Shag Rock Ask The Tough Questions: 'Can You Be A Very, Very Part-Time Belieber?'

Trying to call Alex Wilson — lead vocalist and guitarist of salt-crusted Brissy outfit Shag Rock — is really bloody annoying. There's either no signal, the line drops out or his voice is reduced to a snap crackle and pop over a shitty connection. They're on tour and currently passing through the middle of buttfuck nowhere Victoria, doing what they do best — road tripping. "Ey, you got me, woohoo!" he laughs when we finally get a decent line. "We're at Bells beach right now. Surf is trash, like, eight out of ten trash," he sighs. "We've had a few days off while touring through Victoria so we're just chilling. Going to Bells beach, through Torquay. We went to The Twelve Apostles the other day. They're just rocks. You look at them for about five minutes and then go 'eh'." (You'd think with a name like Shag Rock they'd be moderately geologically inclined.) 

They're trotting around the country spruiking their second album Barefoot, which was recorded with Powderfinger's Ian Haug at Airlock Studios. "It was just good luck," Wilson answers when asked about connecting with Haug. "I dunno, we're really just running on a wave of good luck. I'll call you and tell you when it ends, but it hasn't ended yet! We recorded at his place... He listens to all the demos that go through there, he just walks up from his house. I'm fairly sure he just listened through and contacted us." So were they nervous meeting him for the first time? "Oh god yeah, I think everyone muzzes out to Powderfinger. It was pretty daunting, we were in Year Twelve or our first year of uni!" 

Their latest single Road Trip has an accompanying video that's very much in tune with the life they're living right now, recorded at various pit stops. "You know that big road that goes into Byron Bay? There's a little stop with a servo n' shit and there's a huge mural... There was heaps of busted up stuff — vacuum cleaners and dishwashers — and Jack just started swinging the vacuum cleaner!" he laughs when explaining some of the crazy antics happening in the background. So what's on Shag Rock's road trip playlist right now? "Justin Bieber melts my heart. Just that one song that he did with DJ Snake, I just can't get enough of it. It's unreal. Just that one song though, nothing else! Can you be a very, very part-time Belieber?" he defends. 

While he's "hell stoked" on how well the tour's going, he's making sure they're promoting their shows every way they can - including shameless advertising on Tinder. "Usually they're like 'Oh yeah, you're in a band?' and I'm like 'Go and look it up, maybe come to one of the shows' you know? 'Cuz every time we go to a new place you put a new description in. 'Playing Geelong tonight'. It's the 21st century, you gotta look wide." Hopefully it works. After all, their songs are inspired "mostly by chicks, even though we don’t know any chicks". Maybe go say hi if you catch them live? You could be the next Sunbleached Girl.