Glass editor, Tione, sat down with Oscar and Robbie from Liquid Sun, one of the bands competing in Battle of the Bands this semester. They’ll be performing in Week 3, against Georgia Scarlett Band, on August 6th at the Botanic Bar. The band is made up of Oscar Holt (drums), Robbie Harris (vocals), Gus Oostenbroek (rhythm guitar), Johno Russell (lead guitar), and Hudson Seefeld (bass). They chatted about Dave Grohl, Knebworth Festival and Adele (and of course, Battle of the Bands).
Tione: Can you tell us a bit about how you became a band?
Oscar: So, when we were in Grade Nine, me and Gus, our rhythm guitarist, started jamming in my house and playing Nirvana and Foo Fighters covers, that sort of thing. Eventually, we all linked up in school with a music class, and from there, we’re just like, we sound pretty good. We should start doing this outside of school. So, we started jamming a bit, playing a couple house parties, writing a couple of songs, recording a couple of songs. And here we are today. That’s pretty much the story.
T: How did you come up with your band name?
Robbie: To be completely honest, we were thinking about a name for a while. And then we got ‘Liquid Sun’ out of Hudson, the bass player. He said, “we’ll use Liquid Sun until we think of something better”. And then we stopped thinking, and it stuck. And people started calling us Liquid Sun, and it grew on us. We enjoy the name now.
T: How has being part of the QUT community impacted your growth as an artist?
R: In the QUT community, even outside of music, you get a lot of new experiences. You meet a lot of new people and see people from all different walks of life, it’s sick. And you can draw on that, especially in the writing process. You can use it create a lot of different ideas, which is what I kind of did with our newest stuff.
T: What QUT resources or opportunities have been particularly helpful for you?
R: I’d definitely say the studios and the rehearsal spaces. The studios are absolutely amazing at KG campus, up in Z Block, that you can literally just book out for free. The access is incredible. It makes the recording and production process a lot easier.
T: Who are your biggest influences in music and how have they shaped your sound?
O: For me I’m pretty black and white. I like mainstream rock, so I’ll have my Foo Fighters, Chilli Peppers, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, you know, that kind of stuff. All the classics.
T: (coughs) Basic.
O: Well, I sugar-coated it, didn’t I? (Laughs) Chad Smith, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins are big drumming influences for me, but I wouldn’t say I like to model my style after them because I also like to draw from different areas. I was classically trained in school – I played a bit of jazz, played in orchestras as a drummer and percussionist. So, being classically trained, I take some things from different areas that I’ve picked up over the years and then incorporate it into a broader rock setting.
R: For me, my influences growing up were given to me by my parents. So, my mom (very Irish) had a bit of a leniency to the northern hemisphere and the rock music coming out of there. So obviously, U2 and all that, but because she’s a mother, she had Adele, as well. Love her, great stuff coming out of her. I’ve been going down a bit of Aussie rock rabbit hole at the moment. There’s a really cool band out of Western Australia, South Summit, that I’ve been getting into a lot. Blue Juice was big for me, I love them.
T: If you could perform at any venue or festival in the world, where would it be and why?
R: Knebworth Festival, headlined by ourselves, Liquid Sun. No one else. No festival. Absolutely amazing.
O: I’d love to do Lollapalooza, or something in Argentina or Brazil, that sort of South American area. The crowds there just look insane and if we could get to a level where we’re exposed to that, then awesome, I’m set. That’s life complete.
T: If you weren’t making music, what do you think you’d be doing instead?
O: Reading books, studying. I don’t really do much else. I think my life would be very boring without music.
R: Same. Music is very important. I don’t know what else I’d do. It takes up a lot of time. Listening, playing, and writing are a very big part of my life. I probably do a bit of meditating every now and then, maybe some yoga. Big fan of the downward dog.
T: What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s happened during one of your gigs?
O: My parents are some of our biggest fans, and so are all of our parents, and it occurs often that I get abused by the crowd to take my pants off [at a gig].
R: So, feel free to do this.
O: I don’t know if it’s embarrassing or if it’s just a thing. I don’t actually do it! It’s just bullying.
R: I would love to tell you how this started happening. But we don’t know. I think it happened once at a house party. It started with the shirt, which was a bit more normal, but it then evolved. He doesn’t do it, well that we know of. I mean, he’s behind me on stage so I can’t tell, maybe he does get his kit off. I’m not sure.
T: I guess you’ll have to come to Battle of the Bands to find out.
R: Is this good promo?
T: Oh, for sure! Who is your dream collab for a track or album?
R: Uncle Dave Grohl. I think he’d be sick. He’d probably just do everything for us. So, that’d be a nice one to have. He’s also he’s got a fair bit of experience that fella, just a little bit. Bit of Nirvana, bit of Fooies. They did okay. Yeah, I’ll go Dave.
O: I’m gonna say our mate Vlad’s. We’ve played a couple of gigs together, like headline-opener sort of relationship. I think, working with more local artists in our scene would really benefit us as musicians.
T: Do you have anything you want to say to the audience or perhaps the Georgia Scarlett band who you’re up against?
R: We’re very excited for Tuesday, I think it’s gonna be a great evening. We checked out Georgia’s stuff on Spotify, and we think it’s really cool. So, it’d be a nice evening of different styles, but I think they’ve got really cool music. We’re looking forward to checking out Georgia. And hopefully, you know, people respond to our stuff as well. So hopefully it’s just a good evening. Everyone has a good time. But yeah, we’ve been Liquid Sun, we’re on Spotify and Instagram. Please help us, I don’t want to work anymore. I want to play music.
The Glass Magazine X QUT Guild Battle of the Bands has returned for Semester 2! Last year was such an absolute blast that we are pitting the bands of QUT against each other once again. You don’t want to miss this amazing event, so make sure you register on QPay to get all the details. We’ll see your there!
