Wombats will be headlining the Summer Salt festival in Freo on October 4. Which other acts on the lineup are you most looking forward to playing with?

I’m excited to see Ball Park Music again. They toured with us ten years ago, maybe, and I know they’ve been going from strength to strength since then, so I’m excited to see them. I’m just excited to get going, really. I can’t remember the last time we were in Australia for proper shows. We were there for promo things at the start of this year, but we haven’t done our own headline shows there in a while, so I’m looking forward to it.

Like you say, you’ve played a lot of gigs in Australia, and you’ve played a lot of gigs in Perth. Is there anything about your visit this time that you’re looking forward to?

I have some very good friends in Perth that I met in Las Vegas at a residency. They’ve kind of moved all over the place now. At the end of a tour, I used to hang out in Perth and go to Scarborough and all these places, and then I’d fly back home. Hopefully, I’ll bump into a few of those people; that would be nice. I like WA a lot. It seems like a more relaxed part of Australia, but maybe the people are crazier. That’s good for me. Relaxed and crazy is perfect.

Can we expect any new music from your solo project, Love Fame Tragedy?

Well, there’s more Wombats music coming first. The second album took me so long to make. I feel like I should just be throwing all my eggs in The Wombats’ basket for the time being, because I really want to get to albums eight, nine, and ten. I think that needs to be at the top of my list. But then, if I have a good run of songwriting, and I’ve got too many, maybe.

So, can you say anything else about the new Wombats music that’s coming?

I don’t know how much I’m supposed to say, but we’ve got another four songs coming out before the end of the year. Well, five if you include the remix, and one of them is great. One of them is my favourite from the last five, ten, or maybe 15 years. But the other ones are really good too!

The Wombats headline Summer Salt concert at Fremantle Prison on Saturday, October 4, 2025. Tickets are on sale from ticketmaster.com.au