Electric Mary

Electric Mary has just returned from touring Europe and, as you’d expect, they have some stories from their travels. Speaking to Rusty Brown, lead vocalist from the band, the jet lag is still present as we chat but the band has hit the ground running with gigs in Frankston and Ding Dong Lounge over the weekend. “It feels like I’m still in the Paris time zone mate. We arrived back late on Tuesday night and we’ve done three gigs since then. Alex caught something whilst on the tour I think, he just came in to play last night then went straight home when we finished. I hope it’s not Ebola,” Brown says.
Over the past few months the band has toured through Ireland, England, Wales, Spain, Corsica and France and played many sold out shows in places that have now become a home away from home for the group. In the lead up to the tour, the band were ambushed in rehearsals by the Terminator, as Brown explains. “It’s not even me exaggerating. He was hammered, he was huge and he had the leather jacket on. He was quite a good-looking bloke on one side on his face but on the other side, he looked like he lost an eye and his faced was a little caved in. He was mouthing off to us because we were foreigners. They threw him out but before he left, he went to the utensils draw and started to throw teaspoons at us. It wasn’t like he stabbed us with a bowie knife, he threw spoons at us as we left the pub.”
The Last Great Hope is the latest EP from the band and has been racking up near perfect scores from all media outlets around Europe. One of the main highlights to recording this time around was the involvement of Lachy Doley, who has played with Powderfinger and recently played alongside The Rolling Stones.
“It was so good we had to mix it back into the record. It made us sound a lot different and we knew that we wouldn’t be able to replicate that on stage. So the choice was to make it as good as we could. You can still hear him on the record – his heart soul and fingers were completely all over that. I hope when we do the next record we can get him back – he’s a fantastic guy. My favourite band of all time is Deep Purple and when he started playing I actually thought we sounded a lot like them,” Brown says.
Having toured the world and released three albums and a stack of EPs, when I asked Brown about how he sees the success of the band, it all comes down to being happy in that space and time. “Along the way, I’ve had the opportunity to become friends with Steven Van Zandt. We were at an after party of one of Springsteen’s Australian shows and Steve was brought over to me with Bruce and said that I was a bloody good songwriter. When I woke up the next morning I thought, I am in the game. If that guy thinks we’re great and will spread the word, then great.”
In March next year, the band is going to be heading to Geelong for the first time ever. On the line-up for Motor City Music Festival, Brown can’t wait to take to the main stage. “We’ve heard great things about Motor City and it’ll be our first gig down there. Look out Geelong, Electric Mary are on the way and we’re going to bring our full show.”
When & Where: Motor City Music Festival, Geelong Showgrounds – March 6-8
By Tex Miller