.

.

Interview with
THE BUOYS

(4th January 2023)

Interview by Dave Bruce

.

.

How did the band come together?
Zoe started The Buoys as a 3-piece in Cronulla back in 2016 and mostly played around there. She didn’t actually know the original members but was introduced by a friend. After a few years they all went traveling, some moved overseas and eventually stopped playing shows. When Zoe came back to Australia she was eager to get the band going again. After a tinder date, where Zoe wouldn’t shut up about how she was looking for a female identifying drummer, this date gave her Tess’ mobile number who hadn’t played drums in nearly 10 years but wanted to start playing again. Tess and Zoe met for coffee and within a couple of weeks played their first show as a 2-piece in Newcastle. Zoe had always been a fan of the several bands Courtney was in and eventually joined the band permanently after filling in on bass a few times. When Anthea, our old lead guitarist, left to go overseas, we put the word out and did a bunch of auditions and found Hilary who obviously blew us away, and continues to blow us away every time we play with her. We often say you can tell if someone is a ‘Buoy’ and we knew that straight away when meeting Hilary.

How would you describe your sound? Why do you think people resonate with your music?
Warm and fuzzy is usually the gist! Zoe writes quite autobiographically and we tend to sonically match the feeling of the experience being written about. There’s no better feeling than when people say a certain song got them through something, we get this a lot with ‘Lie To Me Again’, I think so many people can relate being lied to and Zoe will spit out how it made her feel and sometimes it matches what someone else is going through, it’s really special.

Which artist’s music and/or performance, past or present, inspires you today? 
We are all huge fans of live music, and we each have very different tastes and inspirations. We tend to aim to get a feeling across, rather than achieve a certain sound. Zoe is hugely inspired by artists from Taylor Swift to Parquet Courts, Tess loves the drumming of Matt Helders from Arctic Monkeys and music from Silversun Pickups to Nick Cave. Hilaryl is a professional jazz musician with her roots in Blues (and loves dance music) but you can also find her rinsing Beyonce, while Courtney lives and breathes Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Your next single ‘I Want You’ is going to be released this year. Describe its origin and evolution. 
We actually wrote ‘I Want You’ a while ago and thought about including it on our last EP Unsolicited Advice for Your DIY Disaster. It felt like something was missing so we put it away for a bit and focused on other songs for that body of work. Zoe then came up with a new chorus and it felt like that’s exactly what it needed, after this it fell together so quickly. It’s a ruckus song and it’s ridiculously fun to play live. It explores the classic ‘situationship’ and the fun energy of the instruments really try to match the lighthearted theme of the song. The funniest memory of recording this would definitely have to be the ‘WOO’ you hear in the intro, who could’ve thought getting the perfect ‘WOO’ could be so hard haha, we all went to Zoe’s house and recorded something like 20 woo’s, so the laughing you hear in the intro is us going a bit kooky from trying to get the perfect ‘WOO’ haha.

Is there an EP or Album on the drawing board?
YES! We are sitting on a mine of demos right now and writing a whole heap of songs for our debut album! 

Any tours or events coming up soon? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
We are opening for the Arctic Monkeys and DMAs at the Domain in January! We are huge huge Arctic Monkeys fans, so we are SO excited about this! Plus a bunch of festivals all through Jan to April, Alpine Valley vibes, Mardi Grad Fair Day, Van Fest… We love playing shows so we will be going hard!

.

.

If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why? 
We actually spoke about this recently and manifested some when Tess said her dream support would be Arctic Monkeys, which we’re doing in Jan! Zoe has too many but Taylor Swift would take the cake (because she is obsessed) Interpol and Ballpark Music are at the top of her list too. We would have to pick Nirvana FOR SURE. The Rolling Stones – Bruce Springsteen would be amazing, oh and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers! Can we just do all the shows?

What are your long-term aspirations as a music artist and how are you progressing towards them?
We would love to start touring overseas & playing iconic festivals like Glastonbury, Coachella. We’re just keeping our heads down and always continue to write and play fun shows, we’re all pretty driven women but whatever comes our way we’re stoked with it all.

