We are very proud to premiere the single ‘Mallee Country’ from Sydney band Indian Pacific, ahead of a new album later this year.
The crystalline guitars cut through the hot dry air as singer/songwriter Charlie Wells croons with a yearning delivery. ‘Mallee Country’ is a song that seems to capture the vast open deserts of inland Australia in a bottle, wrapped up in a sepia-coloured mantle of nostalgia. There is that wide open road buzz of The Triffids, mixed in with the dry urbane delivery of The Go-Betweens, all wrapped in a jingle jangle cloak that sparkles and shines, billowing in the breeze.
The song is about the plight of returned soldiers and the Victorian soldier settlement scheme created in 1917 to lease land to returned soldiers and nurses for farming after the World War I. Arriving back in Australia they often encountered challenging conditions and land that was tough to farm. Wells says of the song:
I was struck by how most of the returned soldiers who were provided with land gave up on farming due to the harsh conditions and within a few years they went back to the cities. Some though didn’t give up, they kept on going and eventually were rewarded for their efforts. ‘Mallee Country’ is about them.
The track is imbued with a poignancy and an Antipodean sheen in the vocals that give it authenticity and veracity.
‘Mallee Country’ is out tomorrow (Thursday, 21 March 2024) and available via the link above and though all the usual download and streaming sites.
Indian Pacific are perfect example of what I call the Marrickville Sound – musicians with a reputable history reforming or creating bands exhibiting the same sort of creativity and park as they did in their youth (often based in or playing in inner city areas). Perth-born Charlie Wells played in The Hunting Party until 2008, briefly fading out into the sunset before the creative urges overtook.
It’s all a bit of an unplanned accident. I was actually ‘retired’ from music. just want to make music and having band is a good motivator and vehicle to take my music out into the world again.
Through a mutual friend, Wells brought onboard drummer Andrew Axton (Atlas Strings, Flicker), followed by a previous bandmate of Andrew’s, Glenn Murray on bass. It took a while to find the right guitarist but eventually in 2020 Sean Dodsworth was recruited, immediately slotting into the Indian Pacific sound.
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