Bad//Dreems have been kicking around Australian music for over a decade, and in that time have learnt a lot about themselves and society at large.
The band have channeled this into their latest album release 'HOO HA!', and have been touring around the country with an upcoming appearance at Harvest Rock in their home town in Adelaide.Ben Marwe – lead singer and guitarist – joins the call from Kaurna Land (Adelaide), where the band formed in 2011. Marwe started the band with chief songwriter Alex Cameron, having met at a local football club.
It is the good and the bad of such an environment they grew up around, that informs a lot of the themes across their recording output.
"There are some things that you need to unlearn," Ben says discussing the idea of being a product of the places that you grow up around, "but there are also really good things about those places, in terms of how it brings communities together."
The idea of bringing community together is one that Marwe has been thinking as he muses on this and draws parallels between sports and music.
"Music is a very powerful medium. You look at how, on Saturday night, a game of soccer can bring an entire nation together. I feel the same way about music; when there are important moments in history when we need to be on the same page and I feel like we're at one of those crossroads at the moment.
"So in terms of our position in all of that, we're not a very big band, while we're not a small band either. We do have some sort of platform, so we take that side of things very seriously.
"We also love to have a joke, to try and be funny and create witty songs but our position is pretty staunch on that side of things.
"It's really important not to alienate people and tell them that their belief system is wrong or what they believe and how they conduct themselves as a person is incorrect, because everybody's story is different.
"But it's also we're in the process of trying to educate ourselves on how to be better humans as well. We're not pointing the finger and trying to tell people what to do."
'Jack' is a moment on their fourth album, 'HOO HA!', where the staunch side of the band is expounded, with buzzsaw guitars featured behind fiery and determined vocals that tell the listener: "60,000 years, gotta give it back."
It exposes the lack of Aboriginal history that is taught to mainstream Australia, and the need for truth telling.
Though this might feel like a line in the sand protest song, Marwe reflects. "I think it's always been something that we've been interested in and tried to sing about, but potentially the messaging was lost, because it wasn't as clear cut.
"So with a song like 'Jack', Alex wrote that song, and obviously, you can't really mistake anything that he's written in that song, it can't really be perceived as anything other than what it actually says.
"It was written two years ago. It's something where we sing about what we see, and we see a very serious issue, which is only of late starting to be addressed on a national level.
"It seems very simple to us, but unfortunately the politicking of everything around it makes it really murky and confusing for people. It is something that we do our best to convey good messages, or what we perceive to be good things to create any sort of social change."
Last year, in the lead up to the release of 'Jack' as a single, Bad//Dreems set on a tour of remote communities in Northern Territory with Arnhem Land band Black Rock Band. An experience that strengthened their passion for issues explored in 'Jack' and other songs on 'HOO HA!'.
The tour followed in the footsteps of a famed tour that Midnight Oil and Warumpi Band took part in the late 1980s.
Marwe describes the tour as "a very unique opportunity that not a lot of people get to experience some of these communities are closed. It's an extreme privilege to be able to see that side of Australia.
"You hear a lot about it, I guess you can look it up on the internet but the relationship that those communities have with music, which is very important. You know, people like Black Rock Band, or more recently Wildfire Manwurrk or Ripple Effect.
"The spirit of the bush band is something that you can't quite explain, that was something that we were able to be a part of, and accepted into the communities. And it was just a very special thing to do in our musical careers.
"We have a lot to thank Jack Parsons from The Pretty Littles who steered the ship on that.
"I think it's important that people who are on the east coast. . . get to see that side of Australia. It might change people's minds on how they perceive everything that's going on with the referendum and the divide that seems to be there at the moment."
Turning to upcoming shows, Bad//Dreems are currently touring the UK/ Europe before their appearance at Harvest Rock in their home town of Adelaide, something that Marwe is very much looking forward to.
"I went last year [to Harvest Rock], I wasn't playing obviously. . . I'm looking forward to playing a big festival and then I can just catch an Uber home.
"It's starting to build into something quite unique and special that festival. It has something to it with the line-up, the bands that they have booked, it's very cool.
"It's really well laid out, easy to get around. Adelaide would be an interesting place to have to navigate trying to put on those types of festivals.
"But it seems to have really struck a chord because people do have really good music taste here, it just can sometimes be a little difficult to get them out of bed and put them in front of the stage, and I totally understand. This one seems to be striking a good note for people."
Bad//Dreems join the 2023 line-up at Harvest Rock music festival at Rymill and King Rodney Parks (Adelaide) 28-29 October.
Harvest Rock 2023 Line-up
Bad//DreemsBaker Boy
Beck (Australian exclusive)
Bright Eyes
Built To Spill
Chet Faker
Chromeo
Flight Facilities (Decades DJ set)
Jamiroquai (Australian exclusive)
Julia Jacklin
Ladyhawke
Nile Rodgers & Chic
Ocean Alley
Paul Kelly
Sam Barber
Santigold
Sparks
The Lemon Twigs
The Rolling Stone Revue
Thelma Plum
Vera Blue
Warpaint
• with more to be announced
