Ocean Alley’s meteoric rise continues to ascend, with the Northern Beaches six-piece releasing the blissful video for their latest single ‘Happy Sad’ today, fresh following the news they are venturing to regional venues around the country for their final Australian headline shows of 2018 in October.
A huge staple in the band’s set-list and an unforgettable live moment for all who have experienced it, ‘Happy Sad’ is a bittersweet epic that contrasts rich, rolling guitars, woozy-psychedelia and an intoxicating melody line against the brooding lyrics of vocalist Baden Donegal, showcasing the depth and growth of the band’s songwriting over the last two years. Captured with 4 cameras during Ocean Alley’s recent tours of Australia and North America, the video was borne out of 8 rolls of film and 10 hours of footage by videographer Tyler Bell of local collective The Sauce. Compacted into 6 minutes, viewers experience the band’s journey, sharing their sense of humour during behind-the-scenes moments and riding the highs reliving career-defining performances.
Off the back of a 30-date North American tour and having sold over 13,000 tickets across seven sold out Australian shows in April & May, Ocean Alley will continue taking audiences by storm when they take their acclaimed album Chiaroscuro to regional Australia for six shows. Kicking off with a performance at the sold out Yours & Owls festival in Wollongong on 29 September, the band will stop into Terrigal, Canberra, Gold Coast and Adelaide, plus a special hometown show at Roundhouse in Sydney on 12 October.
The band have received widespread praise for their mesmerising live performances, including all dates on Groovin The Moo 2018 and playing the GW McLennan tent at Splendour In The Grass last month, where triple j declared “Ocean Alley are really, really hard to fault, and their first-ever Splendour set was, accordingly, pretty much faultless… the tent was probably at 120% capacity, spilling out well beyond the guide-ropes”. Still riding high on the success of Chiaroscuro, Ocean Alley will set off for Europe and the UK in September for their first run of headline shows and festivals since their inaugural visit in 2016, before returning to USA and Canada in November supporting long time friend Tash Sultana.
Psychedelic-surf-rockers Ocean Alley – Baden Donegal (vocals), Angus Goodwin (guitar), Nic Blom (bass), Lach Galbraith (keys/vocals), Mitch Galbraith (guitar) and Tom O’Brien (drums) – continue to maintain their position as one of Australia’s most exciting rising bands. Armed with their acclaimed second album Chiaroscuro which debuted at #15 on the ARIA Chart, the independent band have clocked up a number of impressive feats in 2018 including the coveted triple j Feature Album and being featured in The Music’s ‘Top 30 Albums of 2018 (So Far)’. Ocean Alley have gone on to amass 15 million album streams of Chiaroscuro worldwide, 40 million streams across their full catalogue and over 570,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, yet LifeWithoutAndy have boldly declared “Ocean Alley’s biggest days are still ahead of them.”
OCEAN ALLEY
Saturday 29 Sept – Yours & Owls Festival, Wollongong [SOLD OUT]
Friday 5 October – The Beery, Terrigal
Sunday 7 October – UC Refectory, Canberra
Friday 12 October – Roundhouse, Sydney
Sunday 14 October – Miami Marketta, Gold Coast [SOLD OUT]
Friday 19 October – HQ, Adelaide