Great news everyone! Pelican Magazine recently caught up with Conor Barton from Perth’s favourite sweet talking band, Mosquito Coast. They’re back in town on the 2nd of June for At First Sight, and would love for you to grab your tickets here.
(Pat Roso) Your ‘Sweet Talking’ tour wrapped up last month on the 9th of March and went all the way from Mountain Goat Valley Crawl in Brisbane to The Gasometer, Melbourne. Would you be able to share some of the highlights from this tour? Any challenges?
(Conor) The whole tour was incredibly fun, but our Perth show supporting Beach House was definitely a stand out. We’ve been such big fans of them forever, so to be able to share the stage with them was surreal. Our gig in Brisbane was also a highlight, it had a really sweaty basement vibe to it. Challenge-wise, we tried playing with some visuals on the fly for our Melbourne show and didn’t quite pull it off – the projector kept turning off, so we had the Acer screensaver for half the gig. A learning point though!
How has the band dynamic changed over time as you’ve grown and gained more experience in the industry?
We’ve definitely learnt a heap throughout the last three years. Touring has allowed us to tweak the live set to a point we are really confident with. I think as well, as we’ve grown up, we’ve come to understand that it’s okay to take things seriously and try and be a little professional. Especially with the new set up, everyone is super committed to keeping things really slick.
Do you feel there’s any pressure to keep performing and touring?
Not really, but that’s because the novelty of touring hasn’t worn off. Any chance to tour that comes our way, we’ll take. We all cherish the fact that we get to travel around as friends and play music.
Now that half the country has heard the first few songs, how are you feeling about the album?
We are so excited to release it. Naomi keeps saying that it’s like we’re pregnant and the baby is overdue – we’re ready to pop! The tour definitely made us feel ready to drop it and hear what people think.
And we’re eager to hear the rest of it! When can we expect this baby to be delivered?
Very. Soon. Keep an eye out 😉
Lastly, when can we expect to see you in Perth again? We should get you out at UWA sometime!
We’ve got some shows coming, playing At First Sight with Ball Park Music, Tia Gostelow, Alice Ivy and Spacey Jane on the 2nd June and then with Ball Park again in Bunbury on the 3rd June. So excited to play with them, I actually have a signed setlist of theirs from when they played Southbound years ago – I wonder if I should tell them that…
Interview by Patrick Roso, Music Editor