For Ocean Alley, festivals are where it’s at

PHOTOS BY LINDSEY DADOURIAN

With the buzz of other bands playing on nearby stages, Pleaser spoke with bass player Nic Blom and lead guitarist Angus Goodwin from Australian band, Ocean Alley, at Austin City Limits. The six-piece has been on a festival run and Latin America tour in 2025, with dates in Australia planned for 2026. Blom and Goodwin spoke with Pleaser about different types of crowds, changes in the musical process and what potential collaborations would look like. 

Pleaser: Y’all just came out with a new album [Love Balloon]. Y’all have been around for a while now, how would you say the creative process has kind of changed over the years, as y'all have got more albums under your belt?

Nic Blom: I guess we spend a little bit more time demoing and sort of working on the finer part of the music than we did back in the day. We kind of used to throw stuff together and then just record it. These days, we kind of think a bit more about the production behind it and all that sort of stuff. It's just a natural growth in maturity and music.

What aspects go into the production now that wouldn't have when you were earlier in your career?

Angus Goodwin: I would say, just more time sort of writing parts for the songs. Try and make it more cohesive. And, yeah, just sounds you can create with your instrument. More thought goes into that the layering of all the instruments together works when it's unified.

So the writers room, or whatever you want to call it, it sounds pretty collaborative. Is that how y'alls process usually works?

NB: Yeah, definitely.

AG: We'll start by getting all six of us in a room, and then we'll just develop it from there, so it's a collaborative effort. And then [it’s] even [the] same as in the studio, we'll all be in there when everyone's recording their parts, and everyone's got an opinion.

A few years ago, y'all had kind of a viral hit with “Confidence.” When something like that happens, are you like, ‘oh God, now there's so many more people watching what we do.’ Or is it just like, ‘hey, that was cool.’

NB: It’s kind of just like, ‘yeah, that was cool.’ And I've never really had anything like that before. So, yeah, something different.

AG: Yeah, none of us have TikTok. So I'm not sure if we really knew the magnitude of what was happening – still don't really. Whatever was going on, it was cool that people were listening to an old song of ours again and enjoying it.

Do you find when you're going around the world and seeing different audiences, that people are having different reactions to your music, and you have to kind of tailor to how certain people react to different things? 

NB: There's a difference in crowds for sure. Some are more energetic than others, and some like different songs and stuff like that. But in general we just go out there and play a show and do what we do, I guess, and most of the time that's just how it goes.

Which places would have more energetic crowds?

NB: Florida is pretty wild, Texas is good.

I would hope so, we try to put on a good show. 

NB: Well we actually played a show last night in Houston, and that was, yeah, they were a good crowd. They were really into it, everyone was singing along.

AG: I feel like the main thing you notice is between weeknight crowds and weekend crowds. On a weekend anywhere in the world, people are having fun and letting their hair down. 

It's like, I've got work in the morning, I have to keep it to [a certain level]. When you perform at festivals, versus a show that people pay for, how do you captivate a crowd? How do you maintain an audience when people are kind of coming and going as they please? 

AG: There's not a lot you can do. You're grateful there's new people there that are experiencing music for the first time. But really, on our end, you're just playing your normal show,

NB: We're normally playing for a little bit shorter than we normally would. So you kind of just put more upbeat tracks and try to get people interested in dancing.

Is there something about festivals that y'all prefer over performing at a venue, or do y'all prefer performing at a venue? 

NB: At a festival it’s just 100 times better than sitting in a green room or venue. You don't have an artist area. It's just a way funner vibe at a festival than it is at your own show, just because there are so many people around and there are so many good artists around and there's music blaring everywhere. 

Y'all obviously collaborate a lot as a group. Do y'all have other artists or anything like that that y'all would want to collaborate with?

AG: I mean, we don't have anything in the works, but, I mean, maybe at some point –

NB: We're all into so many different styles of music as well. If someone's interested and they hit us up, it'd be kind of like, do we want to do something?

AG: Yeah, like collaborate with a person that plays an instrument that we don't have in the band, you know, [an] amazing saxophonist or something.

Oh, yeah, anytime I'm listening to a song and there's a saxophone, I'm like, oh, this is immediately 10 times better. How does it feel to represent Australia on an international stage? Because we have people, like, INXS, 5 Seconds of Summer, who are kind of like, ‘we are Australia.’ How does it feel to be a part of that group?

NB: We've never really thought about that too much. It's just fun to be overseas playing festivals, that's kind of the dream when you start playing a fair bit. Especially when you play heaps in Australia, and then your goals get bigger, and you want to do big festivals like this, and it's unreal to be able to actually do it — and surrounded by the world's best artist sort of thing, opposed to just being sort of a local festival or something like that.

Musically, what does the future look like for y'all?

AG: More of this! Hopefully we'll be on the road a fair bit and just listen to what we do, playing shows and enjoying and being grateful that we were able to do this.

NB: I think, just the album. We’ve been working on the album for a bit. So it's good to finally just have that out. Now I think we're just gonna be touring the record around, and then maybe next year we'll start writing some new stuff as well.