Sunshine Coast indie rockers Fragile Rockers released their debut EP, 'Light That Fades', last Friday.
The trio of Victoria Jenkins (vocals/bass), Daniel Parkinson (guitar) and Kyle Shipton (drums) are about to embark on their first run of interstate shows with a Brisbane launch this weekend followed by a trip south to Sydney and Melbourne next week.
Tell us a little about the group's debut EP, 'Light That Fades'. What can listeners expect from this batch of songs?
[Victoria] The EP is a bit of a snapshot of where we’re at right now, but we think it also hints at where we’re headed. Each of the five tracks has something a little different. People have said that our sound is catchy but sombre. I think that sums up the light and shade of the EP quite well.
How did Fragile Animals evolve as a band?
Fragile Animals essentially started with songs Daniel was writing. He came to me with a bunch of songs and I started playing around with lyrics and melodies. We’d just started getting things together when we met Kyle.
We went and recorded ‘Signals’ at the very end of last year as a bit of a trial… haha! We all felt pretty happy with how it went, so we went away and wrote the rest of the EP over a few months. The five tracks that made it to the EP were ones that stuck with us.
The band have three east-coast shows: Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne; aside from obviously looking forward to the trip, how are you guys feeling ahead of these shows?
We seriously can’t wait to play these shows! We’ve been playing quite a bit around Brisbane and the Coast and we’re excited to finally play shows down in Sydney and Melbourne.
We’ve got great bands playing this run of shows with us as well. We’ve been on the same bill as Brisbane legends Dear Sol a couple of times and we’re stoked to have them playing Ric’s Bar with us. We’ve got The Phazes and Adaptors with us at Oxford Art Factory (in Sydney) and we can’t wait to check them out live.
We’ve been blasting Wild Meadows in the car on the way to shows ever since we first heard them... so we’re super excited to finally see them, and local lads The Lovely Days in action for the Melbourne stop.
Is this the first interstate trip for the band? If so, great bonding session no doubt.
Yeah it’s our first trip interstate to play our own shows, but oddly enough we’ve flown interstate together to watch other bands and have other adventures before so fingers crossed we’ll all make it back home on speaking terms, haha!
2018 for Fragile Animals; more touring and a debut album… is that the plan?
Between shows we’re madly writing at the moment. We’re going to be heading back into the studio early next year to record a second EP. We’re pretty happy with how our first 12 months has shaped up and we just wanna do it all again for 2018... except bigger and better.
As a relatively new band, have you had any cool or strange interactions with fans?
As far as we know we’re yet to get a fan, but when it happens it’s bound to be weird so we’ll let you know... haha! Nah jokes aside we feel quite lucky; everyone we run into at shows is usually lovely. I’m pretty sure we’ve been the ‘strange fans’ a few times though. :-/
The current Sunshine Coast music scene… it appears from afar that a few bands are beginning to spring forth from the region. How lively is the local scene?
The Brisbane scene seems to be really embracing of emerging bands and that has a flow-on effect on the [Sunshine] Coast I think. There does seem to be a whole bunch of local artists and bands that are on the rise.
Any Sunny Coast acts we should add to our next playlist?
Doolie, Pop Cult, High Tropics and Ayla are the first ones that spring to mind.
Away from music, what does your ideal day off look/ sound like?
Hmm... you’d probably get a different answer out of each of us! For me an ideal day off would probably involved rain, Radiohead and my dogs.
Favourite app to waste time with?
I seem to waste quite a bit of time on Instagram... haha. Lately a lot of the people I follow have been on tour, so I’ve been watching their stories and living vicariously through them.
Christmas is just around the corner… aside from being good, what do you want Santa to deliver you this year?
Well we think we have been pretty good this year... if Santa could just line up a few airline tickets and some shows for us across Europe that’d be great.
'Light That Fades' is available now.
Fragile Animals Dates
Thu 2 Nov - Ric's Bar (Brisbane)Wed 8 Nov - Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)
Thu 9 Nov - Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar (Melbourne)
