Road Dogs

For single number three, She's My Baby, Melbourne four-piece Kingswood turned to their live sound engineer, Cam Trewin, to better capture their energy, as the band's frontman, Fergus Linacre, explains. “We were very happy with the debut EP [Change Of Heart], but we wanted to try something different and knew Cam recorded well – he recorded Sasquatch and two others – and so we went in there [Woodstock Studios in East St Kilda] and worked it with him and loved it. We were able to play it live, which is kind of how we like to record, or at least the band [do]. The other producer wanted to break it up into little bits, and in the end it doesn't really sound like a band playing the song.”

Linacre and guitarist Alex Laska first played together in year six at school, Laska playing drums. “We were a terrible band,” Linacre admits. “And then I played in sort of punk rock bands with Justin [Debrincat, drums] – again me playing guitar. And then Al, he's quite an amazing musician, he went to VCA for piano and he's one of those guys who can pick up an instrument and play it better than you even though you've been playing it all your life – he's an arsehole! He played in jazz bands with Mango [bass player Jeremy Hunter], and then a few years after school, he just rang everyone up and said 'let's get a band together'. We'd always talked about it but he just made it happen.

“Alex is the driving force behind the writing, but a lot of songs are collaborations, and other people write songs as well. I write songs and Mango writes songs and so does Jay, but I struggle to write big fast rock songs – I dunno; it's not in me. I always write the ballad-y ones, and there are a few choruses that are mine that are hiding in these rock songs, and they're just these nice melodies that I can come up with. But Al's the main writer, but what happens is he'll bring a song and then the song isn't what it is until months later when everyone else adds their part in it. That's mainly how it works, but we don't really have a system.”

And so Kingswood were born: all big guitars, big choruses and two-part harmonies. Kicking off with lead track from that debut EP, Yeah Go Die, followed up by another EP track, Medusa, they quickly established themselves as a triple j Unearthed favourite, winning the Splendour In The Grass competition to join this year's line-up. Since then they've supported The Saints in Melbourne and played three sets over two Queenscliff Festivals, as well as playing the festival after-party. “We spend a lot of time on the road playing,” Linacre says, “I love being out there and meeting people and travelling around the country.”

As for the future, Kingswood have been announced as the main support for the national Grinspoon tour through March and April next year. And the boys are already looking at potentially recording the debut album overseas and are determined not to impose any limitations on the direction the music takes.

“I'm not ashamed to say that I've been just quietly looking at synths on the computer,” Linacre admits with a laugh. “When it comes to album time we don't any sort of restrictions on what we want to put out, and we don't want to do it to please anyone – we just want to try and have a great album that we love. Most of the songs are all there to some extent, we just need to fine-tune them into a little family of songs that's gonna work together.”

Kingswood will be playing the following dates:

Friday 14 December - Good God Small Club, Sydney NSW
Saturday 15 December - Rock Lily, Sydney NSW
Sunday 16 December - The Corner Hotel, Richmond VIC
Friday 21 December - Cherry Bar, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 30 December - Pyramid Rock Festival, Phillip Island VIC
Monday 31 December - Front Bar, The Espy, St Kilda VIC