Talented fourpiece alt-rock band Wooly Mammoth recently emerged from their basement in Bassendean to speak with Pelican about their music. You can catch this chill blend of alternative dream rock vibes live at their ‘Knew You At All’ Single Launch, February first at the Bird.
Listen to their music here: https://www.woolymammothband.net/
Pat Roso (Music Editor): Tell us about yourselves, I see you’re from Bassendean.
When we started a few years ago, our drummer at the time had a house in Bassendean so we used to rehearse in his basement. I remember at the time that his Mum used to send emails and stuff out for us, so that was pretty awesome.
He moved to Melbourne to study law, so we had to get another drummer so that became the line-up that we’ve been playing as for the last two years. But we sort of rehearse wherever, like Rock Scholars which is a music school over in Osbourne Park, or at my place in Bedford. A few of us also studied at WAPA.
PR: Oh wow, I guess it’s not the dodgiest thing to ever come out of a basement in Basso. What’s it like studying at WAPA, I hear it can be pretty full on.
Three of us are still there, Christian and I are going to third year and Josh was studying contemporary music with us but he’s just about to audition for Jazz. He’s good at counting.
PR: The band name then, Wooly Mamoth. How in the hell did you cook that one up?
Yeah nah, we were in this phase where we were just throwing around words and we would put another one before that word. Someone said, Christian, “Aw that was a Mammoth rehearsal” so then we started throwing the word Mammoth around. We put Chrome in front it, ending up with Chrome Mammoth so then someone said Wooly and that was the end of that.
PR: You’ve got some new music in the works I understand?
We’re always plugging away on something, we’re looking to release a new single at the start of February and then we’r eputting a new EP out in April.
Writing process?
There’s one guy that writes the chords, melodies, lyrics and stuff. That’s me! But nah, we’re pretty collaborative. Generally, I’ll write it, and then we’ll get in a room and chop, change stuff ‘till it’s where we want it to be.
It’s a creative democracy that’s for sure.
PR: What are your plans for the rest of the year then?
We’re playing four shows in February and one in March promoting the single and then in April we’ll do the EP and hopefully the bigger tour, probably throw in a double single around August and then re-assess. It’ll be cool to record an album.
PR: Where could we hear more of your music?
It’s all on Spotify, Triple J Unearthed is a good one and there’s a few cheeky things up on YouTube.
Words by Pat Rosso, Music Editor