Toowoomba band Shark Drive – formerly known as Stark Drive – were victorious at the recent Ipswich Battle Of The Bands.
On Saturday 1 July, at Ipswich City Square, an eclectic selection of bands battled it out at the third annual Ipswich Battle Of The Bands. Four-piece brother band Shark Drive successfully won the competition. Shark Drive is made up of the Morgan brothers: Robert (21, guitar), Michael (20, bass guitar), Joseph (17, keys) and Matthew (13, drums).
“It was all pretty surreal, we didn’t expect to win,” Robert says. Each band played a 15-minute set. “We had to play three original songs. We didn’t expect to win at the time.” Inspired by the video game ‘Rock Band’, Shark Drive play a mix of pop punk and alt-rock with a tasty synth flavour.
“It’s kind of crazy how it all started…we got the video game ‘Rock Band’ and I was like I want to play a real guitar, Michael then was like I want to play a real bass guitar. “We then bought instruments of our own and started playing together and it spiralled from there. Our sound is a cross between Blink-182 and Regurgitator.”
Playing together since 2013, the brother dynamic works great for Shark Drive. “On stage it works really well, we can always count on each other.” Known for their covers, Shark Drive are looking forward to producing more original music in the near future.
“[But] covers however are really fun and pub people love them… we did a gig recently and Joseph and Matthew had to leave by 10pm unfortunately, so hopefully once they are older it will be easier.”
With a few singles out all ready, ‘What’s Happening To Me’ is Robert’s favourite. “'What’s Happening To Me’ portrays the feeling you get when you visit your old town or your old primary school and everything is way smaller and a little bit different.”
Shark Drive have supported a number of acts including Wolves In Fashion from Sydney and Sing Say from Brisbane. Formerly known as Stark Drive, Shark Drive had to change their name due to an overseas bike company with the same name.
“Basically we have been future-proofing everything. Stark Drive [bike company] have been all over the internet and we didn’t appear on the first page of Google, so we changed our name to Shark Drive.”
Still on a winning high, Shark Drive can’t wait to see where the band can take them. “We are hoping to write more songs and do more shows. When we won the battle of the bands, we also won a recording session. So we are hoping to record a single, have a show and maybe even a tour.”
Shark Drive won the 2017 Ipswich Battle Of The Bands.
– written by Penelope Pelecas
