Wordsy Andy Kovacic //

Surf’s up! Ball Park Music is playing at upcoming The Drop Festival. You know what this means: balmy beaches, sweet surf and topflight tunes like Ball Park favourite ‘It’s Nice To Be Alive’. Just get there. Swim if you have to.

Brisbane locals Ball Park Music are the friendly larrikins of the Aussie music scene – we all know and love ‘em. If there was some kind of manifesto Ball Park Music lived by, it would be one scrawled in vibrant colours preaching the recipes for golden days and good times. And their upbeat electric indie rock has always been cooking up the sunshine.

Their last album, Good Mood, was the perfect cure for the Monday blues and has been on our Friday funday playlist ever since. Even Ball Park’s more sombre-worded tracks like ‘Nihilist Party Anthem’ make you want to dance. It’s true, Ball Park is destined to get you swinging in the sands at The Drop Festival 2020.

But wait, it gets even better. Lucky festivalgoers will also catch Ball Park Music during the lead up to their new album that will be released later this year. It’s a no-brainer, Ball Park Music is set for another year of musical glory. So, before the boys and gal get on the road, I picked up the shell phone and dialled Ball Park’s frontman Sam Cromack for a little chat about the band’s upcoming tour with The Drop Festival.

If there’s one thing Ball Park Music is known for, it’s their lovable knack for making you feel like a best mate. So, pull up a chair, join the friendship circle, and listen in on my chat with Sam. He has a sweet little message for the fans out there. After all, everyone’s here to have a cracker of a good time and that’s the kind of spirit Ball Park Music loves to sing about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7VokfmltY8

Hey Sam! Let’s jump right in. First-up, where are you and what’s been happening?

Um, I’m at home today…I sort of had the day off, I’m not in the studio and I’ve had a bit of free time, so I’ve just been catching up on a lot of boring stuff on the computer.

That’s a good thing, right? We are need that sometimes.

Yeah, it has been good because I’ve not had the chance to do this that much lately. I’m still doing interviews and stuff and I’ve been recording for some other bands, so I’ve had to do things for them. Yeah, I’ve also been in photoshop for a lot of the day doing new stuff for our music that we’re working on…so it’s been good. It’s been nice to just be at home and kind of chill out.

How has the start of the new decade been for you and the band?

Yeah, it’s off to a good start! We’re feeling really positive. We’ve been working on music a few days a week at our new studio which is going really well. Yeah…it’s funny like our last album, Good Mood, came out in 2018 so, you know, it’s coming up on 2 years ago since its release date and it’s really easy to lose your confidence as you roll into getting ready to release new music again. But we’ve really had our spirits lifted recently, just by like fans interacting with the band – it’s just like increased. I mean we tend to not notice it and suddenly all of a sudden, we started asking each other, ‘Have you just noticed way more people interacting with us?’.

Is this coming from online?

Yeah, yeah, yeah – online! It’s hard to describe, but yeah, it’s made us feel really positive and sort of think like alright, let’s put more music out – maybe we’re not old and washed-up [laughing].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P80CfHTIG0

Any New Year’s resolutions?

My new year resolution is not to use any take-away coffee cups [laughing].

That’s a good one! How’s it going?

Yeah, it’s going really well! I haven’t used a single one! I love drinking coffee and drink a lot of coffee every day and I was already pretty good and used my KeepCup a lot of the time but this year I was like I just have to tighten this right up – no takeaway cups. So, it feels amazing.

So you’ve played at Drop Fest in the past, so you know what it’s all about, what do you think makes this festival so unique compared to others?

We’ve just done the one show before, we filled in for The Jungle Giants, at Newcastle and that was our first time doing it. We had a really awesome show. I’d never been to the festival before and we were really impressed by the bigger crowd and the good organisation. And it’s linked to the surfing competition. It kinda reminds me of Groovin the Moo in that it’s a 2-week festival but it’s like a coastal version [laughs]. And I love Groovin the Moo too, so I feel like this is a twin festival. We were thrilled to be invited back and do the whole tour.

Yeah, you guys are doing the entire tour this time! How excited are you?

It’ll be rad! I’m actually like really excited because touring festivals is as good as it gets, I reckon. It’s just not that common, like obviously there’s lots of festivals but not all of them you get to tour. They are usually more of a one-off event. So, to tour a festival where there are a whole bunch of bands playing and you get to hang out with them on weeks on end is just a really cool experience. I’ve always said it’s really fulfilled that kind of fantasy you have when you grow up watching movies like Almost Famous or whatever and seeing like, you know, bands touring together. You really do actually get to have that time at big festivals stages, you get to meet the bands and get to know everybody.

All the towns that The Drop is visiting are beautiful but is there one location in particular that you’re excited to play at?

I’m excited for all of them because I think nearly all of them are spots that we don’t usually get to play at. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Torquay, and I’m excited to go back to WA and see Margaret River. It’s been years since I’ve been there. They’ll all be beautiful so I’m excited.

