When reading back through this interview, I questioned whether I should omit the amount of times Crocodylus drummer Mikel said the word ‘stoked’, but decided that it perfectly encapsulated the ocker garage rock band. Following their very first headline tour, the three boys are just about to tour regional Australia with mates Skegss and Totty. They’ve literally only just hopped off the plane from Sydney and into their tour van when I receive a call from Mikel. A perfect depiction of how hectic life on tour can be.
The first top of the tour is Warrnambool and then on to Geelong, a town which seems to be inundated with, for lack of a better words, boys who love noisy garage rock.
“We’ve honestly never played shows in any of these places really except for like Byron and Goldie maybe. That’s it. I’m super stoked. It’s all regional Australia so it’s going to be like a summer holiday type vibe it should be fun.”
When I ask what show Mikel most looking forward to, he says “probably Geelong”, evidently well informed on the music scene outside of his coastal NSW bubble.
“A lot of cool Aussie bands coming out from there at the moment. I want to play a show out there and see what the crowds are like. See what the vibes out down there because I’ve never been.”
Commenting in retrospect, the gig sold out and members of the crowd were literally hanging from ceiling. A typical rowdy show at the Barwon Club. Earlier this year Crocodylus supported ORB, a band which coincidentally, hails from Geelong.
“Yeah that was real sweet. We’re huge fans of them so when we got asked we obviously jumped at the chance. It was great. Especially at the Landsdowne, it’s like the best venue for them. The sound was insane. It was a super fun night.”
Alongside ORB, Crocodylus have been playing with a bunch of incredible bands, such as Hockey Dad, Hideous Sun Demon and even international act The Lemon Twigs. Last month however, the band got to hit the stage on their inaugural headline tour.
“We sold out a couple of those so that was cool. And some were just real fun. Some crowds were like minimal but we still had a blast it was really cool actually doing a headline one for once. Yeah nah it was a vibe. We had a really good time.”
The shows were to promote their second EP Christian Syrups. Each track off this record is short and punchy with lyrics which are, as you can imagine, transparent, yet amusing. Songs like ‘Failure’ and ‘Sweaty Already’ demand to be heard.
“We’ve been sitting on these for a little bit so it was cool to get them out and listen to them because we’ve been playing them live for a while. Some of them since I joined the band almost two years ago. Cool to get them out and we’re really stoked with bow it turned out.”
When I asked Mikel about having the album mastered by Mikey Young (TERRY, Dick Diver, The Goon Sax) I’m sure you can guess how his response was worded.
“We kind of wanted to do it because we knew that Owen gets a lot of his stuff mastered by Mikey and he was like yeah no worries. Mikey was sweet with it. He did the first Orb record and Total Control so yeah we were stoked.”
As a testament to the band’s quality, Crocodylus are well and truly saturated in the punk scene. In fact, it was a member from fellow NSW playful garage band The Ruminaters who created the band’s latest album artwork. Another thing that Mikel was “stoked” about. Crocodylus are not only embraced by congruent bands, but also passionate fans. I can assure that their following will inevitably grow; and fast. The boys seem to be touring non stop for while and you’d be foolish not to catch this fun loving band while you get the chance.