Callum MacHattie
Experienced music journalist usually spotted running around gigs and festivals with a mic in hand. Also trying to prove to my dad’s mates that music is as good as it used to be, one interview at a time.
We caught up with Aussie psych band Babe Rainbow ahead of their set at Cardiff’s Celebrate This Place Festival
For British Babe Rainbow fans, it’s been a long 5 years waiting for the Byron Bay 4 piece to return to our shores. Amidst political bleakness, Covid lockdowns and everything in between, a band with such a sunny disposition and infectious attitude of escapism acts has as the perfect tonic to our woes. And yet, the opportunity to see and enjoy that euphoria live has eluded us all, until now.
“It seems pretty sunny to me?” frontman Angus answers, when I thank him for bringing the proverbial sunshine to the otherwise damp beginnings of a festival season. I met the band in a beer garden at Cardiff’s Celebrate This Place festival, where the sun was hidden but the joy was unmistakable: crowds of music fans giddy with the excitement at the prospect of back-to-back live music again, after what feels like a long winter wait.
Nestled in those crowds at a table were Babe Rainbow, inconspicuous despite their obvious presence as a psychedelic band of surfers from Byron Bay. Their low-key aura is a by-product of the free and easy attitude laced within their music, and imparted onto their fans; at Celebrate This Place, there are a plenty. So, what can they expect?
“I mean we’re playing much differently now as to how we were when we were here 5 years ago. But, really, it’s the same good times, the same good feels but with some new songs” Angus says.
It’s somewhat of a cliché for a band of their palette to be so laid back in their approach, but when you break through reductive humour in their answers to questions like this, it becomes clear how important that attitude to songwriting is. If the benchmark for continuity is as arbitrary as ‘the same good feels’ then the goalposts of creativity inevitably widen.
Since the release of their debut EP in 2015 the band’s spacey sonic identity that has remained constant, has been woven into different rhythms and melodies, from jazz fundamentals in ‘Electrocuted’ to the pop sensibilities of songs like ‘Ready For Tomorrow’ and their latest single ‘Retrograde’. The result of this is more organically evolved Babe Rainbow with every record, allowing the songs to follow the lead of whatever form of expression fits naturally, regardless of influence.
The outcome is as breezy as the methodology: “I think you’ve just got to let the songs breathe, almost like a fine wine” says Angus, with a wry smile at the finishing point. But that’s what all great Babe Rainbow songs do; fan favourites like ‘Peach Blossom Boogy’ and ‘Something New’ boast speedier rhythmic profile of songs traditional within their genre but take their time to deliver the melodies, creating a soulfully psychedelic sound that has become a Babe Rainbow signature.
When I probed at what the core of this ‘signature’ may be, Angus’ answer was, again, appropriately elusive, “it’s always been spiritual”. The level of musicianship that exists at the heart of the band allows them to explore said spirituality properly; a space where lyrics such as ‘you’ve got to get your head up here / with me in the stratosphere’ (‘Losing Something‘) have more of a universality to them, making the music the centre point of a shared attitude amongst fans.
Above everything they do, the sense of community felt between the band members and fans is paramount. And it’s somewhat of a reciprocal relationship – as much as fans get from their lyrical incantations and musings on how to approach daily life, the way in which fans respond during live shows is harvested and fed back into the Babe Rainbow creative process.
“The songs that work best live, become the favourite songs, simply because they work live” Angus says. In terms of the influence that has on recording, Angus continued, “Definitely. It makes you want to write new songs that work live”.
Often bands avoid that approach, in pursuit of a more cemented self-assigned identity. But Babe Rainbow’s comfort in creating music for their community has affirmed a stronger sense of self in return.
This concept becomes increasingly apparent during their performance at Celebrate This Place. On-stage, there is a complete freedom to their performance – particularly from Angus, whose free-form dancing invites the crowd to participate in a show that is less about stage and audience, but more the sense of collective.
Elusive answers to questions and references to songs breathing normally verge on the cliché – but only when spoken by artists who practice the opposite. The truth is Babe Rainbow earn the right to do so because the answer to why their music is so great is equally as hard to pin down.
When the four of them play together there’s an alchemy that can’t be replicated: a sound bursting with references but so uniquely theirs that you feel as though you’re stuck in a time capsule somewhere between 1973 and an ethereal future.
“Sometimes it wants to come full circle and go back to where we started”, Elliott said in reference to the sonic next steps of Babe Rainbow. With their latest single titled ‘Retrograde’ and the band starting their second decade as an outfit, maybe we should prepare for them to put it in reverse gear and colour some new lines into the rainbow.
Listen to ‘Retrograde’ here: