Aussie rockers Ocean Alley play headline date in Bexhill

Nic Blom (bass) recalls: “We were in the UK at the start of last year and a few guys on the tour bus got Covid but in the UK they didn't really seem to mind too much about that. And we had a great time. We have always loved playing in the UK. We find a pretty decent following come along and see us in the UK, not just shows packed out with Australian expats! But Australians have always loved travelling.”

Ocean Alley are one of Australia’s most exciting musical exports. Their latest album Low Altitude Living debuted at number three on the ARIA charts, number one on ARIA Vinyl and number five on the New Zealand album chart and had had more than 15 million global streams. Last year alone saw the band perform 65 shows around the world and sell a cumulative 75,000-plus tickets across their headline shows.

Nic said: “I just love the crowds in England and the scenery and everything like that. And the crowds in the UK I would definitely compare with the Australian crowds. They're pretty rowdy! I would definitely say they are on a par but for us it's just a really nice change of life and change of scenery and especially going down to Bexhill. We're a coastal band and we just love the coast.

“The band has been going about 12 years and we released our first EP ten years ago. We started out from scratch and some of us didn't even know how to play our instruments. We learned a lot on YouTube and guitar lessons and we just never thought that it would get to this stage. Most of us were at school together and we've got two brothers in the band and it was just through mutual friends. We just realised that we just kind of liked the same music. We were playing old blues covers then. The music is now a bit more rocky, but subtle rock. I would just say it's a crazy alternative rock. We are all songwriters, to be honest. On the last record Baden (Donegal, vocals, guitar) did a lot of the writing. He would come up with chord progressions and because he is the singer he was singing over them. It was easy to work like that but we all do some of the writing. Baden tends to write about love experiences. His lyrics are more catered to himself but they're very relatable in that sense. His love songs pull at the heartstrings.”

The last album was written in a different way to usual because of the pandemic: “Usually our writing comes out of jams and things that just sound cool and are just spontaneously happening in the studio: "Because of Covid we couldn't really get together and do jam sessions so in the event it was all just ideas that we had and we did them as demos on laptops which is not something we had ever really done before. It was the first time we’ve done it but it was good to learn how to do it and it was good to be able to do something.”

The band is made up of Baden Donegal (vocals, guitar), Angus Goodwin (lead guitar), Lach Galbraith (keyboard, vocals), Mitch Galbraith (guitar), Nic Blom (bass) and Tom O'Brien (drums).