After releasing a brand-new single and completing their biggest national tour to date earlier this year, it’s all part of the process for WA indie rockers Great Gable.
The Perth-based band combine a wide range of influences to bring a subtle twist on the alternative-indie sound. “Our influences vary, but we do stay close to Arctic Monkeys, Andy Shauf, The Sleepy Jackson. But mainly the Brit-pop sort of stuff,” vocalist Alex Whiteman says.
“My housemate is Jack McEwan from Psychedelic Porn Crumpets; it’s actually his birthday today, but he and I listen to The Beatles [all the time] pretty much.”
Great Gable are set to headline Badlands Bar's third birthday celebrations in early August; the local live music venue has enjoyed another solid year that’s seen some incredible performances from local, national and international legends.
Great Gable will be joined by hip hop and soul queen Hyclass, recent Unearthed feature artist Death By Denim, ethereal quartet Tether and the art-rock of Didion’s Bible. “A few of our mates are on the line-up, so we’re absolutely stoked for it.” Alex says.
This will be their final Perth show before they head east to record their debut album. “We are heading to Byron Bay during October to record with Alex Henriksson, who’s done a lot of writing and recording with Matt Corby. So at the moment, we’re just basically writing as much as we can for it while playing the odd show.
“We should be there for about 25 days at The Music Farm; the place is meant to be mental – we’ve never been over there before. We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to write as many songs as possible, but we can’t wait to get over there.”
Now regular coast-to-coast travellers, it was not too long ago when Great Gable used their passports to take New Zealand by storm. “It’s beautiful over there,” Alex says.
“We sold out all the shows, but we couldn’t believe that we were landing in another country to actually perform. When our manager told us about going over to New Zealand, we thought, 'right, back at the bottom again', which is what you kind of expect. But it was just fun show after fun show.
“It’s like here; from town to town it sort of changes. We went to a couple of university towns and they’re pretty rowdy, and they try and get everyone involved. But every place that gets a bit crazy you got to find a way to get control; they love bands like Skegss and they can get pretty full-on, but it’s all in good spirit.
“We love hearing the crowd sing some of the songs; the crowds over there weren’t just people coming to check us out, they were full-on fans who knew the songs, the words, better than I did, which I guess isn’t hard. The Kiwis are so sweet, the country's beautiful and just driving around the place was unreal.”
