If Ball Park Music's Splendour In The Grass performance contains an extended acoustic set, you will probably find guitarist Dean Hanson in the crowd watching Lizzo or Lewis Capaldi if they happen to be scheduled at the same time.
Hanson jokes about figuring out sneaky ways to enjoy the international headliners’ sets at this year's festival if their schedules clashed."Maybe I'll tell Sam [Cromack] it's a really great idea to do half the set acoustic or something, you know?" he laughs. "Like, really strip it back and then duck off in a golf buggy or something."
Realistically, though, the band don't yet have any concrete plans for what will be their fifth appearance at the Byron festival. "We've pretty much mentioned every idea under the sun, as you do," Dean says.
"We've talked about guests, we've talked about having as many friends and guests as we can on stage at the same time. . . we always joke about fireworks, but I think we might be in a tent, so that's not going to work."
Hanson says their third appearance at the festival, which was on the main stage at the current site, is a particularly special memory.
"We'd talked about it for a really long time, going, 'what's the most ridiculous, ambitious cover song that we can choose?'" he laughs, recalling their performance of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
"As a band we always try and challenge ourselves musically to tackle things that are 'untouchable' I guess – and you shouldn't be doing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' – but luckily we've got the perfect instrumentation for that song and it worked out really well."
Although it worked out well in the end, the performance still haunts the band to this day. "It has followed us around since then," Hanson says.
"Everywhere we go now, someone screams, 'Play 'Bohemian Rhapsody'! And I'm like, 'it's not that easy, we're going to have to go and re-learn it again!'"
Dean says growing up just down the road from Byron Bay, in Lismore, he used to see all of his friends head off to Splendour in their teens.
"I never went – I probably couldn't afford to go," he admits, "but I never even imagined that I would ever go to the festival, let alone play it five times."
The band's recent performances at Groovin The Moo have been their first as the full band line-up in almost a year, since bassist Jen Boyce had a baby and took maternity leave.
"That always makes you a little bit nervous, because there's no soundcheck at a festival – so you walk out there, plug all your stuff in and hope that everything works," Hanson laughs.
"I'm probably more nervous not so much about the performing side of it or how good we're going to be, I'm just more nervously going, 'Please don't let my pedalboard die during this', or 'Please let my guitar not fall apart', or something, but once you're past that it's pretty fun."
Hanson says it's difficult when there's a big, intense moment on stage at a festival to take a moment to soak it in and not get completely lost in it, while still trying to remember to perform.
"I've never really had this sense that people are there to see us, like they've chosen to come and stand there to watch our band specifically," he says.
"It's always felt like that, which I guess is good, because every time I walk out on stage I'm like, 'Okay, great, there just happens to be this large group of people here and it's our job to win them over'.
"It means you're not complacent about it. I don't know if it'll ever come to me, like, 'Oh wow, this is the moment we've truly made it'. I think I'm always just going to be like, 'Okay another one, now we've got to try and win these people over'."
Before Ball Park Music returns to the North Byron Parklands in July, the band will venture out on the road for their 'Get The F...ing Nerds Back On' tour, which kicks off this month.
With most of the shows already sold out, Hanson says the band has been pleasantly surprised by the reception the shows have received. "We did scale back the venues a little bit, more for the sake of wanting to perform in venues of that size," he says.
"We were kind of like, 'let's choose rooms that we love performing in; that when we get there we're excited about it, it looks great, and we can be closer to the crowd' – you don't have to trick people into thinking that it's grand and that it'll be great."
The band released 'Ball Park Music' in late 2020, which was quickly followed by last year's 'Weirder & Weirder' – an album written and recorded during the pandemic as a way of the band giving themselves a "job" to do, working in the studio from 9am until 5pm four days a week while the uncertainty of touring still loomed.
"I think the first single [off 'Ball Park Music'], 'Spark Up', was due to come out – I think it literally got its first play on triple j the day after lockdowns were announced – and it was like, 'well that's crap timing'," Hanson laughs.
