In between local and international tours, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (RBCF) have been killing it following the release of their most recent EP ‘The French Press’, with the band even managing to find time to film a quirky little music video for their latest single ‘Sick Bug’. The clip sees the boys play on a country tennis court, and features the infamous Chewy dog who has appeared in three of their videos now.
“’The French Press’ video clip we sort of all did ourselves with our friends and we sort of wrote the vision for that and put together ourselves. This one [Sick Bug] we just put in the hands of Marie Pangaud. We had to go overseas the next day so we had a morning to film it,” electric guitarist and vocalist Tom Russo says.
“We went out to a friend’s house out in the bush about an hour out of Melbourne with no real plan. We flew a drone over and got some shots from the top and played around with a few things. It was really easy and fun.”
The band has just recently come back from performing on an intense schedule at SXSW (South by Southwest Film Festival), touring with Tennis and playing some of their own shows in the U.S – they even managed to make it through playing seven gigs in four days. On a few occasions, the boys had to rough it and sleep on yoga mats on the floor of a dorm just to get by.
“We didn’t really know what to expect, but it was definitely a lot better than any of us could have imagined. It was great bonding with the band. We saw a lot of cool music. I think it helped us get really tight as a band because you’ve just got to get up, set up in five minutes and play,” Russo says, “We then played our own headline show in New York at this great little club in Brooklyn called Baby’s Alright. Again, we didn’t know what to expect for our own show but it ended up selling out. Everyone was so nice and it was an amazing time.”
Once they wrap up touring Australia for their latest EP, RBCF are heading to Europe and the UK together for the first time. After getting a lot of love on UK radio, the boys have already sold out a couple of London shows and signed an international deal with Sub Pop – who the boys met with on the recent trip to the States.
“They pretty much treated us like family. We went out for dinner and drinks a lot and played a really great last show in Seattle with everyone from Sub Pop down there. We signed with them sort of late last year and it was a bit unusual because we’d never met with any of them personally, we’d just talked with some of them through email. They just signed us on the back of the demo songs we sent them.”
Additionally, the boys have also signed to I OH YOU’s new management label Converge. RBCF are one of the first bands to team up with Converge, alongside The Belligerents. It was actually I OH YOU’s Johann Ponniah who first took interest in the band some time ago.
“A few years ago we just put out an EP – pretty much just recorded it ourselves – and put it out on the internet. Johann had heard it somehow and got in touch. We’d heard of a few I OH YOU bands before but never met him. We talked to him a bit and ended up agreeing for him and Scott Armstrong to manage us. We’ve since become really great mates. They’re great guys. They do things for the right reason.”
From here, the boys are planning to knuckle down and finally release their debut album, somehow managing to find time in their touring schedule to write new music.
“We’ve done a couple of EPs, but we’re really excited to be putting together an actual long player. Essentially the two EPs were just collections of singles. This one, we’re approaching it like a unified body of work.”
Written by Chelsea King
When & Where: Karova Lounge, Ballarat – June 2 & The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine – June 3
