Hey Geronimo’s sophomore EP has solidified the band’s status as one of the quirkiest retro rock & roll acts in the country.
The Brisbane quintet released 'Erring On The Side Of Awesome' last November, and they've since been commended for tinkering with styles foreign to their cheeky brand of '60s-influenced indie pop. Their latest single, 'The Lazer Gun Show', sounds a little like if The Beach Boys had written the theme song for a B-grade sci-fi flick. “The band is now a fair bit different than it was when the first EP came out,” bassist Bill Bingley explains.
“We've got two different members; I actually wasn't on the first EP and we had a different keyboard player. Our style naturally changed because of that. It's also more stylistically broad. It's now not just acoustic upbeat strumming; we've now got vocal harmonies and stuff like that.”
Hey Geronimo toured India and played at the NH7 Weekender Festival in support of its release – an event which the band describes as the Indian equivalent to The Big Day Out, but with more stray dogs. But it seems their time spent abroad also wielded some unique creative opportunities.
“There were lots of highlights, but my personal highlight was when we went to the studio for a few days with some Indian musicians and some of the other Australian bands we were touring with. We just made music and that was the point of the entire two days.”
The band plans on including one of the new tracks, which Bill says was co-written with a Bollywood musician, on their long-awaited debut LP. “There's probably going to be a few songs from our first few EPs and then there's going to be some new songs … There are a few new songs which we've gone out of our way to write to fit in with our earlier stuff, but there's also a few ballads – some of which we've already played live.
“We've definitely broadened our palettes. Like, the one we wrote in India is a little bit darker and has almost Deep Sea Arcade kinda riffs. I'm keen to see how that turns out. It's going to be an interesting album when it's all finished.”
Hey Geronimo plays the Bleach Festival Opening Party at the Soundlounge, Gold Coast, Friday March 7.
