Getting to know Ocean Alley

Ocean Alley are releasing their second album, Chiaroscuro, soon. We asked them to tell us about themselves:

We are… a mixed bag of vegetables grown in the lush soils of Newport, NSW. Our favourite thing to do is to get watered down every day at the local Bowlo and sun ourselves on the manicured greens. We’ve made best friends with Cement and worst friends with Jason but you know, it goes alright. And what ever happened to Mulligan?

“Confidence” is… a feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities. Six beers. Tequila.

“Chiaroscuro” is… a tricky one to pronounce, but that’s your problem. It’s also an art technique using the treatment of light and shade, which we thought summed up the themes we explored over the entire record.

Home is… a 60’s style joint right in the heart of Newport. It has servo views, overlooks BWS, roaches and invites constant wafting traffic sounds and scents that pass through the air. Home is all we can afford.

We spend too much time… floating around in the ocean. On a boat, fishing, but most of the time not catching much. On a surfboard, not catching much either. Back on dry land we probably spend too much time drinking like fish. So pretty much, we spend too much time wasting our time.

We’ve never… rolled a good cigi, been good mates, got barreled, caught any decent fish, missed an important flight, forgot where we parked the car, had a guitar stolen, smashed a guitar, smashed a car, lost a drummer, slept in a bush, slept under the car or broke into a bar.

It might surprise people to learn that… Angus is David’s boss, and David is Angus’s animal. That David is actually Mitch, and the both of them are animals on the piss. Yep.

…

Chiaroscuro is out now. Get it here.

Interview by Bobby Townsend.