Ocean Grove have always, triumphantly, sat outside the box. If you try to categorise them, you will fail as they slip into something else entirely natural. Chameleons of the music world. How about a bassist who becomes the singer when the singer leaves, but the singer comes back again? Or a drummer who is arguably the best heavy music producer in Australia? Or the continual mix and match of musical styles?
If there is one word to describe the band’s world, you could go with the word ‘odd’, which coincidentally, segues into their new album Oddworld out on November 22. That bassist turned singer Dale Tanner explains.
‘There was all five of us – which we’re terming the Oddworld collective. So you have Sam, our drummer and producer who writes drums, guitar, a lot of melody, so he’s very much in the master controller seat. You also have Twiggy and myself who round out the public image of Ocean Grove. We also have Matt Kopp, aka Running Touch who was the original guitarist within Ocean Grove, has been there all the way along, somewhat in the background. Then Luke Holmes, our previous front man, who’s also since taking a step back from the live band has been there as well in a writing capacity.’
‘This album was very much the first time bringing that collective closer together in the same room than we have in quite some time. This is five individuals with their own flavours, their own taste. Those hip hop elements are there for some where they aren’t there for others, whereas the nu-metal influences are there more heavily for some than they are for others. It’s us all coming from a different angle and finding that sweet spot where we can fuse it all together, take the best parts of everything that we are contributing. Take a song like ‘Raindrop’ for instance, you can kind of see where lyrically and sonically it kind of diverges and goes from one voice to another and it might not make sense off the bat, but for us it does make sense because that’s Ocean Grove manifest. That’s us putting that collective creation on the table rather than be this individual linear approach.’
Tanner shed the bass and became vocalist back in 2019 during the Flip Phone Fantasy era and has not looked back. Well, that’s the public image from the confident frontman anyway however it helps that while Holmes stepped down, his friendship with Tanner meant that the prominent return wasn’t a sour note but rather a sweet flavour.
‘I am very lucky that Luke and I are best friends. That helps a lot. I know that I always have the best intentions and utmost support and love from Luke. He wants nothing but the best for me. It’s always been that from the moment that we traded places, I knew I had massive shoes to fill, but I knew I also had the backing and support of Luke every step of the way. That’s been a really beautiful thing is that when I stepped into this role, I knew that I could do it, but I knew that I had a bit of a journey ahead to kind of get my chops up. Not so much as a singer, but as a front man, as an MC, as someone who you develop those skills of commanding a crowd.’
‘When I first started, there was this feeling of excitement, this is deep down always what I truly wanted to do. I never saw myself as a guitarist, but always as a singer. Singing is at the core of my being, it’s my passion. To step into the front man role from that perspective was really exciting and I was brimming with confidence from that side of things. But all the while I knew that there was that other side to it of the front man role that really needed a lot of developing. Vocally, there is a lot of diversity within the music that Ocean Grove releases, I knew that although I could sing and hold a note, it’s like there’s elements of rap, there’s elements of screaming, certain things that I’ve only either slightly touched on or not touched on at all.’
‘It’s been an amazing journey to sort of develop my own skill set and all the while have the guidance of Luke. He’ll be in the studio and we’ll have a part that he’s written and recorded and then it’s my job to step up to the mic and replicate that to the best of my ability. Sometimes I listen back to the recordings and I think, wow, that actually sounds so much like Luke and not in a sense to pump myself up, but the only reason it does is because Luke has been there by my side guiding me in every little minutia of what I’m doing and saying ‘maybe try it in this sense and maybe we’ll crack the code on your own vocal style’ and there’ll be these light bulb moments when we’re in the studio where I uncover something in my own ability that I never knew I could do. It wouldn’t have been possible without the push, the encouragement and the guidance of Luke. I think that’s a really important point to sort of make clear is that I definitely couldn’t have done this and delivered what I have on this album and on the live stage if it wasn’t for the support and the guidance of Luke.’
The ‘master controller’ so to speak, is a drummer, Sam Bassal. While drummers often get the butt end of jokes, Sam’s catalogue is a who’s-who of Australian heavy music, so naturally, Ocean Grove play to that strength on the new album.
‘He is inclined to, and it’s a very important inclination, to find the balance and the middle point between all this chaos. We’ll be coming at him from all different angles with all kinds of ideas, trying to think outside the box and do some pretty weird and wacky shit. But it’s his job to find that fine middle point between it all where he can put his production stamp on it and hone it in a package that will be digestible. We’re very lucky to have him at the centre of it all because he is very good at doing it. He’s got a very tuned ear to what Ocean Grove is, what Ocean Grove is going to be. It’s really nice to come into a studio setting, being able to present almost any idea whether it be electronic, hip hop, metal rock, grunge, and know that you can give that, whether it’s a voice recording or it’s a fully fledged demo idea, and Sam can take it translate in a way that goes, okay, one, we need to be able to perform this live and two, to match that energy that people have come to know and expect. As long as it sort of ticks those couple of boxes, it’s kind of play on. We don’t really let too much else limit what we’re doing.’
The styles cooking on the album are not just hip hop and nu-metal – although there is plenty of that – there is the aforementioned Raindrops which nods towards 90’s Britpop mixed with early Prodigy, OTP which has the classic Judgement Night soundtrack at its core of west coast rap with alternative metal or the direct nod to Limp Bizkit in Sowhat1999. Hell, there’s even a ‘love song’ in Last Dance or the sexual Stunner. The whole album swimming in different multicolored pools which instantly become Ocean Grove’d.
While the band has always exuded vibrancy and fun, this is the band’s most mature output to date. The reward for hard work both off and on stage. It’s equally perfect for causing chaos in the pit, driving too fast down the road or vacuuming the house. Cause that’s Ocean Grove, multi-faceted, multi-talented and unexpected.
Talking of unexpected, we finish on an important note and Tanners third year as ambassador for Australian Music T-Shirt Day, a role he shares with Jimmy Barnes, Amy Shark and Jenna MacDougall amongst others.
‘This one touches close to me because Support Act – which is the charity organisation that is behind Aus Music T-Shirt Day – do amazing work supporting musicians, music workers in crisis moments, financial despair, mental health support. All these areas that are so important to have an organisation there for artists to turn to, especially during lockdown. They’ve got a 24 hour hotline. They’ve got financial grants and support options there for individuals who might need it in any given time, whether that is to receive some mental health support through therapy and rehabilitation or whatever it might be. It’s incredible that we have that resource available to us. Not every country and their artists have something like that.’
‘It helped me a lot through some of my tougher and darker times in my life. It feels like a no brainer to pay it forward and give back to an organisation that has helped me so much. I’m very proud to be an ambassador. So much so that I’ll give a quick shout out to the actual fundraising event that I started last year called Fully AMTD, which is the initials of Aus Music T-Shirt Day, and it’s happening again in Melbourne November 30th. It is a fully nonprofit gig with all the profits going directly to Support Act. A fully Australian lineup with a place for people to go wear their Aus Music T-shirts, put some money over the bar, donate some money to the raffle or whatever it is, see some bands play live and really get amongst that community feel, which is at the core of what that day is all about, celebrating Australian music, raising awareness, having conversations around mental health and bringing light sort of these aspects of community that are so important for the grassroots level of the Australian music industry.’
Interview By Iain McCallum
Oddworld is out on Friday 22 November through ODDWORLD Records in Australia and SharpTone Records for the rest of the world. Pre-order HERE/ Pre-Save HERE…
