The very funky, Sunshine Coast-based roots aficionados, The Floating Bridges have just returned from a two-month UK tour in support of their new album, 'Creatures Of Leisure'.
The Floating Bridges have just toured to the UK. How do the local beers compare?
Yeah mate, what a journey we've been on. As you may know, The Bridges are quite the connoisseurs of beers, as well as JD, rum, scotch, vodka, Baileys, tequila, red wine, and JD... so we were keen to put to the test some of the stories we'd been told. Tried some English ales, served at room temp, varying from fruity to bitter tastes and scoring quite high on the percentage list. Not exactly our cup of tea, nor something to drink when you need a refreshment after a long game of Frisbee or windmills.
The majority of lagers we sampled were pleasant, as were the pale ales, and the British temperatures often helped them go down easier the next morning when the ice ran out. Spirits were too expensive unless we smoothed the bar chicks into upgrading our rider. However, I think the drink of the tour goes to the head wobbler, and our new friend, Scrumpy Jacks Cider. 4L, 10 per cent, liquid gold that didn't hit the hip pocket to hard. Tomorrow's jam will be us placing our online orders for Xmas.
While you were on the road, did any of The Bridges spend an unreasonable amount of time naked in public?
At first it was funny, but at one of the last after-parties in St Ives at Lifeboat Lee's, Dan got in touch with his inner nudist and let's just say, we tried to make a lot of friends that night! Dan has since been placed on report.
Are you happy to be home?
Happy to be home and keen to catch up with close friends and family. TFB have plenty in the pipeline. We're playing at a few festivals to cap off the year, working on new material, more travelling and homecoming shows at the Solbar and The Motor Room in October, which should be very grounding for us being back on home soil. Apart from that, we're off to sample some more Aussie brews to see what we've missed these last couple of months... Peace x
Who was the craziest cat you met after a show in the UK and what was their story?
It was actually before our gig at the Secret Garden Party. We were camping out of town at a fishing spot and had made a fire to cook a few tins of soup and jacket potatoes, really living the life. Freddy went into town for supplies and ran into a guy named Lee, who had stopped him in the street thinking, 'this bloke doesn't fit in, I'm gonna talk to him'. He was a man of many talents Lee, helping us along our journey in various ways, quite often being completely sideways doing it. He gave us a place to sleep, took a couple of the fellas out for a river cruise in his orange lifeboat, booked two shows for us (that paid) and hosted the wildest afterparty that had us spacewalking to our last gig.
Lifeboat Lee was a deadset geezer, a mover and a shaker, a wheeler and a dealer, a real man of his time you know. On the day of our last show, he bought our tour van and Johnny's amp off us, not because he needed them, he just wanted to help, and give us incentive to go back. Absolute legend!
If you're latest album 'Creatures Of Leisure' could be distilled into a super hero, what would they look like/ super power be?
'Creatures Of Leisure' (COL) would resemble a young SuperTed, who with the help of Mother Nature, develops special powers. Whenever trouble arises, COL plays his 'secret-magic music' and transforms people's lives, travelling across the world, and sometimes even space, to help others in need. He often finds himself up against nefarious and greedy villains as they seek to either rule the world or increase their own wealth.
Two months on the road is a long time, how did you keep the tour bus fever at bay?
Tour bus fever... what... na... we had absolutely no arguments haha :-) Honestly, we're learning over time how to respect each other's space and that things can be done differently than your own way, especially when ten people are living on top of each other for that long. We are a family, and families argue, bitch, moan and grumble almost everyday, but they also create some amazing memories together. We do our best to look past petty indifferences and focus on the positive. Plus it helps when you get on stage almost every night and cook grooves to a dancefloor of people you've never seen before.
The Floating Bridges play Solbar 23 October with special guest Matt Stillert. They also play The Motor Room 10 October. They return to play Solbar's annual Christmas Party 19 December.
