Old Mervs ProfileDavid House and Henry Carrington-Jones are somewhere between one massive tour and another, waiting for a connecting flight home from LAX after a huge run of shows across the US.
As they join for a chat via Zoom from the airport floor, they're tired, jet lagged, and have every reason to switch off for a while.
Instead, they're talking excitedly about getting home, releasing their second album, and heading straight back out on the road. It's a pretty good snapshot of exactly who Old Mervs are.
There's no pretense to the duo. What started off as two childhood mates playing music together casually has turned into one of Australia's fastest-rising indie rock stories.
It's seen them go from small pub stages to headline shows across the country, with their upcoming Australian tour including iconic venues like Melbourne's Forum, and they're still approaching it with the same uncomplicated enthusiasm that got them here in the first place.
Their second album, Carparks, arrives today, October 2nd, just over a year after the release of their debut record. On paper, that's a remarkably short gap between albums, particularly for a band whose trajectory has moved so quickly.
But the reality is that much of Carparks was written before their debut had even been released.
"The writing process was similar for both of them," Carrington-Jones shares. "We wrote them in the same little shed, and we wrote half of it and recorded half of it a week before the first album came out, which was kind of weird."
It meant that Old Mervs were essentially moving into the next chapter before they'd even had the chance to sit down and process the first one.
This was partly intentional – after years of gradually growing an audience, the pair suddenly found themselves with momentum behind them, and rather than stepping away from it, they wanted to keep moving.
"We just wanted to keep striking while the iron was hot," Carrington-Jones points out. "We have the ability to record and release so easily these days, so we had written a body of work and we just wanted to get it out there and tour it."
Although there was a certain logic to that, especially since some of the songs on the debut record were now years old, the downside was that the speed of it all left little room for reflection.
Their debut was still fresh when they were already deep into the next collection of songs, meaning they didn't necessarily have the luxury of taking everything they had learned from that record and applying it to the next one.
Playing the songs live, however, did give them some insight.
Once an album moves from the studio to the stage, songs start taking a life of their own. The duo found themselves thinking about what was missing from their live set and what they might want to explore next.
"After playing [the tracks live], you see the real catchy songs that are very upbeat and go, 'we should write one or two like that'," House explains.
By the time Old Mervs were touring their debut, they were itching to create something new. The biggest challenge was avoiding the trap of simply recreating what had already worked.
One of the more significant moments came with the release of What You've Lost, which received a level of immediate attention the duo hadn't experienced before.
Their music had generally grown organically through word of mouth, and listeners gradually stumbling across them, so suddenly having a song connect so quickly presented a new kind of pressure.
"When we released that song, and initially the reception was quite good, we just hadn't had that before." Carrington-Jones says. "With that one doing what it did, it was hard to go back into the studio and not just try and do that again."
That temptation could have easily resulted in Carparks becoming a carbon copy of their debut, but instead the pair allowed themselves to experiment a little more.
It's unmistakably an Old Mervs record, but there's a little more maturity in the songwriting and a willingness to stretch the sound without losing the character that's at the centre of the band.
"We think that this album was more intentional, but we still just went in there and wrote what we wanted to write," Carrington-Jones explains.
That last part is particularly important, because while Carparks might represent natural progressions, it also captures a band who was figuring out how to move forward without losing sight of what got them here in the first place.
They admit that somewhere in the rush from one album to the next, they lost a little bit of their usual process.
The pair don't actually spend a huge amount of time writing together. Instead, they tend to work separately and come together when they feel like they have the material to make a record.
After Carparks, they plan on changing that.
"I think once this album tour is done, we just want to try and start again," House says.
The plan is to build a small studio and return to something closer to the way they operated back in the earlier days.
There's no release date hanging over their heads, no expectation that they need to immediately follow this album with another. They can sit in the same room, throw ideas around, record things, scrap them and start again.
"We're going to set up a little studio and just treat it more like we're a band starting again," Carrington-Jones says, "and do it how we used to do it, because I think we lost our way of how we usually go about being a band."
It's a very reflective mindset from a band that is ready to charge into whatever comes next.
