More Here Than Liverpool

I'd always thought that Wombats were native to Australia. Apparently, they also have a home somewhere in the UK.

The Wombats are an indie trio consisting of Matthew Murphy, purveyor of vocals, guitar and keyboards; Dan Haggis on drums and vocals; and Tord Øverland-Knudsen, a Norwegian who has also made his home in the city. Dan Haggis kindly offers The Wombats resume on a platter. He’s itching to bring the lads back to Australia for the Parklife tour in September.

The trio are best known for their 2008 indie-rock hit ‘Let's Dance To Joy Division’, which won them an NME Award for Best Dancefloor Filler and has had over one million hits on YouTube!

“I guess I've always done music individually, and we've always done music in one form or another,” says Dan. “Someone was on guitars and I was on flute and someone else played the cello and then we individually discovered metal and punk and rock and eventually formed a group! We didn't know what to do though; we'd been in bands after school and we went to L.I.P.A - the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.”

Piece of trivia then: the Institute was actually where the trio met but more interestingly, it was where Paul McCartney trained too. “Sol came from Norway afterwards and we didn't really have any major plans for what to do but after bit of jamming a new sound was coming from the three of us and right then, it didn't seem like there was another option. Obviously, having a musical background helps; I did one year there and the others did three years and if nothing else, it gives you technique and you learn songwriting as an artform.”

Dan is quick to qualify that there aren't songwriting lessons (as such) so you aren't going to teach someone to be original or creative. But you can get a good musical grounding - and for that, the trio is grateful.

“Something that happens with bands is that when three people get together, individually they might not be able to do anything great, but when there are three sets of ideas, you can get this chemistry and you can come up with some great ideas.”

And with punk and indie, it's more about playing and having fun - coupled with a little rebellion. “We weren't always about the best drum or the best guitar solo ever. We were more about getting over our hangovers! The whole scene I think has gone full circle; I don't know about Australia but the UK at the minute seems to be a mish mash of all the genres into one. Sure it has always been there, but sometimes things become more popular and something might have more synths or something; I'm still concentrating on playing my drum kit!”

The lads are busily preparing their new album, with the first single due sometime around September and the LP due to hit stores around January 2011.

“It's not like it's going to change things that much. The songs we've recorded already sound like they're going into a slightly new direction for us but then it’s not too dissimilar to the work we've done before. It will definitely sound newer; but we've also tried to keep it exciting for ourselves and for our fans. Sonically it will sound fresher but it won't depart from our philosophy too much.”  

Finally, the trio is set to return to Australia for their third tour. Hot on the heels of performing at the infamous Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds Festivals, the boys are excited about performing a number of festival dates around the country. “We'll be playing a lot of new songs and a lot of old ones. All the energy we've been holding inside for the last eight months will be unleashed! So the fans better be ready! There will be no excuses!”

The Wombats are part of the 2010, 10th Anniversary Parklife lineup. the gold coast leg happens at the parklands september 25.