Perth dream-pop band Mosquito Coast have dropped their latest single, ‘Sweet Talking’, a darker and heavier offering taken from their forthcoming debut album.
“It's very different,” vocalist and guitarist Naomi Robinson says of ‘Sweet Talking’.
“We went through a lot of different amalgamations because the original version of ‘Sweet Talking’ was really lo-fi, and then we changed it and upped the BPM a lot. Everything gets written really slowly and then Conor [Barton, keys] tells me to speed it up,” she laughs.
Naomi and Conor have shared a blossoming creative relationship as Mosquito Coast for several years, winning triple j Unearthed High in 2015 with their song ‘Call My Name’ when they were just 17 years old.
Since then, Mosquito Coast have grown from the duo into a four-piece featuring Oscar van Gass on drums and Mitch Mack on bass; while Naomi has remained in Perth and Oscar lives in Fremantle, Conor has relocated to Melbourne where Mitch also resides.
“It's certainly evolved but we're still pretty much the same people, we still do the same thing,” Namoi says.
“We get in a room together and try to jam, but now it gets a lot harder to jam with someone when they live quite far away. [Conor] lives in Melbourne, so we don’t get to jam anymore and our tastes have changed. We're a long-distance relationship band, but it works.”
Mosquito Coast will reconvene for their upcoming ‘Sweet Talking’ single tour in February, including a coveted opening spot for Beach House at Perth Festival. The tour will also see the band expand their live territory to play some new locations such as the Gold Coast and Newcastle.
“We're really excited, the whole band is,” Naomi says about the live shows. “I think just to play the songs again and see each other because Mitch lives in Melbourne so we don’t get to see each other that much. Also to get away from our part-time jobs is so nice,” she adds with a laugh.
The upcoming debut album from Mosquito Coast was recorded in New York City and produced by French producer Nicolas Vernhes. Naomi said Nicolas was a supportive figure during the process who encouraged the band to fully explore their ideas in the studio.
“We wanted to push ourselves a little bit more and be a bit more crazy in the songs, and put things in we wouldn't normally,” she says. “We’d be like ‘is this too weird?’ and he’d say it was fine. He was a third party, which was good.”
With the album set to be released in the coming months, Naomi says it’s a record that has been designed to be listened to from start to finish.
“It’d be cool if people listened to it without shuffle mode on because we made it so that the songs connect into each other,” she says when asked what she’d like listeners to take away from the album.
“We planned it out so it’s beginning to end and there's a common theme in it as well. But take whatever you want from it, everyone hears stuff differently.”
'Sweet Talking' is available now.
Mosquito Coast Australia Tour 2019
Sat 16 Feb - Mountain Goat Valley Crawl (Brisbane)Sun 17 Feb - The Coolangatta Hotel (Gold Coast)
Thu 21 Feb - Henry’s Rooftop (Manly)
Fri 22 Feb - The Chippo Hotel (Sydney)
Sat 23 Feb - The Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Thu 28 Feb - Chevron Gardens (Perth Festival)
Fri 8 Mar - Rocket Bar (Adelaide)
Sat 9 Mar - The Gasometer (Melbourne)
