All About The Big White Haunted House In Sydney

Ghosts are something rarely seen. For Jack Wotton, the spirits that haunt the house he shares with his fellow Big White band members exist as a "feeling" rather than a physical entity. "There are energies in the house, like, if the air has stayed still for too long and no one's moved through it, and then when you do go through your house it's quite close to solid and a bit icy. When I first moved in… there hadn't been anyone living in the back house for a month. I remember the first night walking in, it was dark, which didn't help, and there was a strange energy. I've noticed it since. You don't really wanna be on one side of the house alone. It's a bit etch," Wotton describes with a shiver. The sharehouse has a history that could be attributed to such paranormal energies — beginning as a surgery, it was subsequently transformed into a brothel, a boarding house, a "houso" block and "now it's a sharehouse for hopeless people in their early to mid 20s. It's a bit of a madhouse, it's falling to bits".

"You get fed you, get watered, you get bedded, you get paid well. Europe's next level in that sense, they're really organised."

Living with five bandmates sounds like a recipe for trouble — how many bands have fallen apart from rising tension in the confined space of a tour bus over the years? But Big White are "kind of like a — for the lack of a better cliche — a family I suppose", he says bashfully. "I was in London recently and we ran into our mates from Hockey Dad, and their manager was like 'So you've been on tour for a while now, are you guys still friends?'" he laughs. "And I was like, 'I wouldn't say we're more than friends, I'd say we're beyond friends.' We already love each other, but I guess we kind of learnt to get along. When you're cleaning up after someone or they're cleaning up after you… you kind of learn to be civil."

They must have it down pat — even splitting the songs evenly between their three singers for live gigs sounds like it's done without protest. It's outsiders that's the problem. "Every, I'd say, two out of the three reviews that we get have said 'Nicholas Griffith's singing on Teenage Dream blah blah...' and they always muck it up, every time. And how do you know? You gotta look at a picture of someone and go 'He looks like he has a deep voice/he looks like he yelps like a puppy.' Everyone's got their favourites… You don't wanna get caught on the Ringo side of things, that's for sure!"

After covering "9,200 miles" of touring in America, and multiple dates across Europe, Big White have become a little more worldly. Wotton reckons that "rock'n'roll is still alive" in the USA, observing bands like their own "constantly touring… They link up all these circuits, it's crazy. There's an optimism". As for Europe, "There's a lot more venues [than Sydney]. And Europe is completely different — the way you get treated as an artist. I was just saying to a friend: you get fed you, get watered, you get bedded, you get paid well. Europe's next level in that sense, they're really organised. Europe is like 'wow', a bit of gratitude."