The SoundLounge

The Boat People

Aus indie pop maestros The Boat People made a foray onto the world stage in 2008 to a hailstorm of critical acclaim for their live shows and sophomore album Chandeliers (see reviews on following pages).

They played The Great Escape UK, CMJ Music Marathon NYC, toured the UK twice, shows in LA including the Viper Room, Spaceland and a live set on Morning Becomes Eclectic KCRW, won a CMJ grand prize, and gained rotation at over 20 radio stations across the US. In 2009 they return to the US for their debut appearance at SXSW and further touring.

Dan Parsons

Dan Parsons’ debut album is less a case of boy meets girl but rather boy meets world. It's a snapshot of someone who after spending his high school years emulating seventies heroes on a reel to reel eight track, leaves his bedroom and begins tumbling through one blinding, visceral experience after another.

The album’s title track, for example, is about a girl but it's also about a moment taken by surprise, that doesn't know whether or not it will be a one night stand or something more - the freedom, fear and elation that comes with giving someone else the power to choose your fate.

What Parsons could grab hold of and pin down from experiences such as this, and his first brushes with the Brisbane music scene after growing up in country Queensland, inspired a drastic change to the primarily acoustic sounds that were on his 2008 mini-album Old Brown Shoe.

These new experiences convinced him to, as he puts it "let go of the wheel" to some degree and he brought good friend James O'Brien (The Boat People) on board along with producer John Castle (Washington, The Boat People) to record the album. He was left with an album split in two in terms of material and, in what would prove to be a cathartic experience, he jettisoned his older material in favour of new. What wasn't lost with his acoustic tunes was the sense of someone singing from the heart.

The Bell Divers

he Bell Divers formed in London in 2005 by Clinton Toghill (guitar/ vocals) and Matthew Lobb (guitar) although the full line-up wasn’t established until the two rturned to Brisbane in late 2006 adding Kyle Smith (bass), Donald Mackay (drums) and Melanie Smart (keys)

Around Easter 2007, we went to Sydney and recorded our first album June July. Recorded over five days at Megaphon studios Sydney, June July is concise in its arrangements and builds primarily on The Bell Divers’ crisp live performances without overcomplicating the simply structured songs. Jason Walker (ex-Youth Group, Last Drinks) was brought in to play pedal steel on White Trash Lover and the album’s closer, As Bad As We Can Be.