Arlo Enemark started the Watermelon Boy project in 2016, inspired by the explosion of Australian electronic sounds that was happening at the time alongside more global beats.
The warm, tropical electronica of Watermelon Boy is built for the summer. Intentionally so in everything he does for the project, from the name to the sound to the aesthetic. As such there is a certain irony that his album 'The Wow Signal' has been released in winter time as far away from the tropical vibe that Arlo aims to create.
It's something not lost on Arlo as he reflects. "There's an irony in living in a kind of dank city and making warm tropical music, yet it suits because there's a longing for it."
Watermelon Boy's style is music to dance to and to feel in your body. Music for carefree, sunny days. Arlo has thought about everything in this regard channelling the summer and tropical vibes into the way he goes about the project.
"If someone sees my name on a flyer, and then they're at a gig, and they don't know who's on, I want them to know by listening; that they'd be able to make a guess. It doesn't matter whether that's a chilled-out moment or kind of heavier, rave moment. It should still make sense."
The name is key to the feeling and Arlo provides the backstory on the name for the project. "There was this moment in like, must have been late 2016; and when the 20/20 [cricket] was on and there was this kid up in the stands that the camera pans and he was eating a whole watermelon skin and all just gnawing his way through it.
"It reminded me of how excited Melbourne gets for summer. Like we have these kind of long, grey, dank winters and then when the days start getting warmer, people start saying sh.t to you like, 'oh, it's going to be 28 on Wednesday, what are you doing?'.
"I come from the mid north coast of New South Wales; we kind of thought talking about the weather was like a joke or like, almost like you had nothing to say like an insult or something, but people genuinely do it down here.
"So that kid who was so excited to be at the cricket, that he was eating a watermelon skin and all in the stands, that kind of enthusiasm for summer. . . I wanted something that captured that excitement."
The notion of music as a form of escapism is deeply set in the way Arlo goes about creating his brand of tropical electronica. There are a multitude of influences that are distilled into the sounds which Arlo makes.
"If anything, having that theme and colour palette is what enables me to have direction when it comes to channelling influences," he says.
"I'm interested in all sorts of music, interested in working with people from all sorts of cultures, but having a direction of 'it's going to be electronic and it's going to have a tropical feel'.
"Ideally you want to be blissing out to this with sand between your toes at sunset, that's the vibe. So that's the colour we're going for. That is actually what enables the collaboration.
"The influences, and all the noise that's coming in, the tropical theme enables me to flow that into a direction. Whether it be what kind of instrumentation I'm going to use or when I'm producing something, what the synth sounds are going to be like or who I'm going to invite to collab and who I'm going to reach out to."
With the tropical theme as the base for the sound, there's a sense of adventure as Arlo explores various sounds, bouncing between genres with ease. Arlo puts it this way. "If I was to summarise the Watermelon Boy project, it's music from the southern hemisphere.
"I really love to marry the sounds and styles from Latin America, South America, the rhythms from Africa and the Pacific. Then obviously there is the big Australian electronic influence. So that's how I want it to sound, tropical, but also largely from our half of the world.
"I wanted to make something that sounds like it's from our side of the world, and I think it does, there's a lot of powerhouses and talent out there. There's a lot of cool music, and a lot of cool ideas happening.
"A lot of these sounds are just influences for me, because they're kind of full cultural movements. I take influences from Amapiano on the more recent stuff, but I wouldn't say that style I can fully identify with, because it's a full South African movement. You know, that's a full thing that's coming out of that region, and I can collab and I can take inspiration, but that's not my movement."
There are many collaborations on this album, one particular highlight is Green Bakers vocals on 'Gbona' and 'Spirit Of The Lagoon (Famimora)'. Arlo tells a story of when he was travelling in Ghana.
"When I was in Ghana, Green Baker sent me a message saying, 'are you in Ghana?' I was like 'yeah', and he got on a bus and went across two countries from Nigeria over to Ghana, and we just hung out and had a great time."
In this story of connection with Green Baker, there is a sense of fun and adventure. This is true of Watermelon Boy at large, a project always looking for brighter days and a dance floor to fill.
Read our review of 'The Wow Signal'.
