Melbourne based five-piece Floodlights reveal their new approach to songwriting and tease new music as they wrap up the tours UK leg.

Sitting somewhere between INXS and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Floodlights bring a rich and modern approach to classic Australian storyteller rock. Since releasing their third full length album ‘Underneath’ in March, the Aussie outfit make their highly anticipated return to the UK, setting off on a string of festival and headline dates that are their biggest to date. Based out of North Melbourne, the band consists of Louis Parsons (vocals, guitar), Ash Kehoe (guitar, harmonica), Sarah Hellyer (keys, trumpet), Joe Draffen (bass) and Archie Shannon (drums). We caught up with Archie, Ash, Joe and Sarah before their headline show at Village Underground.

You’ve been fortunate enough to tour the EU and UK in the past, what have you learnt from previous experiences when taking on a schedule that can be so demanding at times?

Ash: We learnt to try and not get clamped, when we were in Slovakia we parked illegally and our wheel got clamped. We didn’t know how to get out of it because everything was in Slovakian, Archie managed to rip it off with his bare hands. So we learnt Archie can get wheel clamps off with his bare hands.

Sarah: We’ve learnt about roadside nutrition, eat lots of eggs, drink a coke a day.

Joe: Also to try and have fun, if you can see a bit more of the city rather than just play the show and do nothing — if you can get out and about and have a fun night it can make the whole thing a lot more memorable. Rest, recover, but also party when you can.

Sarah: We should learn to party more.

Do you find yourselves more or less comfortable playing international shows versus performing back home in Australia?

Sarah: More comfortable with international [shows]. Depending on the show, I think the most nerve racking crowd is the home crowd — even though they love you, it's your family and friends, a bit more expectation.

Joe: Bigger crowds too back home.

Ash: Touring back in Australia means you play mostly on weekends and not during the week, you get more into a rhythm [in Europe] of playing every night which I think helps — we noticed that last night after four shows in a row.

Joe: You get ‘gig fit’.

You’ve progressed quickly in the London scene, starting out at the Sebright Arms then to 100 Club and now to Village Underground, is there a particular venue or stage that you feel is the ultimate goal for the band?

Ash: We’re gunning for Wembley — 2026.

Joe: But we’re happy here [at Village Underground] too.

Arch: I don’t really have a venue goal mindset, [Village Underground] is pretty big and I don’t think we have to go that much bigger than this.

Ash: I really wanna play Glastonbury, that's on the top of the list.

There’s been a noticeable shift in your sound from debut EP ‘Backyard’ to your most recent record ‘Underneath’. How has your approach to writing and making music changed over time?

Joe: We just try to push ourselves more, we’ve got Sarah now too so that's added about six more instruments and a beautiful voice.

Archie: I guess learn to not repeat sounds or vibes. Progression is a funny word — I guess we see it as writing songs that are more thought out which can be a bit of a drag sometimes. The first album was very relaxed — we definitely thought about the songs but we’re definitely thinking about these [new] ones a lot more.

Sarah: Now we labour over the tracks, we spend weeks on one chorus.

Does that make writing and recording more difficult at times?

Sarah: 100%. We worked with Dan Luscombe on ‘Underneath’ and he taught us a lot about songs and what parts you need and what you don't — he gave us a bit of a critical lens, in a good way.

With the new music we’re writing now for the next album we’re trying to bring that sort of mindset to these songs.

Which track from ‘Underneath’ came together the fastest and which took the most amount of time?

Joe: Slowest one I reckon was ‘This Island’ — it was one of the first tracks we started working on but we just chopped and changed it so much, so that one took ages.

Sarah: Quickest I think was ‘Suburbia’ — it kind of happened in a fever dream whilst at Kennett River . We were locked in one of Joe’s friends' houses — we had a fire going and we had a slab of XXXX Gold. Archie started playing the drum beat and Ash had the harmonica going with some delay and then the song just happened.

I recently read an article that described your style as “poetic farm rock”. Who are some of the artists that’ve influenced your sound and inspired you to make this sort of music?

Ash: Poetic farm rock, sick.

I grew up listening to a lot of Australian rock — I think Louie did too and I think it shows. I really like Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, The Triffids, I just like listening to all the classics. In more recent times we listen to a load more different types of music.

Joe: The classic Aussie bands have definitely influenced the “poetic farm rock”.

Archie: I didn't listen to any of that until [Ash] sprung it on me. I grew up with Green Day as my ‘rock’ and they're just one of the best bands of all time. And the Chilli Peppers like, c'mon.

Now you’ve just been announced as a support for Amyl and the Sniffers for their upcoming London and Manchester shows, how important is it for you to maintain a strong connection to the Melbourne or Australian music scene?

Ash: It's a big part of it because it's where we've come from.

Joe: An opportunity like that was too good to turn down. They’re pretty iconic and we love Amyl, we look up to them and to what they’re doing. We all decided to lock in on it and stay over in Europe an extra month — when opportunities arise to be able to play or hang out with other bands from back home we always try and make the most of it.

Archie: Yeah we’ve played with Tropical Fuck Storm at some festivals and its just good to hang and connect.

Sarah: There’s so many good Aussie bands over here at the moment as well — C.O.F.F.I.N, Radio Free Alice. Because we’re still trying to develop over here in Europe we try to get local supports. It would be cool to tour with another Aussie band but we need the locals to upsell tickets.

Ash: We did a bit of a Europe leg with Bad//Dreems [in 2023] which was really fun. They’re a bit more in the punk and squat scene so they got us into that — it was really fun.

After such a full on year with ‘Underneath’ and a packed tour schedule, are you already thinking about the next project? Or are you taking some time to reset.

Joe: We’ve started working on new songs, it took a while to get it going.

Sarah: We may have recorded an epic song two weeks ago, that might be out soon.

We’ve recently got a studio which is so fun, we have a lot of freedom now to go and write and record ourselves which makes for a really different process — it's really great.

Archie: I think we have two or three weeks off at the end of the tour before the Amyl shows, we’ll hopefully have some new music before we tour Australia in November.

Floodlights remaining UK/EU tour dates here: https://floodlightsband.com/shows

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