Hailing from Melbourne, Creek are known for big blues-rock riffs and an incredible live show. Their newest single The Deep is an exemplary example, rife with high-voltage melodies and a hypnotising vocal performance.
With an album in their back pockets and a massive East Coast tour kicking off this weekend, we caught up with the band for a chat.
Can’t wait to hear the upcoming album from Creek? You’ll just have to head along to their shows for a sneak preview.
HAPPY: Hey there, how are things? What are you up to at the moment?
CREEK: Hey. Things are great! We’ve been getting ready to head off on our East Coast tour. Cars are all serviced and shouldn’t be breaking down on us, fingers crossed…
HAPPY: For our readers who are finding out about you for the first time, what’s the Creek elevator pitch?
CREEK: We’re what you might call an alternative blues-rock band, based in Melbourne. We’re considered a “heavy” band on some bills, and a “softer” band on others. I guess that’s part of the intrigue – all members are influenced by many different musical styles, so in a rock’n’roll context people can’t quite put their finger on us. Come and see for yourself, everyone!
HAPPY: The clip for The Deep is pretty spectacular. Who did you work with on this one, and how involved in the process were you?
CREEK: Thanks. Matt and I came up with the ‘swamp siren’ idea for this, but we owe it to Sammy Pearson (Cruelty Road Studios) and Jackson Tipping (Superculture) to really bring it to life with their film expertise. The Deep is lyrically quite sexually-driven, but sonically quite grotesque, which we feel their unique, dark style of cinematography has captured wonderfully. Got to give a big shout out to Dominik Shields for her brilliant portrayal of the swamp siren character too!
HAPPY: You seem to be moving in a more alt-rockish direction on the new stuff, is there anything you’d been listening to that fed into that influence?
CREEK: Like I mentioned before, we’ve all come from different musical backgrounds – from jazz through to prog rock. We’ve always been into a heap of different styles of music, and I have no doubt that it’d all bleed through when we approach writing new stuff. I’ve been focused on exploring melodies and testing my own songwriting abilities lately – laying down some different foundations for lyrical content has been a huge part of it. Eager to see how it all fruits when we next get together for a songwriting sesh after the tour. Not sure how much this has fed into Creek creatively, but a couple of bands we’ve been listening to lately are The Mars Volta, and Crumb. Check them both out.
HAPPY: How big a part does nature play in Creek’s music?
CREEK: The name says it all, I guess. I’ve always preferred to write outdoors, and to draw ideas from naturally occurring events, and human emotions. We don’t generally sing about iPhones or McNuggets.
HAPPY: What else inspires the band’s music or live performances?
CREEK: Android phones. Nah, just a general appreciation for each other as mates who are all really passionate about making music together without taking ourselves way too seriously. That’s inspiring within itself.
HAPPY: How is the rest of the album coming along? What kind of sounds can we expect?
CREEK: We’re finished! We’ve been sitting on it for a bit now. Got a couple more singles due out in the coming months, and then we reckon we’re going to drop all ten tracks in Spring. Hopefully with some assistance from an independent record label… any takers? You can expect some rock’n riffs that those who have seen us live before may be familiar with, as well as some spacious psychedelic sounds and vocal harmonies. Can’t wait to share it with everyone!
HAPPY: Will you be road-testing any of the album tracks on your upcoming tour?
CREEK: Yep.
Make sure you catch Creek live on their upcoming East Coast tour. Grab all the dates below, and any extra info here.
Sat 6 April – Mojo Burning Fest – Brisbane QLD
Sun 7 April – Byron Bay Brewery – Byron Bay NSW
Thu 11 April – Stag & Hunter – Newcastle NSW
Sat 13 April – Station Bar – Katoomba NSW
Sun 14 April – Frankie’s Pizza – Sydney NSW
Sat 27 April – Evelyn Hotel – Melbourne VIC
