Coming off the back of garnering international and widespread domestic acclaim through the release of their debut LP Flowers, Pacific Avenue are emerging into new sonic territory in their latest – Lovesick Sentimental.
It’s a marginal departure from the heavy, traditional rock sounds of Flowers, moving towards a sound that captures stadium rock ballads.
It’s been a long time since the boys behind Pacific Avenue cut their teeth at the notable Wollongong venue Radbar – an 80 or so capacity venue run by the people behind Yours & Owls. The live performance space acted as an opportunity for emergent bands to play shows free of all that goes into performing in bigger spaces.
And yet since then Pacific Avenue released an EP – Strawberry Skies, 2019, hosting hit songs like Someday Soon, and Something Good. The EP gained them popular interest in Australia, where eyes began watching and ears began listening to them.
From there, the hard-hitting Flowers became their first full-length LP release, shared with the world in 2023. The album carried rock anthems like Strawberry Daydream and Easy Love, capturing a riff-driven, full-bodied sound that echoed the era of classic rock bands gone by, wrapped up in their own unique expression.
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Flowers hit #1 on the ARIA Australian Album Chart, #3 in the ARIA overall Album Chart, as well as receiving two ARIA Nominations for Best Rock Album and a whole other suite of recognition and praise.
But it captured the world too, and has resulted in the band building a fan base in Europe, UK and USA since, supporting the likes of the DMA’S and touring their own headline run in North America. Now, this week sees the band release their latest project, Lovesick Sentimental, which acts as an ode to the sounds the band grew up with in the ‘90s.
Pacific Avenue have already released four singles and accompanying music videos from Lovesick Sentimental, including the recent Eat Me Alive, a song that captures the depth and layering so apparent in the sound that makes up the rest of the album.
Drummer Dom Littrich spoke to The Music about the band’s trajectory since the days of growing up together in Kiama to where they’ve arrived today standing on the precipice of releasing their second studio album, embarking on an Australian wide tour, followed up by a big European and UK tour.
“It was Rad Bar and the existing music scene in Wollongong and surrounds that really brought us together,” explains Littrich. “That place was a tiny little like 80-person capacity room that was run by the Yours & Owls crew, it was where we had our first gig.
“It was a hub for music, you’d just rock up and you wouldn't even know who's playing, but it was just such a scene. Around that time, we were all at the same school, but a couple years apart. Everyone knows everyone, small town vibes.
“Ben Fryer [lead guitarist], lived about 50 metres away from me, and I could often hear him playing guitar from my house, and I'd go around and jam with him, it was sick to be so close.”
Those foundations were built very early on in the entanglements the boys established. However, it was the defining moment of lead singer Harry O’Brien being invited to a jam session that catalysed the band’s formation and subsequent releases.
“When we first started in 2017, we just had this jam session where Harry came along and something clicked,” outlines Littrich. “We all thought he was such a great guy and so we formed this friendship. Within a few months, we decided we'd move out together.
“We found a place in Woonona, that was a little crack shack near the beach. All our music gear was constantly set up, and that’s where we wrote that first EP. It was something good, like a fountain of youth kind of vibe. We had no real worries at all, we were barely working and shared one piece of furniture in the house. It was a formative period of life for us.”
It’s arguably this devotion to music, enjoyment of life and developing relationship that set the tone for how the band creates music. In the case of Flowers, the album came about through jamming.
“We went up to Byron Bay to Chris Collins’ studio for a couple weeks and we jammed it all out. We set up in this one room and just jammed, it felt really collaborative. It was kind of everything linked together.”
And then with the latest Lovesick Sentimental, Pacific Avenue had set forth to mature the sound of the band. It was a few extenuating circumstances that led to them having more time than initially anticipated to build it into the project it has become.
“This last album was a bit of a process,” exclaims Littrich. “We had a few factors that were out of our control. We linked up with producer Doug Bowen from LA, kicking things off after our headline tour over there. But then the fires happened in LA, Harry got a bit sick, and everything was delayed.
“The silver lining was that it gave us a bit more time to create it all as a body of work rather stand-alone songs and singles. There’s an overarching theme, but we all agree as a band that it’s got this stadium rock kind of vibe. As in big sounds with lyrics that allow people to sing along in a ballad-type way.”
There’s an excitement building for Littrich and the band as they prepare to share Lovesick Sentimental as a recorded album as well as in a live context. The latter, despite its large sound in recorded form, allowing for the band to honour their origins as a group, that is to make space for jamming and improvisation when performing.
“We're definitely adding in sections, mash-ups and little extending periods in the tracks we will play live,” Littrich notes. “We want to emulate our jam sessions by adding another layer to it in the context of a performance.
Pacific Avenue’s Lovesick Sentimental is out now, with tickets to their upcoming Australian tour on sale now.
Pacific Avenue – Lovesick Sentimental Australian Tour
Supported by Daily J
Friday, March 6th – Astor Theatre, Perth, WA
Saturday, March 7th – Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide, SA
Friday, March 13th – Forum, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, March 14th – Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS
Friday, March 20th – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday, March 21st – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
