Ocean Alley like to look on the bright side of life.
Rather than dwell on a frustrating pandemic year without gigs, they'd rather focus on the positives: one of them being the opportunity to play in regional towns.
Towns their ever-growing popularity would otherwise have prevented them from visiting. And, in Newcastle's case, they can book in more than one gig.
Guitarist Mitch Galbraith can't wait. He spoke to Weekender late last year after playing four shows in three days in Queensland. Was the band match fit, I ask? Far from it, he replies with a laugh.
"We're a little weary and definitely not match fit. The boys felt it. But it was a good way to close out the year, for sure," he says.
Following the breakout success of their 2018 album Chiaroscuro and the wildly popular single Confidence (which topped the triple j Hottest 100 that year), Ocean Alley's third LP Lonely Diamond debuted at No.1 on the ARIA Vinyl Chart, No.2 on the Australian Albums Chart and No.3 on the overall Albums Chart.
Prior to COVID-19 hitting our shores, half the band had moved north from Newport to Byron Bay. The rest remained on Sydney's Northern Beaches.
"We thought that we would still be able to see each other all year because we had a massive tour schedule booked - two months in Europe, two months in the UK and then a huge Aussie and New Zealand tour," he says.
"COVID meant that plan went out the window but it was kind of a forced break which we wouldn't have given ourselves otherwise. We could completely relax and have some proper downtime."
Ocean Alley were in an enviable position to be able to take some time out. Many bands and artists didn't have that luxury, which Galbraith readily admits.
"If it had been a year earlier, the band as a business wouldn't have been in a position to support us taking time off to recalibrate. We had plenty of time apart to tinker with our own ideas so when we did come together for those weeks of writing, they were very productive."
Vocalist and guitarist Baden Donegal is still the primary songwriter, and he laid down plenty of rough demos for the band to listen to in 2020. Galbraith says the new songs "go down a bit more of a storytelling path" without losing that laidback, atmospheric vibe Ocean Alley have going on.
Even he can't quite describe it.
"It's something that you can't put your finger on and we don't try to - when we write and make a song we don't have an end product in mind," he says.
"In that way it's something that just emerges out of the whole process, and that's why that process is important to us. We make music in a specific way and it hasn't changed very much since we started doing it. We would get together at least two afternoons a week in the garage and have fun writing music just for the sake of writing music.
"It's always been a group effort and we all have different influences and they change over time. Each one of us has to give up our creative intentions and go with the flow, as cliched as that sounds."
So - to use another cliche - it's an organic process? Galbraith laughs.
"I try not to use that word but it works. We don't have any plan, we just rely on our abilities to adapt to what is happening. We just write stuff that we think sounds cool. If it doesn't, it's not gonna happen.
"The new material is sort of carrying on from the last song on the last record, Lonely Diamond.
"There are some big western, country vibes. A bit of a spaghetti western soundtrack. We like the jangly guitars and the songs that we are writing right now are definitely not as rock heavy."
Despite sold-out international tours and major festival appearances including Reading (Leeds) and Splendour In The Grass, plus more than 350 million catalogue streams, the inner-workings of the band haven't changed.
"We still have all the creative freedom we need. We can write whatever we want but there is that filter - if it doesn't sound good, and if we're not happy with it ourselves, it won't happen," Galbraith says.
"We are our own harshest critics when it comes to writing. We can have all these ideas piling up and there can be days that we are sitting around quite frustrated, bored, until something pops up in one of our heads.
"That's just the way it works for us."
As for missing out on overseas tours in the foreseeable future, Galbraith is disappointed but not concerned. The band has already earned itself a solid fanbase outside of Australia.
"I feel that we are established in Europe, the UK and the States. We've done some pretty big shows over there, and our gigs were on track to sell well again this year," he says.
"When it does pick back up, which in the case of the States could be two years when you really think about it, the demand will be there for live music and touring acts.
"In the meantime there are other options, like spending more time in New Zealand and playing more gigs in regional cities and centres, and that's a good thing."
Ocean Alley play at Newcastle's Civic Theatre on March 26 and 27. Tickets are on sale now.
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