The babes are back in town this Sunday, hitting Felons in Manly for Surf & Sound Festival, which is all the excuse we need to dial them up for a quick chat.

If you’re anything like us, Babe Rainbow have become that band you put on when you can’t decide what to listen to. And we don’t mean that as a diss. They’ve become so ingrained in our listening habits, equally suited to dinner parties, late-night grooving and sunny days at the beach, that they’re pretty much the automatic choice whenever a bit of aux cord anxiety kicks in.

Their latest album, Acid and Honey, delivers more of what we’ve come to love about them: vintage-sounding vocals, folky guitars and groovy basslines, all built around drumbeats that sound like they’ve somehow plucked Zigaboo Modeliste (the guy from The Meters) straight out of the ’70s and dropped him into the studio.

We caught up with frontman Angus Dowling the other day to chat about the record, their upcoming Manly show, roller-skating disasters and, naturally, what kind of fruit each member of the band would be.

We’ve gone ahead and written it all up for your reading pleasure. Get stuck in below, and grab tickets to Babe Rainbow’s Surf & Sound show here!

The last time we spoke was at Splendour in 2018. If you could go back and tell your younger self from then one thing, what would it be?

I reckon right around that time we were so obsessed with making up these ridiculous new versions of every single one of our songs and trying to turn them all into disco songs, or turn the disco songs into Eno ambient jams. And whilst that was fun, at the moment the set is just bangers exactly how they are. It just goes down way better.

I would also say perhaps not to come out on roller skates at Splendour, because I went down really hard that year. I don’t know if you were there, but I came out on roller skates drunk and just went down so hard on the monitor speaker cables. Jack came out and punted an AFL ball into the crowd. We thought that was just how you kick it off. So maybe no roller skates on the bigger stages at all.

You guys met through the Qantas ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ choir, but you also ended up working on a farm together. How did that happen?

Yeah, I did choir in school and Jack was in the guitar ensemble. I don’t know, we just somehow met. We both had blonde hair, or I’m not sure. I met a guy out at Cabarita, this cool old guy called Johnny, a Cornish farmer, and we were just chatting. He was like, ‘Could you come out to the farm and help me?’

He had this crazy timber bed he’d bought for his daughter who’d moved over from England, and he just couldn’t put it together on his own. I came out and helped him, then ended up working there for years. Jack worked there too, and the other guys in the band at the time. We were just picking kale and guavas and whatever.

If each member of the band was a fruit, what would they be and why?

I thought you were going to ask about animals, because I wanted to be a kangaroo. But I guess I’d be a mango, because my radio show’s called Mango Monday, even though I’ve now been demoted to Wednesdays, or promoted, however you want to look at it. So I’ll go with the mango.

Jack would be a black sapote, I reckon. It’s kind of unassuming to look at, but then it’s filled with this chocolate fudge mousse inside. So good when it’s been in the fridge. Elliott would definitely be an avocado, for sure. It’s boring, but it’s perfect. That’s so goated.

Have any songs from the new album become early favourites in the live set?

‘Mango’ is good. The ‘Waterfall’ song’s nice. It’s kind of the more [unclear] part of the set where we get the lights low. That one goes nice. We’ve been experimenting with ‘Dream Gasoline’. It’s got this hip-hop rhythm-machine thing behind us. And there’s this cool guy who’s been drumming with us, the drummer from Bananagun. He moved up here. Not sure why he moved up here, but he’s been playing with us and he’s so sick. He’s just the coolest drummer ever.

You recorded some of the album on a boat outside Amsterdam. Did being on the water affect the record?

I guess so. It’s nice just being able to dive off the boat and swim. It wasn’t super warm, but it was cool. It was just outside Amsterdam in this really groovy little town that had such a cool old pub, and we’d just go hang out there. It was like a Dutch Airbnb houseboat situation. They had bikes and we were cruising around.

Has anywhere unexpectedly become a second home for Babe Rainbow?

It’s not that unexpected, but California’s really been super good to us. And newly, we did a bit of Canada and Portland, Maine. There was this festival in Baie-Saint-Paul, just out of Québec City. We thought it was going to be one of those funny festivals where all the venues in town are open and you don’t get to play until three in the morning and it’s just shambles.

But this was a really radical hippie festival on the water. The entire town, heaps of nude people and jazz music. We just had this great show. It was awesome. Then we went out to Portland, Maine, cruised around and surfed. None of us had ever been up there before, even some of the Cali guys playing in the band and doing sound. That’s a cool new zone.

Surfing is pretty baked into Babe Rainbow. Do you still find time to get in the water while touring?

Definitely. It’s such a sweet thing. If you’re in a coastal town, everyone’s going to want to swim and try and surf and hunt around for waves, meet the local crew who tell you where everything’s at, find boards and go to all these funny spots.

We were over in Margs playing on the weekend and there was this crew that took us around to spots I’d never been to around Margaret River. It’s just such a sweet way to meet people. Especially in Western Australia, way out past those reefs, looking back at the landscapes. It’s such a cool way to view it.

If Babe Rainbow made a dark, heavy concept album called ‘Wipeout’, where would you draw inspiration from?

It would have to go Aussie metal. We’ve experimented a little bit. There was a moment where we thought we were super dark. We weren’t painting our fingernails black, but we considered ourselves dark.

I always imagine doing a Beach Boys album just called Babe Rainbow Party, because that seems enjoyable for everyone. But I like the idea of the heavier metal Wipeout album. We’ve got the ambient record, the country record, the hip-hop…

Surf & Sound brings surfing and music together. Who would you put on your dream festival lineup?

I’ve been hanging out with Creed McTaggart a little bit too, and his songs are so sweet. He’s actually going to play with us at Bruns in a few weeks, I think, so I’d definitely get him on my surf festival. He just moved back up here from Angourie. We’ve been down in Angourie recording this new stuff, so I saw him a little bit around.

Steph Gilmore’s the one that got us the Surf & Sound gig, so she would obviously have to be involved. I don’t know if she’s going to put her solo album out, or maybe she can just play second guitar for us. That would be rad.

Anything special planned for the Surf & Sound set?

Definitely. Just got to bring that cool party energy. A few melodies of some old songs, and try and get this new Aussie metal vibe and get it rocking a little bit harder.