"At that point everyone was thinking it would be two or three weeks of it then it would all be over, but as it panned out we had to make a decision: do we want to try to hide until things are back to normal? [Or] just keep rolling out with the music."
Their decision to continue releasing music was one that worked in their favour, Dean says, because there wasn't as much market saturation as many in the industry opted out of releasing with the uncertainty of touring and lockdowns.
Strangely, the content on 'Ball Park Music' also sounded like it was written for the pandemic, even though it was all written well and truly before the lockdowns.
"I think that helped somewhat with the success of that record, was that it seemed like the world just fell into a place where we wanted it, and everyone was applying the emotions they felt or the feelings they had," he explains.
"There's a particular song on that record called 'Bedroom' which is literally just about being stuck at home in your bedroom, which is ridiculous – written well and truly before COVID was even a thing – but you listen to that song and it's like, 'oh my god', it just encapsulates it perfectly."
Dean says the band felt like they couldn't have a break between the two albums for a number of reasons, but financially they weren't able to do any tours or book the volume of shows they would want to do off the back off 'Ball Park Music'.
"Luckily people still want to buy tickets and festivals still want to book us and the music has been received really well and Hottest 100 results have been great and all that," he says.
"But I'm definitely starting to feel like I don't want people to get sick of us now, because it feels like we've been on the pulse for probably four years by the time we have a break."
So, it's likely that is what they will do. . . perhaps after a European summer tour, which Hanson says is at least four years overdue. "And then we'll probably start working on a new record," he says.
"We haven't really worked on anything; obviously we're always writing and collecting ideas and stuff, but we haven't even really thought about where we want to take it or what that next step is, so once all the touring is done it's only natural that we'll want to move into that next creative phase."
Ball Park Music play Splendour In The Grass which takes place 21-23 July.
Splendour In The Grass 2023 Line-Up
LizzoFlume (AUS Exclusive: 10 Years Of Flume)
Mumford & Sons (AUS Exclusive)
Lewis Capaldi
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Hilltop Hoods
J Balvin
Sam Fender
Idles
Little Simz
Slowthai
Tove Lo
100 Gecs (AUS Exclusive)
Arlo Parks
Ball Park Music
Iann Dior
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
070 Shake
Pnau
Ruel
Loyle Carner
Benee
Marlon Williams
Rainbow Kitten Surprise
Hooligan Hefs
Peach PRC
Palace
Dune Rats
Tkay Maidza
Noah Cyrus
Skegss
Sudan Archives
Cub Sport
Meg Mac
X Club.
Claire Rosinkranz
Jack River
The Smith Street Band
Lastlings
Jeremy Zucker
Young Franco
Sly Withers
May-A
The Vanns
Telenova
Vallis Alps
Jamesjamesjames
Kaycyy
Rvg
Teenage Dads
Balming Tiger
Automatic
Harvey Sutherland
Gali
Del Water Gap
Royel Otis
Shag Rock
Big Wett
Mia Wray
Memphis Lk
Gold Fang
Milku
Sumner
Forest Claudette
Full Flower Moon Band
William Crighton
Hellcat Speedracer
Triple J Unearthed Winners
Plus Mix Up DJs
Tseba
Crybaby
Latifa Tee
Foura
CaucasianOpportunities
Luen
Mowgli
Dj Macaroni
Crescendoll
Ball Park Music 2023 Tour Dates
Sun 7 May - Freo.Social (Fremantle)* sold outSat 13 May - Odeon Theatre (Hobart)
Thu 18 May - Princess Theatre (Brisbane)* sold out
Fri 19 May - Princess Theatre (Brisbane)* sold out
Sat 20 May - Princess Theatre (Brisbane)* sold out
Sun 21 May - Princess Theatre (Brisbane)
Fri 26 May - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)* sold out
Fri 2 Jun - Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)* sold out
Sat 3 Jun - Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)* sold out
Sat 19 Aug - Hindley Street Music Hall (Adelaide)
