"We might have to get some paramedics at the shows, make sure no one twists too hard!"
Napier arose from a life-long friendship between frontman Nelson Dore and bassist James Taylor, who "went to school together" and played in various bands over the years. They started making music "about a year ago" and entered the Melbourne Music Bank competition, which awards local acts with prizes worth over $60,000. Placing in the top four, the experience "makes you realise that you've got something that could be good here. You start bonding over your songs, start making more songs, and realise that you might be good enough in a sense. It give you validation in your work, your creative process," explains Dore. "We thought we'd give it a crack and decided to record an EP and go from there."
"I feel like if you're not being honest with your song then that translates, and you don't feel better about it at the end, so being honest creates a more authentic product."
"[Performing] is always nerve-racking even after playing dozens of gigs. You don't quite know how the crowd's gonna go, you're quite vulnerable because you don't know how the song's gonna go because all our songs are quite experience-based stuff. It's putting our hearts on our sleeves, so you always get that feeling, but when a gig goes well it gives you a big adrenaline rush and there's nothing better really," he says of their subsequent shows.
Their debut EP Sundance Romance captures the essence of classic, sun-filled rock'n'roll, influenced by Dore and Taylor's childhood favourites. "Me and Jimmy grew up listening to the '60s records from The Stones and The Kinks and '70s stuff like AC/DC, David Bowie, T Rex, and that fun jive-y stuff I grew up on... those kinds of influences are embedded in the stuff that we create.
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"We've got a few fun songs that are about good times out with your squad I guess, and then other songs that I write that are quite intimate about things like break-ups and missing home kinda thing — the things that you feel that you're not sure other people feel but I guess when you put things on paper and people connect with it and you realise that other people have similar feelings... I just like to get honest feelings out, and I feel like if you're not being honest with your song then that translates, and you don't feel better about it at the end, so being honest creates a more authentic product."
Sundance Romance includes their lead single Shake! Shake! Shake! - which is a fitting description of their live act. "People are really embracing it," he enthuses. "At gigs, the crowd of people are dancing and having a good time. There's definitely a lot of hip shaking going on, a lot of twisting which is exciting to see, I guess it's the dance move for that song. The idea was to have dance moves that anyone can do; you definitely see a lot of twists happening at shows!" So is Dore's twist up to scratch? "I do my best," he laughs. "It is a dangerous move. Sometimes it overtakes you and you just twist and shout. We might have to get some paramedics at the shows, make sure no one twists too hard!"