While they might think about slowing down slightly, the eagerness is very much still there. They're already thinking ahead about a third record, even with Carparks yet to be released, but this time they want the process to be part of the point.
This balance between momentum and familiarity has been something that's followed them overseas, too.
Old Mervs' music feels like quintessential Australian indie rock, with a distinctly local sound, making their foreign overseas audience particularly interesting.
In the US, they're playing to smaller crowds, but those audiences can be more deeply invested because they've actively gone looking for the band.
"It's definitely like an element of novelty for them, so that really carries it a bit," House says, "They're really into it musically, probably more so than Australia.
"I think we often find them a very attentive audience, but a lot of fun. Last night in Seattle was wild, it was a very good show. It was like playing pub shows again in Australia."
"It varies city to city," adds Carrington-Jones. "Coastal towns are always the bigger ones for us over here in America, they very diverse crowds throughout the whole country. And even in the UK, Wales realistically was a 200-cap venue and it's probably in my top three shows ever."
After some massive overseas shows, though, there's still nowhere they'd rather be than home.
Their upcoming Australian tour feels like a full-circle moment for the duo. They're returning with their second album under their belt, playing venues that would have once felt impossibly big.
"We're really excited, to be honest, more than anything," House admits. "Home shows, rowdy crowds, new songs, and then the big venues – it all adds up. You could have no energy and you'd still be super keen."
The lack of energy is something they might have in abundance by the time they get home. But even from an airport floor on the other side of the world, it's obvious that the idea of coming home and doing it all again is enough to keep them going.
"I'm very keen to play She Said in Australia," notes Carrington-Jones. "Since we released it, it was our favourite single, and we've only been able to play it overseas. We're keen to go back home where it's had a good reception."
"I'm keen to play Backed Up," House says, before clarifying, "Oh, It's called Stacked Up now, sorry.
"We did call it Backed Up, and then it sounds like we've got a toilet issue, so we got rid of that. Good spot by our producer."
This small detail sums up Old Mervs really well.
They don't take themselves too seriously but they care deeply about what they're doing. Their songs are open and honest, their stories are personal and their music has grown because people have connected with it.
But for all the rapid growth, international touring and increasingly big venues, David and Henry still feel like the same two mates who started making music together years ago.
They're not trying to be anything other than themselves. Of course, they're happy to keep cracking along while the momentum is there, but they're self-aware enough to recognise when they need to step back, get in a room together and remember why they started.
Caparks is the next phase of Old Mervs, but it's not the final destination. This era has given them a clearer idea of where they want to go next and how they want to get there.
For now, though, there's a stellar album to release, a country to tour and a whole lot of new songs they can't wait to play at home.
Old Mervs' Carparks is out now. Tickets to their Australian tour dates are on sale now.
Old Mervs – 2026 Tour Dates
In-Store Signing
Sunday, October 4th – Mills Records, Fremantle, WA (In-store signing)
Australia/New Zealand Carparks Tour Dates
Friday, October 9th – Forum Theatre, Melbourne, VIC (18+)
Saturday, October 10th – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW (LIC/AA)
Friday, October 16th – Fortitude Music Hall, Fortitude Valley, QLD (LIC/AA)
Friday, October 23rd – Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide, SA (LIC/AA)
Saturday, October 24th – Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS (LIC/AA)
Saturday, October 31st – Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA (LIC/AA)
Thursday, November 5th – The Loons, Christchurch, NZ (18+)
Friday, November 6th – San Fran, Wellington, NZ (18+)
Saturday, November 7th – Double Whammy, Auckland, NZ (18+)
Also appearing at…
Saturday, November 14th – Handpicked Festival, Langhorne Creek, SA
Saturday, November 28th – Rolling Sets Festival, Tweed Heads, NSW
Saturday, December 5th – Rolling Sets Festival, Newcastle, NSW
December 27th-28th – Le Currents Festival, Riverside Park, NZ
December 29th-January 1st – The Great Escape Festival, Redbanks, Nugent, TAS
December 30th-January 1st – NYE On The Hill, South Gippsland, VIC
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
