The Western Trend Festival (WTF) happens on Saturday, March 14, at Canefire Gardens in the Swan Valley. The Georgians will be there…
Luke Di Labio, vocals/bass
The Western Trend Festival is a new start-up event for Perth live original music. Given the recent discussion re venues how important do you think this event could be?
This event is a huge help to Perth’s already diminishing live music scene. To know that there are still people out there that are willing to organise these types of events with no concerns about making money off of it is very endearing and gives bands like us a good reason to still play live music in Perth, regardless of the times we’re facing. This event could easily transform into a nice little ‘Perth-only’ festival full of great live bands in future years.
Have you as a band had much in the way of outdoor/festival experiences?
Yes, we played Hyperfest last year and that was a fantastic experience, because it brought together local bands like us and national acts that are relatively successful. It was a great experience for us to play with some great acts and to just experience attending a festival being one of the bands rather than the audience. We were also surprised at how much merch we sold that day as well, so it’s good to see people support local bands like us through merch sales.
Describe the evolution of your band, how it was at the start and what it is and is becoming…
Well it started off as a bedroom project with myself and our old guitarist, Brady. We just wanted to mix some ideas on Garageband and see what happened. Soon enough we got Mike involved on drums and were playing a few shows around Perth. Eventually Brady decided he had enough and we soon got Nick in on guitar and just continued playing shows and recording demos. We haven’t really progressed in terms of local band status but we have progressed through our songwriting and stage performance by tenfold.
What’s your gameplan for the rest of the year?
Well we’re most excited for playing the Global Battle of The Bands competition at the end of next month in Oslo, Norway. Depending on how we go in that competition, we just want to get some solid recordings down and possibly release a single at some point. Also keep playing great live shows like the WTF festival!
