Q & A with Wanderers

Adelaide rock outfit, WANDERERS are set to hit the road again this Summer, stopping in at a number of their favourite locations, and venturing to a couple of new ones including the beautiful Sunshine Coast.

2017 was a big year, with the band releasing their sophomore EP ‘ Something of a Distraction’ early in the year, the group undertook a number of epic tours, not only in Australia but also heading across to Europe and the UK. With some new tunes having just been laid down they're excited to get back on the road, and give them a test out to live audiences.

Hello Team Wanderers… you had a massive 2017, how’s your 2018 shaping up?

So far so good! We started the year by getting creative in the studio and jumped straight into touring. We even spent 4 days on an island without phone signal, getting sunburnt and driving around in a Hilux. If the first 2 months are anything to go by, I think the rest of the year will be great, new releases, touring, festivals and a heap of other shenanigans.

Now that you’ve got two EPs under your belts (the most recent being last year’s ‘Something For a Distraction’), and I imagine you have a whole swag of material in your catalogue… do you think 2018 will be the year for a full length for you?

That would be great, but we’re focused on touring at the moment to really make sure we’ve built up the audience for it when it comes to releasing something! We really want to do an LP, so later in the year if we can get the cash together and put aside some time, we’re definitely hoping to record an album.

You recently parted ways with founding member and bassist, Benny. As things happen, when a new member comes in with different influences and style, it gets entwined into the sound… do you think there will be a slight shift for you as well?

Definitely. Benny’s talent and ideas were integral to the music we made together and we’ll never be able to recreate what he added to the sound; however we’re excited about the direction it’s going in now and are lucky to have some great musicians around to collaborate with on the new ideas.

You had a massive tour through UK & Europe mid-last year. How was that experience for you, and how much of an impact did it have on the band?

We had a freakin’ ball. Audiences over there really seemed to connect with our music in an honest way which being on the other side of the world, which made it really special for us. It definitely gave us a taste of what its like over there, enough to make us hungry to go back. We’re working on aiming our next few releases over there and to keep building an audience for when we next return.

‘In Your Fire’ is a classic clip, with such a late cheesy 70s vibe, roller-skating and all… who came up with the idea behind the clip, and did you keep the classy tracksuits you wore in coach-mode?

I was inspired after I saw a clip of the 70’s movie ‘Roller Boogie’. The opening sequence had it all, the cheesy outfits, synchronised skating, even the goober character who couldn’t skate to save his life. We were lined up with a film crew and were tossing around ideas and I threw that one up in the air. They came up with the idea of intertwining a love story which we all cringed at, but we realised how far we’d already gone down the cheese ball road, so we decided to go all in. I was adamant we needed a training montage (similar to that in the movie ‘Hot Rod’) , so we gave it a shot and that ended up being the most fun to shoot.

Being Adelaide locals, and having been in that scene for a while, who, in your opinion, should we be keeping an eye on now (apart from Wanderers, of course)?

Ahhh, where to start?! 
The Winter Gypsy are out there creating some beautiful music and getting out there doing some shows around the country, we always love playing with those guys. 
Alana Jagt is making some sweet sweet husky voiced, bluesy folk-esc stuff. I get Mia Dyson meets Laura Marling vibes. We’re yet to share the stage together though!
Cosmo Thundercat are some smooth bastards and you need them on your playlist.
Matt (our drummer’s) house mate ‘Timberwolf’ is definitely kicking some major goals, as I’m sure you’ve heard. We love that fella. 

Thanks guys… great to see you heading our way at last. Have an awesome show at Solbar on February 23 with The Kava Kings!