With the tenth anniversary of Parklife on the horizon, people are starting to stir with excitement. Fans, organisers and artists alike are all counting down the days until the festival kicks off across Australia. One band in particular are more than ready to storm our shores and light up the stage with their upbeat indie-dance style of music and clownery.
UK trio, The Wombats, are returning to Australia to give us a taste of their new upcoming album as well as bring back some of their old favourites. Tord Øverland-Knudsen, the Norwegian born bassist, tells me about the work they’ve begun on their sophomore effort and their excitement to take on Parklife.
“ We were in LA a couple of weeks back. We kind of started the album. We did three songs to test out a producer there, and it went really well. We’re probably going to go into the studio at the end of July in New York to do the rest of the album. It’s all very exciting”
Having taken a long break from touring to work on this new material, Tord and bandmates Matthew Murphy (vocals, guitar) and Dan Haggis (drums, vocals) are eager to get back to playing live and Australia was an easy choice for them to get back into the swing of touring.
“ We haven’t done a gig for a very long time. We just had a practice today
and I think we’re just excited and really really keen to show people our new songs.”
“Australia is probably one of our favorite places. You’ve got the rowdiness of the English and the calmness of…I don’t know, but people actually pay attention. It is kind of like our home away from home.”
Speaking with Tord, I get a real sense of love for the music they make and the way they present themselves. It often seems like The Wombats are behind one big joke. Their onstage shenanigans have gone as far as having a crowd surfing race between the band members during their first U.S. tour (Tord tells me he won through a disqualification). At the end of the day though, The Wombats are there to make sure everyone is having a good time. Be it themselves mucking about on stage, or the crowd losing it on the dance floor, there is a genuine care that everyone has the best possible time during their show.
“ We can’t wait to come back to our second home. Have fun with us and dance and let’s get pissed together. Last time we went to Australia, we kind of overdid it a bit. We had a bit too much lined up, so we had to cancel a few shows and we don’t want that to happen again. We want to make sure the shows we have for the festival are as good as possible.”
