BIN, the Ocean Grove outfit making waves in the local scene

After catching Bin for the first time at the Barwon Club’s ‘Small Town Disease’ festival I was extremely excited to score an invite to their band practise last week – and it did not disappoint.
For starters, these guys absolutely kill it. Watching their sets, you can see how much fun they have on stage, so being able to see that in an intimate setting while some tinnies are being cracked was truly a memorable moment.
It also didn’t disappoint because it was the first time I repeated an interview.
That’s right, immediately after concluding – what I thought was a sweet interview – we re-did the same interview. Not because the first one went poorly; purely because Cal Shortal, the bands guitarist thought we could do better… We didn’t. If anything the second interview was significantly more inebriated than the first one. Which was fine, because it was a fun time and truthfully, that’s what Bin is all about.
Featuring Lachie Baulch from The Laughing Leaves, Sugar Ghouls and Marmalade; and Cal from The Murlocs, it’s no surprise that Bin have been making traction in the gig scene this early on in their career, but for other members such as Lys Mac, Tim Fluker and Will Bowers playing gigs is a previously uncharted territory – a territory they have loved exploring.
“Off the bat of the Moocher EP, we got to play with the Cosmic Psycho’s at the Croxton and with Bones and Jones a few times so it’s led to a few really cool shows,” remarks Tim. “Me and Lys haven’t played many shows prior to that so getting to play at the Croxton in front of a sold out crowd was amazing.”
“It was huge,” says Lys, “it was a sick night as well. They were just so lovely and friendly and I had my own drum podium which I thought was the coolest thing ever.”
Having released their first EP ‘Moocher’ at the start of the year, Bin spoke of what it was like to have the revered Mikey Young mix their songs.
Lachie: “We don’t really know Mikey personally but he is a staple in the music scene. He’s kind of like the ‘go-to’ man.”
Tim: “It was unreal to get him to master our music because we are all huge fans of Eddy Current as well as Total Control so that was rad.”
Lys: “We actually started the night before a Total Control gig.”
Expanding on the bands origin, Tim explained, “Bin started because me and Lach used to live together and Will is one of our best friends who happened to play bass so we just started jamming a little bit and then Lys is one of our best friends as well. She was pretty much just always around here hanging out.”
“I think Lys pretty much started it…” Will added, before Lys admits she “forced them into it”.
Tim: “Lys had the initiative to learn the drums and we owned a kit so I just started showing her really basic stuff and then Cal came along and we started taking it a bit more seriously.”
Lys: “Our first show was in December and I only started learning drums in November so I am still really new to drums. I think I would be absolutely shot if I ever had to play anything other than the ten songs that we play.”
Tim: “We were all best friends who were hanging out all the time anyway so it just made sense to start jamming.
Lys: “I think this is really just fun for us. Cal does the serious music thing but that’s about it. It’s just good fun for us, especially for Cal because he has such a serious stream of music I feel if this was more regimented it probably wouldn’t be what it is because it’s just mates playing music.”
Cal: “It’s good to have another band that isn’t as serious so I can have a bit of a release in what I’m playing, just a bit of stress free fun.”
As for the bands hopes for the future, Lys reveals “We just recorded two songs which we have played at our most recent shows; it seems like people are frothing them so we are really excited about that. We aren’t entirely sure what we will do with it at this stage but we are figuring all that out.
“We have a few concepts that we have been playing around with as well that are sick I think so hopefully they might evolve into songs so we can record them too.”
With two new songs already recorded and having scored a spot on the Loch Hart festival line-up for this year (alongside the likes of Orb and Gonzo), it seems that 2018 won’t be slowing down for Bin any time soon.
“I’m super pumped about it [Loch Hart]” says Lys. “It’s been a pretty speedy process for me from not playing at all to doing shows, so now being able to play at a festival with so many sick bands is actually unreal! I get irrationally excited every time we book any show so when I got told about playing our first ever festival I fist pumped pretty damn aggressively!”
If you can’t manage to get down to Loch Hart, you can catch Bin at The Workers Club Geelong on October 4. Also, keep an eye out for some cheeky new single releases because the tracks are absolute belters.
Written by Alex Callan