What do you get when you combine musicians from the ‘80s with a fresh new sound? The Casuarinas.
“In some ways [the music industry] is better now, there are more bands and a lot more people trying to play original music,” guitarist and songwriter Noel Mengel says.
“There's this thing where you can get your music out to a lot of people without going through traditional channels. In another way things never change, you need a great song. That's always been at the base of popular music, you need to write great songs.
“It was true in the '50s, it was true in the '80s and it's true now. So I think what happened with us is there was no expectations, we just started by sitting around writing songs, and when we played those songs for people they really loved them. It's really delightful thing for a songwriter. Venues come and go, but it's a good time for bands like us because there are a lot of little bars that suit our music.”
However, The Casuarinas seem to have come together almost as a brilliant accident. “Well there was no decision. [The band] just sort of happened bit by bit. We were all mutual friends through the music industry, everyone joined one by one about three years ago, then Maureen [Hansen] joined two years ago and that gave us something different with the male and female front line of singer,” Noel says, who’s also the Chief Music Writer at The Courier-Mail.
“The other thing in music that's really important is to sound like ourselves and have your own sound. It's the one insightful thing I've learnt in all these years: that a band has to have something of their own to offer, because if you're a generic kind of band you can just be replaced by another generic kind of band next year.
“So all these people we talk about who last for a long time, most of them sound like themselves, and you can't force that, it just sort of happens. And with the natural chemistry we have in this band we've achieved that and found our own sound.”
The Casuarinas play the New Globe Theatre Friday April 25.
