With a month left in their Inner Sanctum album tour, we caught up with DUBARRAY guitarist, BRETT GADENNE, for a chat about the new album and what the future holds for the band.
How did the band form?
The band formed as a side project from another band we had called Kindread. Dubarray’s music quickly became more the direction we wanted to persue plus we had a dream to take the music and launch it in Europe first which we did.
What motivates your writing in Dubarray?
Life and everything going on in and around it. We are also super inspired by other artists and hearing new music from our friends.
What is the inspiration behind your new album Inner Sanctum?
The album’s theme was inspired by our research into the innate healing mechanisms of the body & the power of food being thy medicine. There are some light and shade’s throughout the whole album but the heavy stuff was also fuelled by personal experiences of our loved ones being challenged with health issues such as cancer. This also opened us up to the capitalist agenda behind the big pharma that is now our “health” industry. We named the album after the track ‘Inner Sanctum’ as we felt it summed up the album’s journey and the timely importance of the message behind it. The track was also the oldest standing track on the album as we actually started writing it four years ago but it only grew wings recently.
What song off the new album would you recommend first-time listeners of Dubarray check out?
Definitely ‘Inner Sanctum‘ but then maybe a close second would be ‘Vast as the Sky‘ which is a taste of where we came from. I would also suggest ‘DMT‘ for the bug dub heads, ‘Catching my Breath‘ is a little new in direction for us but we feel it kept its integrity to our sound. Personally we are fans of the opener ‘Here & Now‘. We also have a few special guests on track ‘Luminate our Soul‘ & ‘Paradise‘.
You guys have an impressive festival repertoire under your belts. Tell us about the most memorable festival appearance and why?
We definitely have some festival highlights. One would be Woodford 2016/17 when we performed 8 shows in 5 days. 4 of the shows were Prana Sessions and the other 4 were late night concerts. It was definitely a test of endurance to cover the late night sets and wake up for early morning yoga sets. The new years eve concert was definitely a highlight for us though. The other highlight would be Landjuweel Festival in Amsterdam where we performed in a decommissioned church. That was an amazing show.
What is your favourite part about touring?
Catching up with all our friends and fans of the music. We feel like we have created a family far and wide now so its always great to reconnect and share our new tunes live.
Where is your favourite touring destination and why?
Don’t really have a favourite but Byron always stands out for us for obvious reasons. Its also nice and close. We also like to get down to Sydney and Central Coast a bit. Plus the West Coast is always a second home destination.
What is your proudest achievement as band?
Always the release of the next album. But it was definitely a highlight being asked to perform at Splendour in the Grass and pulling off the first live music Prana Session at that event.
What is some advice you would give to young musicians starting out?
Always remember it’s about the music. Concentrate on writing good songs that connect with the crowd you want to attract and don’t worry too much about the rest as it will fall into place.
What is the plan for the rest of 2018?
Keep touring on this new album and spread the word about the new music. We are looking forward to the summer festival season already and seeing the reaction once the album has sunk in a little more with our listeners. Other than that we are already writing the next one.
DUBARRAY performs Friday June 8 – 10th – Palm Creek Festival, Palm Creek, QLD; Friday June 29 – Byron Bay Brewery, Byron Bay, QLD; Saturday June 30 – Full Moon Dance, Verridale, QLD; Sunday July 1 – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane, QLD.