LEARNING to balance work with study is an integral step for any young adult in the years post high-school.
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Imagine adding band duties and a 300km weekend commute to the mix.
Jak McMillan could tell you a thing or two about commitment.
McMillan, Pat Johnson and James Marchet are Propeller - A Goulburn-grown outfit putting in the hard yards, seizing every opportunity and making some memories along the way.
The last time the Post caught up with Propeller, the band had just released debut digital EP Rough Patch.
Nineteen months, a new band member in Marchet, and three more digital releases later, drummer McMillan touched base again.
He gave some insight into the chaotic lives and inner-workings of the band ahead of their home crowd performance for tomorrow night’s Indent Tour.
“We’ve been doing a sh*tload,” he laughed.
“We’re all going between at least one and three jobs, and all studying as well intermittently with varying schedules. Saving money, doing band things and putting all of our spare time into that.”
Johnson and Marchet live and work in Canberra, while McMillan navigates inner Sydney. He said while logistically running a band with such distance was challenging, it ultimately worked.
Early September saw the release of revisited and remastered three track EP Rough Patch on seven inch vinyl, in partnership with Buttercup Records. The record was the band’s first physical release.
“Vinyl is what Buttercup do, and what they do well so it was amazing to be approached for it,” McMillan said.
“It’s definitely a bit gritty, even though we are heading in a direction that is more polished and refined, it’s still pretty gritty with dirty tones.
“Listening to records on vinyl for a few years now, it means a lot to be to have our music out there in that format.
“Subsequent to that, we were working on some different new stuff which we went to Newcastle and recorded three tracks up there with our friend Mitta Norath, which was a cool experience and unforgettable.”
Two of those will be released on an upcoming record. The other, Idols, has already been released on bandcamp, featuring a fellow vocalist from the Indent bill Keiron Steel, of Corpus.
While previous work has been inspired by the experience of youth and growing up in a regional town, McMillan said the new record, like the band themselves, is a little bit more refined.
“There’s a little bit more intimacy and tenderness. I don’t think it’s aggressive but it’s certainly quite a lot darker,” he said.
“Formerly, our stuff was quite heavily inspired by growing up in Goulburn and getting to the stage of saying ‘ok let’s get out of here’. Experiences of that are a little more reflective now we’ve been living a less adolescent and more adult life.
“Now, more than anything, I am about the sharing of ideas in an attempt to inspire feeling or thought, even if the feeling or thought is not what we had in mind.”
Touching on the Indent show, to take place at St Joseph’s school hall, McMillan said Goulburn event organiser Chris Amor was a key player in pulling it all together.
“He is a bit of a lynchpin of the scene… As I’ve gone from younger to older it’s sort of ebbed and flowed a little bit. It’s good to see he has been a little bit of a stalwart,” he said.
While music fans will flock to the hall to see Canberra hard-rockers Hands Like Houses and Brisbane's pop-punk Columbus, three boys from Goulburn will take to the stage just excited to do what they love - play music.
Pre-sale tickets for the show are available for $10 from www.indent.oztix.com.au.
Alternatively, they are $15 at the door.
Doors open from 5pm.
Indent Tour details:
Canberran hard-rock five-piece, Hands Like Houses will front the Indent Tour at St Joseph’s school hall.
Now in its sixth year, the annual tour provides a skills development opportunity for young people in regional communities.
Indent, a MusicNSW program, works directly with teams of young people aged 12-25 in each region to stage each show of the tour.
The tour is funded and facilitated by Indent, with young people actively involved in the event planning process.
It is the only tour of its kind in Australia.
For more information, head to www.indent.net.au.
The show is all-ages, drug and alcohol free.