Ball Park Music

It wasn’t long ago that Sam Cromack was standing in the crowd at Splendour in the Grass dreaming of one day having the chance to get up and play on the stage: just a few years on, not only has his band Ball Park Music played the festival twice, they were also one of the most talked about bands for the whole festival.
“I’ve been to a lot of Splendour in the Grass festivals and I remember going when I was a teenager and desperately wanting to do that when I was older,” says Cromack. “When we did it for the first time in 2012 I was really stoked, but to do it again in the big new amphitheatre and after all the experiences I’ve had since the first time I did it, it was really good.”
There were a number of highlights from Ball Park Music’s set, but it’s hard to go past their rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which had the whole crowd in raptures.
“We’d played it about 20 times live, which certainly gave us a lot of experience and that gets rid of a lot of those nerves,” explains Cromack. “I think if we had to do it the first time at Splendour we absolutely would have been shitting ourselves. The effect it has on the audience is unbelievable; it’s like you’ve just handed out some powerful potent drug to everyone who’s there, and the crowd are just on fire when we play that song.”
Ball Park Music will soon be heading off on their second national tour for the year, revealing they have a little present for all fans that come along to their upcoming shows.
“The thing I’m most excited about is that we told our fans that it was going to be a ‘3D Concert’, which was a total pisstake because every concert is 3D,” laughs Cromack. “But we decided for fun we’d get 3D glasses printed for everyone who comes to the tour, so every punter is going to get a mad set of Ball Park Music 3D glasses to wear at the concert if they choose to – it’s not going to do anything, but you’ll look like a mad dog.”
Another exciting announcement made by the band this week is they have just signed a deal that will see their music released outside of the country for the very first time as they look ahead to their future tour of Europe.
“That’s our first overseas deal for one of our records, which is super exciting,” says Cromack. “I hope the record labels that have chosen us will be plugging it in advance of us coming over and hopefully we will see fans at the shows. That would be unreal.”
An overseas tour is both an exciting and nervous experience for the band, as it’s an important step in developing a fan base outside of Australia – but it’s not without its risks either.
“Even though it’s exciting, I think it’s also daunting too because you have to take a lot of steps backwards to go forwards overseas,” explains Cromack. “But you’ve got to make that start if you do want to have a long career and have fans in other parts of the world.
“It’s nothing to complain about; travelling with my friends and playing other parts of the world is an unbelievably good experience. But I think you are always just a little bit shaking in your boots because you hope it will grow and you hope you’re not doing all this in vain.”
When&Where: The Forum, Melbourne – October 4; The Karova, Ballarat – October 8; Black Swan Hotel, Bendigo – October 9; and The Wool Exchange Entertainment Complex, Geelong – October 11
By Zach Broadhurst