West Thebarton; the seven-headed soul-rock hydra straight outta Adelaide

What do a legal clerk; a radiation therapist, a public servant, a marine biologist and a tattoo artist have in common?
They are all about to drop one of Australia’s best punk-rock releases for 2018. If you hadn’t clued on, I’m talking about West Thebarton, the Adelaide punk rock outfit who are about to release their highly anticipated debut album, Different Beings Being Different.
According to charismatic leader figure, gravel-voiced frontman Reverend Ray, there is a certain amount of pride that comes along with this record. “The songs on the album are the best songs that any of us have ever written in our career, so we just really want to get it out. The album itself really captures a moment in time for us,” he says.
Speaking of the albums recording process, which amazingly was done in one week, Rev Ray discussed what led the seven piece to hiring Dylan Adams (Sticky Fingers, DMA’S) as the producer, as well as how the bands sound has developed over the last few years.
“We put a lot of thought into it and that is why we got Dylan Adams,” he explains. “When we were starting off we were just a garage punk band and we were really just aspiring to sound like Ty Segall or someone like that. But as our music tastes grew so did our music. Dylan had done a lot of stuff on the DMA’S EP and we loved that sound so we got him down from Sydney for a week to record with us.
“At the time we just wanted to make a big sounding record,” he continues. “Because there is seven of us, we wanted to make sure that no one was hidden in the sound and there wasn’t just the one guitar riff being played by multiple people. I guess really what we have come out with is a pub rock album that doesn’t really sound punk rock at all.”
With Different Beings Being Different putting a focus on each individual member of the band, Ray also touched on the misconceptions that many have expressed about the seven piece.
“It’s really weird; when we started everyone was like, ‘do you really need four guitars? Do you really need the same riff played by four people?’ And I’d always say, ‘come to a show man, that’s not really what we do’.
“All seven of us have heaps of pride in what we do so everyone plays different stuff and we make it work. It’s so much fun,” he smiles. “I’ve been in bands before where I’ve written songs and everyone else just plays along to what I’ve written and that’s good fun, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s so good when you just have to worry about your own part because you know that everyone else has ownership over their own role in the band.”
In support of Different Beings Being Different West Thebarton will be hitting the road on a huge Australian tour before heading off overseas to play the esteemed Readings Festival.
“I think everything that we do hypes us as a band. We never thought we would get this far so to be able to go and play some of the amazing shows we have had to opportunity to be a part of. We just want to go where our fans are, so, we love that people both within Australia and overseas are enjoying our music. It’s so humbling, I can’t wait to see how it all goes with these upcoming shows!”
Release: Different Beings Being Different is out on May 18
When & Where: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne – June 10
Written by Alex Callan