q&a: loon lake

Loon Lake, a Melbourne indie-garage band consisting of  “three brothers and two mates”, are quickly but stealthily crawling into your life. Much like their namesake, they have been flowing through the local scene, making headway and friends as they go. I do so loathe the term “next big thing”, but…

I chatted to Nick, drummer for the blossoming (nyaw!) quintet as they proudly show off their debut EP, Not Just Friends.

You’ve had a bunch of love from Triple J. In this who-you-know business, is it important to you guys to have commercial kudos and success like that?
Definitely, we are all veteran Triple J listeners, so regular airplay is important to our personal achievements. And having DJs like Zan Rowe pushing our music is a massive plus.

What’s your take on the current Aussie music climate?
Really healthy at the moment, and that’s across the genres  as well.  We have already been blessed to play with some of Australia’s best.

Tell us about the EP and how it came together.
We basically flogged a ‘rough as guts’ demo until we could no longer.  We went into Sing Sing studios in Melbourne and rerecorded a few early tracks as well as a couple of new ones. We have put loads of blood , sweat and tears into this one, so hopefully the new tracks will show us growing  and forming a perfect alias as a singular unit, being  Loon Lake.

Do you think music is a viable career choice? As in, can musicians make it a profitable career?
If you are a spotty-faced uni student in a band, that has $120 a week outgoings, you can definitely “get by”! Unless you are really successful with a song or an album,  I think playing original music can be pretty tough. It’s probably smart, if you decide to have a carreer in music, to concentrate on maybe other aspects of music. Fame can be short lived!

Head to the band’s pages on MySpace or Triple J Unearthed to have a listen to their tracks!

Loon Lake play:
June 17- Northcote Social Club,Melbourne w/ Red Riders
June 18- Oxford Art Factory, Sydney w/ Red Riders
July 2- River Sessions Festival,  Mackay (QLD)