With that in mind, what piece of advice would you give to an artist starting out? 
Join a band regardless of your music level. We hear people saying they’re too old to start learning an instrument, or aren’t quite good enough to join a band. But as soon as you join a band and start playing live shows, you improve so quickly and it is the most fun you’ll ever have. Music has a way of filling your life with amazing friends too. The main takeaway really is have fun and be kind, can’t go wrong with that.

What is the best thing about performing to a live audience? What’s been the career highlight so far?
We live for the live audience! On stage, it really feels like all the energy from the four of us combines into this powerful beam that projects out over the audience. We released ‘Lie to Me Again’ and the Unsolicited Advice For Your DIY Disaster EP during Covid, so emerging from what was a really rough time to suddenly seeing audiences all over Australia sing our songs back to us has been truly incredible.
Wow career highlight…we have so many pinch yourself moments!!!  It was pretty darn special when we opened for the Dandy Warhols and Hoodoo Gurus at a sold out Hordern Pavillion. For the Hoodoo Gurus’ final song, the Dandys and us jumped on stage singing backups and dancing around playing percussion, there was so much love on that stage!

Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – King Stingray’s self titled album
Artist – Baby Beef, Greatest Hits
Movie – Spinal Tap   
Place to visit – Brisbane for shows!
Venue to play – The Triffid 
Food – sushi
Drink – margaritas
Person in History –   Rosa Parks
Tattoo – (If you don’t have one, what would you get?)  we all got a Buoys tattoo when we got in the Hottest 100! So if we get in again we will have to get another! 

.

.

Follow THE BUOYS
Facebook – Instagram – Youtube – Tik Tok

.

Press Release November 2022 (below)

.

.

Photo – Nick Mick

.

The Mountain Goat Valley Crawl 2023 line up has finally arrived! Featuring 41 knockout artists, including The Terrys, The Buoys, and VOIID, scheduled to perform across 9 stages in Fortitude Valley.

Round up your wildest music loving pals and get ready for a long balmy evening of music and venue hopping through the Valley, on Saturday 11 February 2023. True to tradition, this will be an evening overflowing with bands and brimming with value – Mountain Goat Valley Crawl is one hundred percent free!

Curate the night you want to experience as you pick and choose your music while you meander through this extensive lineup of exceptional Aussie acts. Get introspective with Moon Saloon and their dreamy melodies and then join Sydney four-piece A.D.K.O.B for a set of experimental indie-rock and unapologetic songwriting. Delve into the depths of intimate indie-pop with Meanjin songstress Jem Cassar-Daley, and catch alt-rock shoe gaze Adelaidian three-piece Horror My Friend. Get happy and sad at the very same time with Sydney indie-rockers 90IVY and then get powered up with some no-nonsense power pop with LOUNGE. See the full lineup below, we guarantee that there is an act for every member of the pack!

And if this absolute onslaught of music wasn’t already enough, the festival will also be hosted by the ever entertaining, always hilarious, Aaron Gocs. Mountain Goat Valley Crawlers will gain access to nine of the Fortitude Valley’s most renowned venues, including icons like The Zoo, The Brightside, Black Bear Lodge and Rics Backyard as well as new-er venues like Suzie Wongs. Organisers advise festival attendees that each venue will work on a first-in best-dressed basis, with limited tickets available and registration essential.

Great beer and great times await you at the GOAT free festival, so hurry up and register now for the 2023 Mountain Goat Valley Crawl.

.

.

18+ EVENT
SAT 11 FEB | 5PM – 11PM
FREE ENTRY

PLUS 41 ARTISTS
ACROSS 9 VENUES

ARTISTS

THE TERRYS
THE BUOYS
VOIID

.

Follow THE MOUNTAIN GOAT
VALLEY CRAWL
Instagram – Facebook

Follow THE MOUNTAIN GOAT BEER
Instagram – Facebook

.

.

AMNPLIFY – DB