WA psych-rockers Datura4 have managed to capture the old-school, psych-bluesy-rock style of the '70s on their newest release, 'Hairy Mountain'.
Dom Mariani, Greg Hitchcock, Stu Loasby and Warren Hall make up Datura4, with the group headed east to launch their latest album next month.
‘Demon Blues’, the group's first album, had a great response, which Dom explains led the boys to pump out their second album, ‘Hairy Mountain’. “It was planned in a way to release another album quickly.
“It took four years to do the first one and that comes down to us just doing it part time. Once we released it, it was doing well so we thought we should take advantage of the good press and sales. We had a stack of tunes ready, so it was pretty easy to put together."
The band has a strong, psych-rock-bluesy style. Dom talks about why creating this music is so natural to them. "I think it's because we love this music. We grew up with it, so it makes playing this music effortless. We look for new ways to play riffs and make it contemporary with the lyrics.
“Greg and I do have a base in blues, which all goes into the melting pot of what we do. We try to keep the whole spirit of rock & roll going. We are mates as well. We have one mind; we love the music and we are committed to it. Not one person is just feeling like they are filling in.”
Taking that mateship and musical talent leads to a pretty relaxed creation process, as Dom explains. "It is collaboration. We all bring tunes along, although I do most of the writing at home.
"When we come together, we all add bits and pieces and we jam. We like to stay pretty open with our tunes. Once we have something, we head into the studio put it down and then leave it."
The creation of Datura4 came about after a chance encounter led to a jam session. "Greg and I have known each other for many years and just did our own thing until we ran into each other at a pub.
“We starting talking about the music we love and we said 'let's just have a jam', which developed into a band and then we went and did gigs which went well.
"We have been really lucky, our band was not a pre-conceived idea; it really was us running into each other and going 'hey we aren't doing much, this is the type of music we should play'. We got the right people for the rest of the band; we didn't take it too seriously at first, we just kept playing gigs,” he says.
"We aren't too rehearsed. Of course, there is structure but sometimes Greg will do a solo and I'll go into my mind and start playing a riff and everyone will catch on and know where you’re going.
“When we play live we don't play note to note we are more jam oriented. Our style really has that scope to be able to jam and be spontaneous. It’s an approach that is unique to us and this style of music, but it's one that everyone enjoys."
– written by Ellen Cook
Datura4 Shows
Thu 2 Mar - The Wickham Park Hotel (Newcastle)Fri 3 Mar - The Factory Floor (Sydney)
Sat 4 Mar - Cherry Bar (Melbourne)
