Today we bring you…The Dunes. And they are almost like they say “The love child of The Doors and The Black Angels” . And if you’re wondering who The Black Angels are after you have finished listening to The Dunes and you find yourself digging the sound, look them up. I am a huge fan of modern day psych, The Dunes are a bit more than the Doors meet The Black Angels, you can add some Cream, some Jefferson Airplane take a trip back to the summer of love and time propel yourself through the 90’s and then back to today. Anyway you can make that trip, be sure to have The Dunes on heavy rotation. It’s all just a state of mind and The Dunes can turn you on to some of the best new psych around, so kick back a little and let them take you for a ride….
MEET……THE DUNES
Hi our name is….
The Dunes
People say we sound like…..
the love child of The Doors and The Black Angels
We are….
Stacie Reeves – Vox & Percussion
Matt Reiner – Guitar
Dan Fernie-Harper – Drums & Percussion
Jess Honeychurch – Organ & Drone box
Adam Vanderwerf – Bass & Synth drones
We are from…….
Adelaide, Australia
Who are some that have an influence on you
We have wide and varying musical tastes. In terms of musical influence for the bands writing, we look into our hearts and make the music that we want to hear. We love equal amounts of reverb and fuzz, so in that regard some current artists that we love are The Black Angels, Dead Skeletons, Black Mountain, The Brian Jonestown Massacre & The Black Ryder. Going back into the history of music, bands like 13th Floor Elevators, Pink Floyd (syd barrett is a god), The Zombies, The Doors, Jesus & Mary Chain all feel like the soundtracks to our lives.
Gram Parsons or The Doors…
The Doors. Once you hear “The End” you’re a changed person. They had the perfect balance of light and dark in their music that will outlive all of us.
How old were all of you when you started to play and who plays what in the band
We have all been in the Adelaide music scene for a while in different projects with varying levels of success. We were all brought up on a healthy dose of music, and started playing at an early age. Some of us have classical training, others have forged ahead using our ears, but its what each of us bring individually to the music that makes The Dunes who we are.
Can you tell us about the process you use, from writing the songs all the way through getting the songs out
At the beginning the band was a duo, the core being Stacie and Matt. Matt would arrange the guitar parts and then work with Stacie on the vocal harmonies. Soon after this, Dan and Adam joined the band, and we built some of the songs from the solo structures. Jess joined soon after – and we began writing as a group more. Our favourite way of writing is to set up in our practice space and jam ideas. We will record what we can and then listen back to bits we like and work on them. There is no one person who writes the songs in the band, its a group effort and we inspire each other to be the best musically that we can be.
what are some of the challenges you face as musicians and how have you overcome those challenges
I think the biggest challenge we have at the moment is the location and size of Adelaide. Its a small scene here, everyone knows everyone, and there are only so many times you can play with the same bands before you want to spread your musical wings. We have been lucky enough to meet some great people in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane who help us when we travel for shows in their cities (big props to Dead Radio, Buried Feather, The Citradels, Flyying Colours, Dreamtime). Don’t get me wrong here, we love the Adelaide scene and the “musical family” we are part of. Ill use this time to share some of the local bands we love: Glass Skies, Battlehounds, Urtekk, The Sloe Ruin, Archers, The Villenettes, West Thebarton Brothel Party….
If you could pick any time to travel back to for music, where would you go and what year would it ….
I’m currently reading the Neil Young book “Waging Heavy Peace” and its invigorating my love for Crazy Horse. If I had to choose a time and place it would have to be California in 1969/1970. The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Crazy Horse, Moby Grape, Count Five, Quicksilver Messenger Service…. The list goes on.
Who are all of you currently listening to ….
The band has a wide and varied taste of music. 2 of us are regular Dj’s in venues around Adelaide so we are always on the hunt for new and old music. Some bands that we have been giving a lot of spins are King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Can, The Murlocs, 13th Floor Elevators, Humble Pie, Chain, as well as some local bands like Black Coral, Battlehounds, Glass Skies and more.
If you could open for any Band right now who would that be and why?
Locally we would love to open for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Again… we played with them late last year in Adelaide), and internationally The Jesus And Mary Chain have been playing again so being able to share stage with a band like that would be a dream come true.
My youngest son is 13 and in a Band, what advice would you offer him…
Don’t follow the latest trends, Follow YOUR passion and find YOUR sound.
your thoughts on the state of rock ‘n’ roll in 2015…..
Trends may come and go, but the true idea of Rock ‘n’ Roll is always going to live. There are so many bands doing so many great things. If you are passionate about something, then its going to flow through to your work.
Our plans for 2015…..
We are in the midst of preparing for our spiritual journey back to Austin for Levitation 2015 (previously called Austin Psych Fest). it will be the third time we have visited, and a dream would be to get invited to perform one year. We just released our single “When You Wake Up” and have another one in the final stages of mixing/producing. We have some exciting shows to announce in July for people in Adelaide, and then looking at an Australian East Coast tour in the late part of 2015. Other than that – we are currently writing and demoing new material in preparation for the next EP.
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