You know I’ve heard people say Ball Park is a band that doesn’t sleep, how do you manage to tour so extensively whilst still making great music?

We just really enjoy doing it [laughs]. And I think, uh, some of it is just born out of necessity too, it’s how we pay the bills so we just like keep touring. And, as I said, we love doing it so as long as people keep coming to the shows then we’ll just keep touring until our legs fall off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjCFhGL9RoM

It’s a good way to live.

Yeah, absolutely! And it’s become a real way of life too. We’ve done it for like ten years now and it’s kind of all I know. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, I mean I knew I wanted to do something with music but now I’m super used to being a ‘touring musician’ so it feels like second nature now.

Do you guys have a safety blanket you take on the road with you, something to keep you guys grounded?

[Laughing] Umm, I think we work pretty hard to keep each other grounded. There’s no single person in the band – we were just talking about this the other day – who we feel is the like one chaotic friend, like that person who is fun but also nerve-wracking to hang out with, so they keep you on your toes. But I feel like there’s no one like that in our band [laughs] so we all keep it pretty mellow and keep each other in check.

When we began, we didn’t really know each other that well because the band came about rather quickly, and we all met in University. We weren’t really friends to begin with, we sort of got to know each other through touring so it’s really like this family that’s been built off the back of years of touring that we’ve ever done.

Amongst the bands attending the Festival, who would you challenge to a game of beach volleyball?

Oh, Boy & Bear for sure. We’ve known them for a long time and have a long-standing rivalry with them. I’m like the least sporty member of the band but the others are all much more physically adept and I know they like to challenge Boy & Bear to cricket, ten pin bowling and volleyball.

Who do you think will win?

I think we might have the edge [laughs].

If you had to give a superpower to each of your band members, what powers would you choose and why?

Paul’s power is statistics [laughs]. Yeah, it’s like a legit superpower he has. It’s just how his mind works, he’s definitely the odd one out in that regard, he sees the world in numbers and it’s pretty weird but it’s also pretty amazing. And he’s got like really comprehensive statistics on everything to do with the band, which is nerdy but really interesting. He’s got like the huge spreadsheets with information about every gig we’ve ever played.

Dean’s superpower is…what’s the word for it…team spirit! [laughing] He keeps the group cohesive and working together, he has a real ability to put his ego aside and focus on what’s best and practical and gonna work for all of us. It’s just…I can’t do that, fuck [laughing]. That’s amazing.

Daniel’s superpower is passion. I feel like he just makes sure the fire in our bellies doesn’t go out. He really makes sure that the hunger is still there and the reason we’re doing it is still intact.

Jen’s superpower is compassion. I’ve seen Jen give so much love to people who need it, especially animals. She’s basically saved all these animals from the dead. She has had a string of pets in the time I’ve known her, and all of these pets have had something drastically wrong with them. They are definitely animals that most people would just give up on and Jen has taken them in like “it ain’t no thang”. She’s really brought them back to life and made them their best versions of themselves. She’s like a spiritual vet [laughing]. And Jen is someone who is really comfortable in her own skin and I think that’s a superpower – that inspires us to just be like alright, I am who I am!

Now, my superpower…I don’t know what my superpower is, I write shit loads of songs [laughs].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fGyjSVGw4E

What’s cooking with album #6?

I think it might be close to done! I mean it won’t get released for a while, there’s still lots of finer details to work out. Look, how we like to do work is that we like to get a big chunk done – maybe even a whole album and then sit on it for a while. Like whilst we are doing The Drop Festival, we’ll probably dial back the recording and that’s almost part of the process for us to sleep on it for a bit. And that’s when you know that it’s really great, like we still feel amazing about it so let’s lock it in. Or the opposite can happen when we feel there’s something missing from the album like a particular feeling or energy and we have to search to get that.

But I think we’re close! The single is done and there’s a bunch of other songs that are certainly finished or closed to being finished. I’m lying on the couch at night now trying to lock up artworks and trial all these track listings. That’s where I’m at and that’s probably the most enjoyable phase! Just being able to have all these new songs and put things in order. It feels like you’ve worked so hard at it, you loved doing it so much, and suddenly you have this thing that no one else in the world has yet.

What’s your message to the fans waiting to hear you guys play at The Drop Festival?

Ohhh man, I’m so bad at answering these kinds of questions [laughs]. I just hope everyone comes to see us. We just love performing for people so much and I feel like the hunger to perform is just growing and I feel like we’re just finding new ways to be on the stage now. It’s less about the music and more about the performance and the connection with the people. I feel like we’re striving to make it a more meaningful experience for people watching. So, yeah, I feel like we’re in great shape and we’re really excited to perform so just come and see us!

Keen to be one of the first to listen to Ball Park’s new music? You can catch them, and some waves, at The Drop Festival that’ll be setting up the tent soon in Noosa, Newcastle, Manly, Coolangatta, Torquay and Busselton. For more information head this way.