“Like we’re reading each others minds” Celebrating 20 years of Frozen Ocean

After becoming mates in Midland as teenagers, Frozen Ocean will celebrate a massive twenty years together with two special live shows this weekend. The duo, made up of Peter Bibby and Macka, will perform at Buffalo Club on Friday, July 14 with support from Grunge Barbie, LEECHES! and Last Quokka before hitting Seasonal Brewing Co in Maylands with  on Saturday, July 15 with The Painkillers (on what is been described as their ‘last show for the foreseeable future’), Injured Ninja, and a ‘secret headliner’ listed as Carlisle Traino. BRAYDEN EDWARDS caught up with Macka to find out about highlights of two decades making music together.

Congrats on 20 years of Frozen Ocean. For those not familiar with you, how would you describe yourself?

A really loud, guitar and drum noise-thrash-folk ‘what the f*ck just happened?’ punk-sludge duo made by two old best buddies from Western Australia. 

How did Frozen Ocean form in the first place?

We became friends behind King Kong Discount Store in Midland after school one day. We formed over the following months after realising the jams we were having, consisting of an unplugged electric guitar and the tapping of a table top, were too musically telepathic to ignore. So we got an amp and drums and continued to make our unique noises together in an obsessive and relentless manner for years around the Perth area at house parties, gigs, pubs, backyards and lounge rooms. We are very thankful to all our friends who supported us in those early days.

What records have you released over your career?

We have released numerous DIY limited edition cassettes, CDs and other random things like shirts, lighters, home made biscuits and even beers over the years, including the CDs Initial Mission, F*ckin Filthy Rukus, Da Da Tapes, a split cassette with Clean Living and we even appeared on a compilation of Christmas songs. 

The majority of the stuff we have released we made ourselves, usually together at our ‘Frozo Factory’ and sold direct to punters at our gigs or traded with other bands for their merch! 

For these upcoming shows, we have redesigned and repackaged our only vinyl record FIRST FUCKIN VYNIL EP and have very limited quantities available, as well as custom shirts, tote bags, stickers and even packets of biscuits!

What have been some highlights of playing together?

One funny highlight was when we secured a support slot with one of our favourite bands in the world ‘Thee Oh Sees’ at The Bakery. We were so excited that we wrote a tribute song for them when we opened the show, but they didn’t come down to watch us.

But honestly, as we reflect as we get older our whole career was a bit of a highlight, but we just didn’t know it at the time…

Playing countless shows at the infamous Hydey, 299 and The Castle with bands like Mongrel Country, Mile End, The Trevallys, Cease, Mink Mussel Creek and El Cid through some pretty special years, forming many life long friendships in a music scene that was really special and we were very fortunate to be a part of.

Other highlights have been our gigs up in Darwin and Melbourne and probably RTR’s In The Pines festival.

What’s your favourite thing about being part of Frozen Ocean? 

Our favourite thing is this feeling of telepathy between us when we’re playing, like we’re reading each others minds. Also, that we have pretty much self-funded and self-guided our whole career for better or worse and have played hundreds, maybe even thousands, of hours of music together over the years and maintained our friendship. 

Also, that we are resourceful and pretty keen and obsessed with doing things DIY…. like when recording our debut album, we were too poor to record using reel to reel so with the help of Adam Brown, we used old movie VHS tapes to record our album ‘SNOISES. 

And you guys have lived in different parts of the country for some time too, with a big break in performing shows…

Well, way way back about 2013-ish we decided to put Frozen Ocean onto sleep mode while we had a hiatus from playing together and we both have spent years travelling and exploring separate parts of Australia. 

Over that time, there have been a few opportunities that have occurred to hang out together and revive Frozen Ocean and we have reunited to play shows, in Melbourne in 2013, Darwin in 2015 and 2016 and Perth in 2017 and 2019 with some of our good mates including The Love Junkies, Double Dinghy, Emlyn Johnson, Injured Ninja, Nick Allbrook and Gorsha. 

Lastly, how is it going to feel coming to gather for a live show in celebration of 20 years?

It’s going to feel absolutely incredibly amazing to blast very high decibel levels at people faces like we used to… and in the lead-up it feels really great to be back together and having a few hangs.  These gigs actually came about while we were paddling kayaks together on the Swan River and we were chatting about Frozen Ocean and maybe doing some shows together. 

These next two shows are another great opportunity to share our band with a bunch of friends, both old and new and add a few more gig posters to our extensive collection of Frozen Ocean archives! 

We feel quite proud that it has been 20 years of two good mates playing our own music, our own way and just having a crack and a bit of fun along the way and we feel it is worth celebrating, because 20 years of anything is a pretty big accomplishment and it’s been nice to stop and reflect on all the years, bands, gigs and venues that we’ve played with and all the mates we’ve made along the way. 

Frozen Ocean play Buffalo Club on Friday, July 14 and Seasonal Brewing Co on Saturday, July 15, 2023. For more info head to their linktree.

Live photos by Amber Bateup