"Would you take a look at that!" While most bands take their Zoom calls in bedrooms or offices, Babe Rainbow frontman Angus Dowling is out wandering by the beach in Fingal Bay, on the north coast of New South Wales.
It's fitting on two accounts. The first, of course, is that it fits Babe Rainbow's free-spirited aesthetic down to a T: cloudless, pristine scenery, with only the finest greenery.The second is that said Zoom call is being held to discuss the upcoming Great Southern Nights concert series, which is intended to boost attention to venues in both cities and regional centres across NSW throughout the month of March and into April.
Just like you can see beauty in the State's flora and fauna, so too can you see it in its pubs, clubs and venues with a host of exceptional live bands from a plethora of genres. "It's so sick," enthuses Dowling about the series – which will see him return to his one-time home of Sydney with the band to perform at Bondi's Beach Road Hotel.
"Not to take away anything from the big festivals or the club shows in the city, but I've been trying so hard to get smaller, groovier and more mellow shows going with the band – and a lot of this Great Southern Nights thing seems to really get that.
"I grew up in Rainbow Bay, and there weren't many bands around then. You'd go to Byron [Bay], and I'll never forget seeing an early Pond gig at the Great Northern – it was just crazy. I'll take gigs like that anytime."
Across their decade as a band, Babe Rainbow have counted themselves fortunate enough to have had many a great southern night across gigs in New South Wales.
Dowling is flush with highlights fresh in his mind when queried about some of his personal favourite gigs within state lines. "I remember playing a festival down in Bellingen on some girl's property," he says – with the kind of nonchalance that wholly belies the surreal experience he's describing.
"There was a big creek full of people swimming while we played, and everyone was partying hard. We'd never been down there before, but now we go all the time.
"You've also got places like Anita's Theatre in Thirroul, which is just insane to look at, and places like the Marlin Hotel in Ulladulla. Things get nasty at the Marlin! The gig is great, but the whole time you're also waiting to hit the smokers' area out the back. You just know you're gonna find some guy drinking bourbon and sugarcane champagne."
When Dowling and co. return to the big smoke as part of Great Southern Nights, they'll be previewing new material from their forthcoming seventh studio album: The vividly-titled 'Slipper Imp And Shakaerator'.
In fact, the Beach Road Hotel gig will take place exactly one week out from its release (4 April). Following a return to the road in support of their last album, 2022's 'The Organic Band', the psychedelic quartet found inspiration striking them across the globe.
"You can be driving on the wrong side of the road in America, listening to the Steve Miller Band, or cruising down to Wollongong while listening to Hockey Dad," Dowling says. "You'll be feeling it, and you get it out when you're jamming in soundcheck – and that might go for hours. It's easily the most songwriting we've ever done on tour."
Dowling describes the new album as "jellyfishy" and "landscapey". Yes, he's well aware that these are technically not real words. Still, just one listen to 'Slipper Imp' ensures he's talking sense. Its songs waft and float, akin to that of a jellyfish's movement, and they also widen out and expand horizontally in a manner befitting of a landscape.
Babe Rainbow aren't alone on their latest expedition, either. They're joined by two guest vocalists in the fold: Their new friend, Parisian singer-songwriter Camille Jansen, and one of the band's oldest friends in King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard frontman Stu Mackenzie.
The former came about through happenstance, having spent some time hanging out at the Diamond brothers' house – that's Skylar and Davis, sons of the Beastie Boys' Mike D. When Jansen entered the band's orbit, they knew they wanted her as part of their greater system.
Soon, she was opening for them on a run of North American shows. "Every night, either before soundcheck or after, we'd get a little mic set up in whatever hotel we were staying at," Dowling recalls.
"It was this very on-the-fly setup on the road, and we just had this gut feeling it was all gonna be sweet. She's got such a cool, low vocal – it was hard to not keep chucking it on the record."
As for Mackenzie, the band's bromance with King Gizz dates back roughly a decade – with the frontman having worked behind the boards on several Babe Rainbow releases. This album, however, sees him providing guest verses for the first time – specifically on the tracks 'When The Milk Flows' and 'Mt. Dub'.
"I'd taken them both as far as I could," Dowling admits. "I basically dared Stu to put down some vocals on them, but it was all done so in jest. He completely went for it! He added in all this cool vocoder and these cool effects, none of which I anticipated at all. The email with the audio files linked came with a note: 'One thing you gotta know is that I'm always gonna go hectic.'"
The connection with King Gizz continues into 'Slipper Imp''s impending release: It's coming out on P(doom), the freshly-minted label owned and run by the prolific sextet. Word to the wise, though, you might be reading it wrong.
"Grace Cummings came to play at the Eltham Hotel, where I work, the other weekend," notes Dowling. "She was the one that told me it's not actually pronounced 'pee doom'. It's 'puh-doom'!" Dowling laughs. "She [Cummings] told me to tell everyone to get it right, so we can all stop f...ing it! Spread the word!"
Babe Rainbow play Beach Road Hotel (Sydney) as part of Great Southern Nights on 28 March. 'Slipper Imp And Shakerator' is released 4 April.
Babe Rainbow 2025 Tour Dates
Thu 20 Mar - Crown & Anchor Hotel (Adelaide)Fri 21 Mar - Crown & Anchor Hotel (Adelaide)
Sat 22 Mar - Howler (Melbourne)
Sun 23 Mar - The Curtin (Melbourne)
Thu 27 Mar - King St Bandroom (Newcastle)
Fri 28 Mar - Great Southern Nights @ Beach Road Hotel (Sydney)
Sat 29 Mar - Avalon RSL (Sydney)
Sun 30 Mar - Servo Food Truck Bar (Wollongong)
Fri 4 Apr - Hotel Brunswick (Northern Rivers)
Sat 5 Apr - Imperial Hotel (Sunshine Coast)
Sun 6 Apr - Lefty's Music Hall (Brisbane)
