With a new album in the works, Melbourne psychedelic-folk rockers Immigrant Union are eagerly awaiting the Dashville Skyline festival in the Hunter Valley.
“We can't wait for Dashville Skyline,” guitarist/vocalist Bob Harrow says. “We've heard really cool things about it. It's always really fun playing festivals, especially ones we haven't been to before; it's fun to check out what's going on.
“We'll be playing a lot off the new album and we'll play some old songs as well, but by that point we'll be playing a good amount of the new album.”
Immigrant Union released their last album 'Anyway' in 2015 and are close to finalising their third record 'Judas', which they hope to release this year.
Bob says the new album continues the progression they've made as a band over the past few years. “We're actually right in the final stage,” he says. “We've got one final mixing thing to take care of, but other than that it's mixed and we're about 99 per cent of the way there. It's different again; our first two albums were different to each other and this one is different again.”
Many of the changes for Immigrant Union arose from the departure of bandmate Courtney Barnett, who has set out on her own to great success taking with her Immigrant Union's then bassist and drummer. “The second album ['Anyway'] is when we had Courtney Barnett in the band and her bass player and drummer, which were our bass player and drummer. Since then we've got another bass player and drummer, so we've been playing with them for two or three years now and I think it's the longest formation of the group as it is now. We've been together the longest out of the amount of time the band's been together. I think it might be our best one yet.
“Courtney leaving wasn't too stressful because prior to them Union's had maybe 16 members all up over the course of the time… there's always been the three core members, so we've been able to work around it quite well. I play electric [guitar] now, I don't play acoustic anymore, so the sound's a bit more electric and it feels really cohesive at the moment, which is really good.”
Immigrant Union have been on the road recently supporting Wolfmother on their 'Gypsy Caravan' tour. Bob says the tour was good preparation for Dashville as well as the end of the year when Immigrant Union plan to hit the road to tour the forthcoming 'Judas' album. “We did a whole bunch of shows with Wolfmother that were really fun,” he says.
“It was really good to be back on the road playing consistently night after night, which always helps with your live show. It gets you nice and tight. We played a bunch of stuff off the new album, which we haven't played live before and that was really good.
“In the last half of the year we're releasing the album,” he says, “then we're putting a tour together now which will probably be on around the same time as the Dashville festival. We can't wait to get back up there.”
