They'll Stone Ya

Pop music has been hard going in recent times. It's not pop music's fault, though; the dissemination of music online and the growth of the music industry have ensured that whatever 'pop music' is, it's not going to be something that can be easily pinned down. Because of this, there's a love-hate relationship towards the kind of music that traditionally gets classified as pop. Some see the melodies, hooks and harmonies as a statement of intent and solid structure; others see it as boring and derivative. With that idea in mind, Rainy Day Women have embraced the status of pop music, and come out on top.

The Perth four-piece haven't had long to acclimatise to the rollercoaster of being a nationally touring, triple j-touted band. Last year saw the release of their debut EP, Sleigh Bed; their lead single of the same name quickly hit high rotation, and the tour and festival invites started flooding in. “The last year has been pretty hectic,” leadman Dylan Ollivierre admits. “Like, we released the EP close to the start of the year, and then everything just happened from there. We didn't really get that much time to think about it from the start. It was just a process of readying ourselves, in a lot of ways. We didn't really expect so much of it, and I guess no one really does. But we really wanted to make something big of it, and I think we've done that.”

Some of the band's biggest achievements occurred only recently, when they were asked to play Southbound, Big Day Out and Laneway. Naturally, it was a herculean task for any band. “That was crazy,” Ollivierre says. “I think we got picked for those festivals all in a couple of weeks. It's quite daunting to go from a small amount of shows to quite a lot, and festival shows are something else again. I guess that our approach to playing hasn't changed that much, would you say?” he asks as he hands the question over to skinsman Dan Henry. “We've put a lot more pressure on ourselves to be better,” Henry adds. “We want to be the best we can, and we want to match the output and the experience of the other bands who are playing those festivals. There were definitely some moments where we realised that people have a certain expectation for us to be good, especially in those moments. So then it was like, 'Ok, we're supporting a national band, we don't want to embarrass ourselves, so we've got to step up.' And we haven't been afraid to do that.”

The music that has won so many commendations for Rainy Day Women, as mentioned, has all the hallmarks of pop music. The basics are there: strong vocal harmonies, catchy-as-hell guitar licks and a great homogeneity to the band. Where people might dismiss pop music as dull, these guys embrace it. After all, it's all in the name. “We have a really deep love for that '60s pop music, including Dylan,” Ollivierre states. “I think those classic melodies and the way those old songs and sounds make us feel has always been a big part of us growing up. It was always what our parents were playing, and I guess it just hit us back then, and still does now. I think a lot of contemporary bands, whether they realise it or not, are very much influenced by that era. Back then things seemed a lot simpler. Like, bands weren't really trying overly hard to make something different; they just loved making fun music to dance to. And that's what we've always tried to do,” he concludes.