Often when a longstanding band goes its separate ways, a musician’s intrinsic love and passion for music propels them forward to carry on writing music – it’s second nature.

“When theredsunband finished I just really thought I wouldn’t play music again,” admits singer Sarah Kelly, “but it just didn’t work out that way. I was still writing and I really missed playing music. Once you do it for a long time, it helps you. Playing loud music makes you feel really good, so yeah, I really missed it.”

When Sarah found herself with an album’s worth of new tunes last year, she realised it was time to take the next step — form a band. Rice Is Nice Records realised the potential of Sarah’s work and suggested another musician experiencing post-breakup idleness, ex-Wolfmother drummer Myles Heskett. And it was he who, conveniently, had a close friend who could fill the void of keyboard/ bassist, fellow ex-Wolfmother member Chris Ross.

“I’d been trying to find someone to play bass who could also play keyboard and it wasn’t happening for me,” explains Sarah, “so I ask Myles ‘can you think of anyone?’ and he was like ‘oh, yeah’.
“I think there was an immediate rapport on a musical level. I really enjoyed playing with them straight away. I remember the first day Chris came into the rehearsal room, it just sounded incredible straight away and I found it really exciting. I never had any doubt that they were the people for the job.”

The trio dubbed themselves Good Heavens, and went about recording. The result is the debut album ‘Strange Dreams’, with Sarah’s delightful voice adding a certain beauty to the fuzzed-out psychedelic rock.

“It was quite different to the recordings I’ve done before; it sounds like us, it sounds quite real. There’s no overdubs and things like that, it’s just very real, which I think is fairly rare these days with the wonders of Protools.”

Good Heavens Play Prado Up Late At The Queensland Art Gallery October 19.