We’ve been digging on The Walking Who lately and this weekend, we’re going to be catching them down at The Farmer and The Owl festival in Wollongong! They answer some questions before the shenanigans are set to go off!
Who are you and where are you from?
We’re The Walking Who; we’re from Sydney, but we originally started out playing in Wollongong.
Tell us about your latest release(s) – where we can find it and what we can expect from it!
We recently released an EP called Mansions, It’s basically five tracks of songs written while we were living and hanging out in an old house in Wollongong, the name came about pretty simply from the fact that most people who lived at the house or came by to hang out just called ‘The Mansion’. It’s available from itunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/mansions-ep/id688930153
The latest single from it is called “Rita”, and we’re looking at releasing another single from it soon which is nice. In the meantime, here’s Rita:
If a music video, where did the concept come from and tell us a bit about it!
The video for “Rita” came about from a few conversations with our good friend/director Jack Shanahan. He’d had this idea of a guy pushed to his limits and basically driving himself over the edge after coming across the Aokigahara, the Japanese Suicide Forest. We’d seen it as well and the idea for the clip really captured our imagination. Rather dark for a song about a girl, but there you go.
If a single/album, where did you record and who did you work with?
Like all of our recordings, we did Mansions by ourselves from a studio we have put together. We recorded it in the house Rohin was living in at the time in Wollongong and used most of the spaces and rooms in the house for different sounds. The drums we all recorded in a bathroom upstairs. The house was basically this huge a squat for musicians and artists in the hills of North Wollongong. It’s since been bulldozed though to make way for a bastardised commercialisation of the ‘new Australian dream’.
How do you and your band (where applicable) generally write your music? Is there a head songwriter, do you collab together etc?
We wrote a lot of songs for Mansions through a bunch of different jams and recording sessions around at the house in Wollongong. This EP was basically a period of us hanging out, playing with friends and recording in The Mansion. I think most of the time one of us has an idea for a song we’ll bring it to the group and then nut it out from there ’til everyone is generally happy with whats going on.
What can we expect from your performance at Farmer and the Owl?
Every time we play a show in Wollongong, we try and do something different; we grew up as a band in Wollongong so we’ve played hundreds of shows around town. I think this time we’ll try and do something interesting with the set, maybe get a few of our mates involved….
Who are you looking forward to seeing at the event?
A whole bunch of our mates are playing at The Farmer and The Owl so i’m really looking forward to seeing them play. Our best bud Will Chittick is doing a set and my real long time bro Jacky Wotton is playing with Jack and Elmo and, put simply, those guys are sick. Shining Bird are a given cause they’re always really tight live and then up the top end I’m keen to see The Drones again.
How important are events like this to areas like Wollongong?
A year ago, I would have said something like ‘in a drought any water is good’, but Wollongong has really changed over the last 12 months or more. There is a whole lot more, artistically and creatively, going on around the city. When we were kicking around, there was only one venue that had live music and any attempt to bring life into the city was swiftly stomped out by some higher authority. This festival though will be pretty important, I would say, as it’s the ONLY music festival Wollongong has had with a national focus, in terms of music and all that.
Talk us through some of your highlights from 2013!
Released a new EP, made good mates with The Delta Riggs while we were touring around with them. Got to do a little residency at the Corona House in Byron. We started working on our next release doing a bit of recording.
What can we expect from you in 2014?
We’re definitely gearing up to release a lot more music. I’d like to see at least two more things come out as well as a whole bunch of side projects. Writing and recording music is the number one thing we all love doing.
What’s your favourite Australian release of 2013 (so far)?
I’d have to say Shining Bird’s new record is probably my favourite Australian release. I’m biased cause I’m mates with them, but it’s just a really really good record, super strong, real good songs – all that.
Your favourite international release of 2013?
We’ve been listening to a whole lot of Kurt Vile and The War on Drugs over the last year. I was driving the other day and one of the songs from Kurt Vile’s new record came on; I drove straight to my local record shop and bought it.
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Check out The Walking Who perform alongside heaps of other quality talent at The Farmer and The Owl this weekend! For more information, hit up www.thefarmerandtheowl.com.
