An indie force who've been gathering some series momentum throughout 2022, Old Mervs are the duo of Dave House and Henry Carrington-Jones, and they seriously deserve your sonic attention.
Mates since their high school days in regional Western Australia, Old Mervs recently knocked the socks off industry observers and a stack of new fans at BIGSOUND (they signed a management deal with Sidequest, who also manage Sly Withers) with their mellow, grungy surf rock crossed with breezy, chilled indie pop melodies.Add a stack of sold-out gigs on their just completed national tour (Melbourne x2 shows, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth) and Old Mervs are primed to launch their debut EP, 'Get Better'.
"The EP explores a few things, but the main one is self reflection," Henry says of 'Get Better' which dropped last week.
"The whole theme is quite varying, but we chose 'Get Better' as the title because it can be interpreted in a few ways, with it having a double meaning.
"A big one for us is it being a step up in songwriting and production, so in a basic sense getting better, but then also mentally in a self reflection form trying to 'get better'.
"Interpret it how you will but this is why we chose it as a title track."
The lads worked with Dave Parkin (Spacey Jane, Tired Lion) at Blackbird Sound Studio in Perth, crafting the EP from a multitude of demos they'd collected during their formative years.
"We went with Parko at Blackbird, because we had heard his past work and the detail in the production and mixing," shares Henry.
"In the past we had difficulties songwriting in the form of a two piece; we spent two days doing scratch tracks and tweaking the songs in the studio and this added that last 10 per cent we were really chasing previously."
Here, the pair reflect on their recent run of sold-out shows.
1: Playing two sold-out Melbourne shows to kick off the tour was definitely a huge one for us. They were the first shows we'd ever sold out over east and it was so much fun. We'll definitely remember those ones for a long time. The crowd was epic too and it was sick to meet so many good people.
2: At one point on the run, we had a four-day break on the Sunshine Coast in a real nice apartment. We had amazing weather and it was so good to just chill out and catch up with friends while resting up for the shows ahead. Such a good spot, very excited to go back there.
3: Gold Coast was definitely one of the loudest crowds that we had. They were singing some of our new songs louder than we had ever heard before which was sick. It's always hard playing new music to new crowds, but Gold Coast ate it up and made it easy.
4: Having 800 people at The Rechabite in Perth is something that we will forever reminisce about. They were such a great crowd as well. Great energy, loud singing voices and nice vibes all 'round. Huge amount of love for the Perth crew.
5: Playing our newest single (at the time) 'Be There' every night was something that we frothed! A few people who knew it already sang it loud and got rowdy, which was wild considering it was so fresh off the press. That cool little clap or yell when they first realise it's that song is such a cool feeling.
