ALISON PARADE

Writer: Joseph Maranta

Photographer: Lizzie Wilkie @Lizziewilkiephotos_

Time to leave Melbourne. The unfriendly faces, the seemingly arctic winters and one too many nights on Chapel Street have done a number on them. The crisp breeze of the Indian Ocean beckons. Though the seemingly never-ending desolation of the Nullarbor Plain lays in between them and a well overdue homecoming. Never one for aeroplanes their steed of choice is a Toyota HiAce, paint chipped and as old as the duo themselves, it does the job regardless.

There’s something surreal about these road-trips, the conversations and silence bring with them equal fulfilment, along the way passing country bakeries which all claim to be the best in Australia. Following the highs of a freshly baked Eucla meat pie come the lows of a freshly used Eucla truck stop bathroom. The equilibrium of the Nullarbor showing no exceptions to mankind. Eventually arriving home to Albany in one piece, the fruits of their labour are reaped.

The dulcet tones of The Brian Jonestown Massacre play second fiddle to both the laughter of their family and the bonfire’s insistent crackling. The scattered remains of kangaroos, camels and littered Emu Export cans are a distant memory now - so too the tribulations of big city life. Though one day they will leave again, no number of plains or deserts will prevent home from leaving them.  

This is Alison Parade.

A testament to the paradoxical essence of familiarity, Alison Parade are a folk / psychedelic quartet from Kinjarling (Albany), Western Australia, featuring Oscar Gilbert (Guitar, Vocals), Angus Milne (Drums), James Clark* / Jeremy Staude* (Guitar) and Aiden Veitch (Bass).

The music of Alison Parade is all-encompassing. It’s as delicate as it is full-bodied, you can become enamoured by the deep psychedelia and harmonicas, or you can allow yourself to be immersed in the poetic storytelling. A choose your own adventure story with no bad endings, only different outcomes.

A mix of traditional folk and new-wave Western Australian rock, Alison Parade exist in both the past and the present as they continue to carve out their own niche.

*Guitarist James Clark will be leaving the band and Jeremy Staude will be joining.

Interview is with Angus Milne and Oscar Gilbert

JOE: Cheers for talking to me today guys! You originally began Alison Parade as a duo, when did it become a full quartet?

OSCAR: We were always good mates in school, Gus and I met when we were only 12. Around 15 we started jamming together, Gus played drums and I played guitar and sang. We played together until we moved to Perth, we couldn’t do much gigging initially because of COVID - but eventually we got our mate James (Jimmy) to join since he had to record a local band for his sound engineering course, and he eventually came on full time as our bassist. We then decided to expand the band further for a bigger sound, which is where Aiden finally joined to make it a quartet.

ANGUS: Jimmy can’t make it to Melbourne with us, so we’re bringing in our friend Jeremy who’s also from Albany, it’s a cool little town where you’re either good at sport, surfing or music. We’re rubbish at sports and surfing so we’re a part of the music scene there. 

JOE: Do you think your time in Melbourne has changed your approach to song creation? It’s a very different world to regional Western Australia. 

OSCAR: Definitely, we haven’t been able to play much here given that it's only Gus and I here at this stage. We've mainly spent the time inside writing. I think our music is becoming a lot more folk-y, there’s a lot more acoustic guitar which I think comes from the weather here. I was thinking about it today, it’s a bit similar to folk music from the UK and Ireland, around that culture of sitting inside and having traditional music sessions. 

ANGUS: Particularly with our songwriting, I noticed that in Perth our lyrics revolved around hopefulness and perhaps a sense of wanting more, whereas in Melbourne we’re almost writing with a nostalgic note. I think that’ll be a theme with our future music. 

JOE: Your music has definitely shifted from a typical WA surf-rock / psychedelic sound towards this new folk chapter of the band, so you’d say a lot of that is pinned to your time away from home?

OSCAR: Yeah I’d say so, we’ve almost come full circle in that sense. Back when we were a duo we’d play these long three hour sets at the two venues we had in Albany covering a lot of Irish folk tracks, then we transitioned to that surf-rock sound and now we’re trending back to our roots - which I’m really happy about because that’s where our love for music really started. It’s what we want to be writing. 

JOE: How do you reflect on your latest single Sourdough?

ANGUS: Sourdough is a really old song for us, Oscar wrote it when we first moved from the country to Perth. It had a long time to marinate and changed a lot once we played it live. It’s a sad folky song but it came out a lot higher energy when we used to play it live. It ended up coming out similar to what it was when it was written and it has a lot of character with how we produced it. 

JOE: Your lyrics are truly beautiful as poetry, regardless of the songs they’re attached too. Do either of you engage in poetry outside of music?

OSCAR: Yeah, I study english literature at University and my old man is a great short story writer. He's always inspired me with what he does, I’ve written a lot of stories but haven’t finished a single one. Gus does a heap of poetry though. 

ANGUS: My mum is a great wordsmith so I’ve always had this passion for words. Poetry has always been something I’ve used to articulate my feelings. It’s reassuring for us that you think that though because I’ve always prided the band on having well-written songs, songs that mean something on top of sounding good. 

JOE: Do you think artists from Perth are disadvantaged when it comes to breaking out into the wider Australian scene?

ANGUS: It’s definitely feasible to break out - acts like Spacey Jane and Old Mervs have broken out from Western Australia recently. 

OSCAR: There’s such a good scene in Perth, it’s a great spot for quintessential Australian rock like Old Mervs. People say it’s the best place in Australia for bands to explode quickly because of how supportive the scene is there. When music leaves Perth people really get around it. But there isn’t the diversity of music within the scene back home, that’s what drew us over here to Melbourne. Here there’s a great punk scene, a great jazz scene, a great folk scene - everyone’s different and doing their own thing. 

ANGUS: The proximity is what's also great about Melbourne, there’s a lot of major cities nearby on the east coast, whereas Perth is so far from everything. You have a great venue in Margaret River but it’s three hours south of Perth, there’s little clumps of vibrant scenes here and there but the distance between them makes it hard to build a wider following. 

JOE: You’re about to tour back home in Western Australia, are there any venues you’re looking forward to playing at again?

ANGUS: Pretty much of all them, we’ve played at these venues so much. I really love the The River at Margaret River just because of how beautiful it is. Going to Albany is always great too. For me though it’s probably Indian Ocean Bar because it’s our last gig with Jimmy - so we’ll make sure to give him a good send off there. 

JOE: What are the main goals for the band in the next couple of years?

OSCAR: I just want to travel around Australia playing as much music as possible. We both drove here from Perth and I’ve crossed the Nullarbor a few times now, so I think we’re both a bit addicted to driving across the country. We’re driving back for our WA tour as well - so I’d love to be in a car going up and down the east coast gigging. Obviously the EP too, getting out five songs that relate to one another and work as a collective. 

ANGUS: Same for me, the EP especially. We haven’t made heaps of friends here, we realised recently that our whole friendship circle is built off playing music at gigs which we did heaps of in Perth, but yeah we have each other at least. Add making friends to the list. 

JOE: Has the move to Melbourne affected your AFL allegiances at all?

OSCAR:  Haha, not at all I’m a tragic Freo [Fremantle Dockers] fan. 

ANGUS: It is pretty amazing here, I work at a pub next to the MCG called the Cricketers Arms and the fanfare for the footy here is mental. 

JOE: Have you got a favourite flavour of Shapes?

ANGUS: Yeah easy Cheese and Bacon for me. 

OSCAR: I stopped eating them in year 10, but I was definitely a Pizza flavour shapes guy back in the day. 

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