The boats :: Story

And so it began...a jam on a cool autumn night in May 2003, between two old friends and two prospective drummers. Paul Guseli (Front of Van) turned up with his custom vintage drum kit and less than 15 minutes into the jam, Jona Byron (The Dirty Royals, The Waiting Place) and Nick Conolly (Miasma, The Daze, The Waiting Place) knew that this was the birth of something special.

The next 6 months saw the band work on improvisational material, combining structured songs with spontaneous jams. During this time, The boats recorded various rehearsal sessions to tape, including some amazing moments in the beautiful Olinda hills...some of these moments were compiled into a 2003 demos EP.

The boats played their first show at Good Morning Captain in early 2004, with long improvisational jams that captured the ears and curiosity of many punters. The live gigs continued, followed by radio interviews. But it was the Museum show with Seascapes of the Interior & Chris Cobilis (The Tigers) that developed the band's reputation as a new, unique and dynamic force. This paved their way for higher profile shows including a packed mini-EP giveaway gig with Black Cab at The Tote, at which one punter aptly described them as "...the band who should have written the soundtrack to Surf Nazis Must Die".

After 2004 the boats went into hiatus for a year and regrouped in 2005, and the magic was still there, even after so long apart. Overdubs for their overdue debut album (that begun in 2004) were finished and the band returned to the live scene again. In 2006 between balancing their own projects, the boats managed to compile a few album tracks and two live rehearsal tracks recorded in May 2006, to make the EP 'Perennial Love'. Released as a short run through Big Rig Records. It was a chance to promote the band again and prepare listeners for what was to come. The boats had a packed out EP launch at the Empress Hotel in Oct ‘06, with support from The Spheres, and some generous airplay on PBS and RRR FM. In the same year the boats also played some stand out shows, including a gig with Lions Light, The Spheres and Guns of St Sebastian at Loop Bar ‘electundra sessions’ in Oct, and won over a crowd at Rubys Lounge. The boats also began production on their second studio album in the summer of 2006.

Throughout 2007 the boats played in various venues to a collective of bands and live music goers, including an instrumental night called 'The Drawing of Sound', organised by Zac Keiler (instrumentalist and label owner of Dreamland Recordings), with some other great local acts including Cam Butler, Three Month Sunset and Retail Fireworks. An Internet radio site called New Found Frequency recorded the concert, and Jona was interviewed about the progress of the band and their plans. During 2007 the boats also played at Spoon Bar as part of the Sydney Rd, Brunswick Music Festival, a sold out show at The Empress of India with Retail Fireworks, two dynamic shows at Forepaw in July and December and they won the audience of carni freaks and punters at 'Angel Circus' at the Noise Bar in November.

The boats are an atmospheric, dynamic and a beautifully improvised instrumental experience, creating sonic sketches of looped guitars, bass and drums... conjuring up moments of Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, The Necks, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Ennio Morricone, Set Fire to Flames, Dirty Three...while at the same time remaining truly unique in their delivery. Often being described as surf-rock, post-rock and even 'the new jazz'. The boats delivered their debut album 'Los Musicos Perdidos' in 2007.

Review From Silent Ballet

The boats – Los Musicos Perdidos - 2007

I often believe that there is an accompanying geography to any given piece of music, whether apparent on the surface or buried deep in the psyche of the work. On The Boats’ Los Musicos Perdidos, the geography is striking.

Reverb and tremolo heavy, yet crisp guitars and soft-brushed snares illuminate sagebrush covered flatlands and jutting plateaus defined by drenching, unrelenting sun. The curiosity here is that the geography of Los Musicos Perdidos is most readily identifiable as American, at least the West and Southwest. However, The Boats hail from Australia, Melbourne. Having never been to Australia, I can only imagine that there are similar landscapes with which to relate their sound to.

On "The Sea is in The Boat," guitars softly duel as a pair of gunslingers reluctant to draw first. Instead, they dance awhile, awaiting the other’s move with light cymbal work as spurs underfoot. There is hope in their tone, tinged only by the pragmatic knowledge that an end must come. The slow, rising horns of "Little Black Rays Of Hope" immediately call to mind Ennio Morricone and the undying butt of a cigarillo cornered in the thin lips of a lone drifter. Then there are the slow clacking castanets and shakers of "Strawberry," a song that is undeniably the soundtrack to a tracker hunting down a fugitive. Cello slinks along the ground like a rattler idly passing the hooves of the tracker’s horse, and when he spots his target, the tempo surges as the chase is on. All the while, coursing through the eight songs, which average out at nine minutes a piece, there is an arid heat that boils all about.

It is anticipation, alertness, hyper awareness in a vast emptiness filled by the sounds of despair. Part of what is amazing about this continuity of mood in sound is the evident freedom by which it was produced. According to what little is written about this band, they loosely compose pieces and fill in the rest with improvisation. It works quite well, because there are only a couple little minutes of meandering. Most noticeably in "Warmth From A Window," when they shift between motifs on a chord change and the piano seems to be struggling to find its place. However, it does and the song remains relatively unharmed, as does their particular sound. A sound that is unafraid to point to its influences like friends in the crowd. There are certainly touches of Red Sparowes, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and the most recent manifestation of Do Make Say Think contained in Los Musicos Perdidos. While The Boats are certainly unabashed at playing to their influences, they do not become engulfed by them. Nor are they swallowed by the unforgiving geography of their sound. - Gabriel Bogart