Finding "Eucalyptus Dream Pop" Off The Beaten Track

"I'm walking through a wasps' den," says Dane Taylor, frontman of Leisure Coast outfit Shining Bird, agitation audibly creeping into his laid-back Aussie voice. "I'm getting harassed here, I'm freaking out. Sorry, what was the question again?"

Taylor is in Valla Beach, en route from Austinmer to Byron Bay. Taylor and Russell Webster are Shining Bird's dual songwriters, but on stage they sprawl out to seven members. Save saxophonist Michael Slater, who hails from Nashville, the band grew up "in the Illawarra", spending their youth by the beaches. "Austinmer always been a bit of a holiday town for Sydneysiders to come to," Taylor offers. "So, you're always holding that feeling of what home means to you, versus what it means to the people who are just passing through."

"As a kind of cultural exchange, we were given a bush-tucker lesson, and a lesson in sand drawing."

Taylor and Webster started making music together after high school; Taylor broken-hearted after losing his first love. "I was pretty depressed, listening to a lot of super-emotional post-rock, like Sigur Ros and Explosions In The Sky, and really textural music, like Brian Eno and Steve Reich."

At first, they made layered soundscapes via loop-pedals, but slowly drew closer to pop, taking a crash-course in The Beach Boys songbook to learn "how to construct a song, and how to use harmonies". Shining Bird's first record, 2013's Leisure Coast, showed that formative influence: thick with textures, but also boasting bright single Distant Dreaming. To the band, the LP had a "coastal feel", so, for their second record, Black Opal, they sought "more of an inland feel".

Black Opal was recorded half in Austinmer, half in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. The band watched classic Australian films - Wake In Fright, Walkabout, The Last Wave - and took in the local landscape; calling the result 'Eucalyptus dream pop'. On Charlie, they dare to use didgeridoo. And single Helluva Lot, they summon the epic Oz-rock of the '80s, Taylor opening with the line "from the Great Dividing Ranges, River Murray, to the sea" as he depicts a sunburnt country on the brink of environmental collapse.

"We wanted to explore Australia, what it meant to be Australian. How we fit into that landscape, and how we fit in in general," Taylor offers. "We hoped that exploring these ideas would give us a sense of perspective. In the same way, we hoped that touring the record through Central Australia would give us a real sense of perspective."

Upon Black Opal's release, the band played a run of shows in the rarely toured heartland, travelling through the Woomera to Uluru and Alice Springs. "We camped along the way, and played shows as we went," says Taylor. "We did a show at one of the Aboriginal communities at Uluru, Mutitjulu, for the elders there, which was really special. As a kind of cultural exchange, we were given a bush-tucker lesson, and a lesson in sand drawing, the symbolism of what it means. It was very humbling, very grounding. It was the best tour we've ever done, and the best holiday I've ever had."