When Ball Park Music returned to the live arena, it was not something they did by halves.
The beloved Brisbane band took to the stage at The Triffid for not one, not two, but thirteen shows across a week in October 2020.It was a marathon effort from a band who had already leapt through several pandemic-shaped hoops in order to make their self-titled album from that year a possibility – and, upon its completion, it made the five-piece take stock of just how valuable this whole thing really is to them.
"There's been a lot of mixed experiences through this whole thing," Sam Cromack – the band's lead singer, lead guitarist and founding member – says.
"Doing those shows at the Triff was a transformative one – it almost felt like a revelation. Even just from a physical perspective, playing 13 shows in 7 days is absolutely outrageous. At the end of it. . . yes, I was f...ed, but we survived.
"I felt like I broke some kind of barrier in my mind – I had a lot of anxiety around my vocals and my health on tour, and now I'm going into everything with a far more relaxed attitude. Whatever happens, we'll get through it."
It's this refreshed perspective that ultimately lead to Cromack and his bandmates quickly resuming work on new material, which has now culminated in their forthcoming sixth studio album, 'Weirder & Weirder'.
Set for release in June, the album was indeed forged out of being left with little else to do in the wake of the pandemic.
That being said, Sam doesn't want it to be thought of as their "COVID album", a premise that's already been done to death after two years. "I don't think any of us anticipated jumping back into making an album so soon," he says.
"Even though we normally put out an album every two years, we'd been through so much in order to get the last album out.
"What had happened was Jen [Boyce, bassist/ backing vocalist] came back to Queensland – she'd been living in New South Wales, and she rushed up here to play some shows with us while the borders were back open.
"By the time we'd done the shows, they'd closed again – so we all just thought, why not make an album? There were no pressures, no deadlines to meet, no time constraints – we just spent most of 2021 chipping away at it.
"I'd say it's the longest time we've spent in the studio together since [fourth album, 2016's] 'Every Night The Same Dream'. It felt great to work like that, and we think what we've put together is so good."
Ball Park Music's recent live shows had been largely confined to the big smoke – be that their home town of Brisbane, over to Melbourne to play with Paul Kelly or up to Sydney for a rainy night in The Domain.
That changed a few weeks ago when the band were brought in to play Bathurst as part of New South Wales Great Southern Nights initiative.
Cromack was overjoyed to see the reaction the band got when they played there – not only given the time proximity between regional dates, but also given their mixed-bag relationship with performing off the beaten track over the years.
"I've really learned to have no expectations with regional touring," he admits.
"We've done quite a lot in our time, and it is hit or miss. You can have some absolutely dreadful shows where you don't get good numbers, and sometimes it's like they're out of practice as an audience.
"It can result in them being either really shy or really extremely, overbearing.
"In contrast to that, though, we've had so many, like really memorable shows in regional towns where you're going in with no expectations.
"The venue feels really cozy, you're shown really great hospitality, and there seems to be genuine excitement in the town that you're even there.
"It reconnects us with our club show days, and it naturally feels a bit more intimate and definitely a bit more rock & roll."
It will be curious, then, to see what kind of environment awaits Ball Park Music when they arrive in Canungra – a small town in Queensland's Scenic Rim – as part of The Long Sunset festival at the end of the month.
It will mark the band's first time appearing in the town, which means the band are still accumulating new and interesting experiences over a decade into their career – something very few acts can find themselves in a position of saying with any degree of honesty.
"I've only stopped there a couple of times on drives," Cromack says of Canungra. "It's not really a very big place – I don't even know if there would even be a designated venue there. This is obviously getting set up for an outdoor festival.
"We haven't really even played in that region. It's so pretty through there, though – really green, really rainforest-y and mountainous, with plenty of beautiful sunsets.
"Every time I ever drive through there with my wife, we're like, 'god damn, let's go on realestate.com and daydream about what we will never afford around here'," Cromack laughs, before cheerfully concluding, "I'm genuinely looking forward to this one."
Ball Park Music join Angus & Julia Stone, Babe Rainbow and others at The Long Sunset at Elysian Fields in Canungra (Queensland) 30 April. 'Weirder & Weirder' will be released 3 June.
Ball Park Music 2022 Tour Dates
Fri 3 Jun - The Fortitude Music Hall (Brisbane)Sat 4 Jun - NightQuarter (Sunshine Coast)
Sat 11 Jun - Astor (Perth)
Thu 16 Jun - UOW Unibar (Wollongong)
Fri 17 Jun - Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)
Sat 18 Jun - Bar On The Hill (Newcastle)
Fri 24 Jun - Hobart Uni Bar
Fri 1 Jul - Discovery (Darwin)
Sat 2 Jul - Tanks Art Centre (Cairns)
Sat 9 Jul - UC Refectory (Canberra)
Sat 16 Jul - Forum Melbourne* sold out
Sun 17 Jul - Forum Melbourne* new show
Fri 22 Jul - Spin Off Festival (Adelaide)
