Australian rockers Drenched bring a unique sound to the rock/post-hardcore genres, creating an awesome sound on their latest release, Slug. It’s a great track, leading me to delve deeper into their awesome back catalogue. If you like what you read in our interview with Thomas, don’t forget to check out the stream at the bottom!

By Jane Howkins

You recently released a new song called Slug. What can you tell us about the track?

Slug was a late addition to our album, but we are glad that it made the cut It’s become one of our favourite songs to play. It’s a song about being introverted but being okay with that, and not giving in to peer pressure – something I think a lot of people can relate to.

How has the reception to Slug been so far, and where can it be purchased?

We’ve received a lot of positive feedback. Listeners have been comparing it to 90’s emo and bands like Weezer and Sunny Day Real Estate, which is what we were going for, so I think we succeeded on that front. I’m hoping that we will see people singing along to it at our shows going forward. It’s available for purchase on Bandcamp. Hopefully we will organise some CDs and a vinyl run in the near future as well.

Do you plan to release any more singles in the near future?

We’ve released a couple more singles since Slug, along with our album, Infinite Resource. For now, we are finished with releases. It’s time to play shows promoting the releases to generate some interest!

Are there any plans to release an album or EP anytime soon?

We had a pretty big gap between the release of our debut EP in 2021 and these singles and album, so we would like to get the next release out as soon as possible. We have a few new songs that we’ve been working on, so we are thinking of going back into the studio in the next few months and getting a new EP or two out early next year.

You formed in 2020. How did you get together, and was it hard with the pandemic?

Josef and I have played music together since high school, and the band existed under a different name with different members from around 2014-17. After that disbanded, we got back together around 2019 and started writing again. We put rehearsals on hold when the pandemic hit but used the time to write and polish the songs that we had written. Originally, we set out to record and release our first EP with just the two of us, but Alex and Lucas joined after the initial lockdown of the pandemic, so we could rehearse in person.

Your music has a 90s rock sound. What/who influences you most as artists? What have you been listening to recently?

We are all in love with 90’s rock music. Most of us were kids growing up in the 90’s, so that time is very nostalgic for us. We are influenced by bands from that era like Hum, Jawbreaker, Ride, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Quicksand and Deftones, as well as more recent bands like Narrow Head, Dosser, Hopesfall and Violent Soho. We think it is important to pull from all sorts of areas though. If something inspires us to write, and it can be moulded to sound like Drenched, we are all about it. Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Shihad, Fleshwater, Sly Withers and Swervedriver.

You’re based in Australia. What is the local music scene like with you at the moment?

We all live in and around the small city, Launceston, in Tasmania, so our local scene is quite insular. We have noticed that there is a lot more interest in local music since the lockdowns. Pre-pandemic local bands might be lucky to pull a crowd of 20, but now we are consistently seeing around 100 people show up. There’s also been a surge in the number of local bands, which is great – we are spoiled for choice if we want to put a show on!

Do you have anything else exciting coming up this year?

We are hoping to do a run of shows promoting the album, and our main goal for the end of the year is to get over to Melbourne and possibly Adelaide and play some shows there. We haven’t played outside our state yet, but we are very keen to.

Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?

We would love to – want to book us?! We are still a small band in a small town in a small state, but that won’t stop us from trying to get our music out there and growing our following. We might scrape together enough money to play outside Australia one day, and it would be amazing if we did, but for now we will keep plugging away at the local scene.

Any last words for the fans?

Keep listening to and engaging with your local music scene! You never know, you might be able to say you knew that band before they were big!