No Frills

Building on the success of their triple j Hottest 100-endorsed single, Cherry Lips, with their well received debut album, Gloamer last October, Loon Lake kicked off 2014 with a bang, wooing Big Day Out audiences with their singalong indie-rock sounds.

“That's what it's all about, isn't it – to have people sing your songs is pretty self-gratifying, I guess, or just overwhelming nearly,” starts guitarist Simon Nolan. “It's awesome, and that tour was a good tour – it was good fun. The fans were good, the shows were good and the other bands were great… Yeah we were stalkin' all the crew… I tried to stalk Chris Lilley – he was probably my favourite that I saw backstage but I think I shook his hand but I didn't get to talk to him...” he laughs, recalling the behind-the-scenes shenanigans and explaining why his frontman brother gets all the celebrity photo action on their Facebook. “Sam's the only recognisable one from the band so we just put him in all the photos… I saw Chino [Moreno of Deftones] at the afterparty at Perth for a couple of minutes in the toilet. He was a good dude – a nice dude… There's nothin' to take out of context, I was just in the toilet!”

With more festival fun scheduled for Groovin The Moo, in the meantime Loon Lake are hitting the road for a headline tour in their biggest venues to date with Brisbane's ultimate party bro Jeremy Neale in tow. “I had nothin' to do with the naming of the tour so you can't blame me – if you don't like it you have to take it up with someone else in the band!” laughs Nolan at the suggestion the band didn't think too long and hard about that one. “We're really excited – we're obviously practising hard now. I'm just unloading the car and doing heaps – I've got a million things goin' on!” Nolan says with one eye on the clock as he runs late for rehearsal and considers whether festivals or headline shows are his favourite.

“We can play a little bit more deeper into changin' the arrangements a bit and playin' a few songs off the album that you wouldn't see in a festival set [on this headline tour]… but they've both got their pros and cons. I enjoy playin' the festivals but I think I enjoy our own shows more because they're your crowd and you can play for a bit longer and play some of the songs that wouldn't go down at a festival so great.”

With touring commitments until mid-May and a prevailing devil-may-care spirit, Nolan says the boys are under no pressure to produce new material just yet.

“We've been workin' on new songs – I wouldn't say there's any album getting planned or any official plans yet but we've been definitely makin' new tracks and trying to write some songs. I think we'll just try and keep pushin' forward…”