With a sound fans of The Black Keys, Shakey Graves and Alabama Shakes will lean into hard, last month Racing Birds (the songwriting duo of Sydneysiders Jeremy Strother and Bobbie Lee Stamper) released their debut single 'Rarely Never Loaded'.
Today they up the ante by dropping their very first EP project titled 'Lonesome Blue', which captures visions of yesteryear, '70s sunsets, Southern California mystic and fading tail lights.Recorded in their garage studio, capturing blood, sweat and homegrown essence of rootsy, bluesy rock & roll you'll be hand-clapping, foot-stomping your way to turn the dial to 11.
"I think we were still in Bob's garage when we started working on 'Rarely Never Loaded'," shares Jeremy.
"I was playing back a voice memo of the writing session and I heard Bob's swampy lead guitar hook that eventually became the biggest part of the song.
"Once we got our heads around that it all came together pretty quickly. Shakers, tambourines, kick drums, hand claps etc.
"I was reading about the Hells Angels in the '70s and looking at some old photographs while I was finishing off the lyrics for the song.
"There was a particular photo that I found of a girl waving her hand around with a cigarette that inspired the character in the song."
Adds Bobbie: "Everything was done with just the two of us, a couple guitars, a laptop and whatever we could find around the garage to bang on.
"I didn't have a proper studio at the time so we set up in the front half of my garage, and there was a sheet hung up to hide the lawnmower.
"You could see daylight coming in through cracks in the walls, there were possums walking around in the rafters at night, and it was either boiling hot or freezing cold depending on the weather.
"But we used that DIY feeling to give the record a bit of edge and energy. I tried not to use many samples or edit the takes much."
Continuing the theme of sunsets, Racing Birds share their ultimate playlist of sunset bangers.
