A CONVERSATION WITH... THE TULLAMARINES
At The Great Escape, not-so-hidden-rocker-gems The Tullamarines open the door on their band, their vulnerabilities, and their music.
Photo by Jack Fenby
Hey, we’re The Tullamarines. We have Lucinda, who plays bass and sings. There are Angus and Benny who sing and play guitar. And there’s Josh, who plays drums.
Let’s say someone hasn’t heard your music yet, how would you guys describe your music?
Anxiety-ridden, sun-kissed pop. That’s pretty much it.
That's a pretty good tagline right there. Do you guys find that more cathartic or more vulnerable to talk about your anxieties?
It’s really cathartic to write about it together. I feel like these days, we're a little bit more open with each other. When we first started writing music together, it was a way we would open up to each other like through writing the songs together. It’s a catalyst for having conversations about things that are going on in our lives sometimes. Playing it live makes it easier to express it, especially since we see other people who are feeling the same way. It's reassuring that people are connecting to this because it means that you're not a loser.
That’s one really helpful part of these live shows and sharing your music. Is there any topic that you guys haven't talked about yet in your music that you want to?
We have talked about it, I think in one song, but not so much in any others. It’s about how we observe the world at the moment. Because all of our stuff is very introspective and we look in on what's going on in our own lives a lot, but not so much looking out. We have the space to do that, for sure. There's a balance of introverted and introspective, and the external stuff. One of the songs we’re writing, it’s political, but not as angsty. We’re trying to do the same thing that we normally do with political ideas, in a way that it's still fun and silly to dance to.
That is a hard balance to strike. It's understandable to look at the world and be angry, but you guys create songs that people can still dance and sing-a-long to. Speaking of performing, we're here at Great Escape. How are you feeling? Any bands you’re excited to see?
This is our first time in Brighton and our first Great Escape, so we’re really excited to see all our friends from Australia play in Brighton. It was the same thing when we played in America. It's so exciting to see your mates doing cool stuff like this. We want to see people like Tom A Smith, Girl Group, and Truthpaste for sure.
In Australia we have a festival like this called Bigsound, and that's all Australian artists, so you know everyone and who to go see. But here, we don't know everyone. It’s nice to put our ears to the ground and see what happens and who we discover.
That's the beauty of this festival, honestly. You can walk anywhere, you'll meet somebody new, you'll see a new band, and you'll just have a great time. Speaking of finding music, is there any song in particular from your discography you want more people to pay attention to?
There are a few from us. ‘Gimme Love’ is an underrated banger because it's so fun to play. It’s a little bit out of the pocket that most other songs on the EP sit in. It’s one of the ones when we play live where you can tell that people get really into it. ‘Lying’ is a favourite because it’s come a long way since the demo. When we play it live, sometimes we start it and it feels as if we've just locked in a bit and it feels really good. Especially when we play at a show where everyone knows who we are, it's really fun.
What's something you guys are really proud of that you've done so far in your musical careers?
It really feels like every month we do something that we never thought we’d be able to do, so we have a long list of achievements that are shocking us. Like coming to the UK, as some of us haven’t ever left Australia before. We’re going to Europe too, and we went to SXSW in America, which was really cool. We got into The Hottest 100 in the Triple J Countdown, at 97, so we all got matching tattoos to celebrate. And then we’re heading out on tour this summer with one of our favourite bands, The Jungle Giants. They're going to be some of the biggest and most insane shows we've played. Getting that offer and announcing it this year was crazy. Just a few days ago, we were sitting in a really old pub in Hastings. It was built in 1692 apparently. And that was our first day to really settle in the UK, and we all had this moment of ‘What are we doing here? How did our music bring us here?’