There is a lot to be said for a change of scenery, which psychedelic band Raging Moby have discovered for themselves.
After finding themselves locked down together in a share house in Melbourne throughout the pandemic the six-piece band has since relocated to Jan Juc, channelling their lockdown experience into the seven tunes on their new EP, Counterfeit Paradise.
Having performed regularly at indie music venues such as the Workers Club, Bar Open and the Old Bar, Raging Moby had built considerable momentum before the onset of COVID-19.
That all came to a grinding halt in 2020, according to one of the band’s three guitarists, Aidan Pangrazio.
“We were playing a lot of gigs and recording and writing a lot of music; we’d just put out our first EP and then it sort of all hit us that we wouldn’t be playing gigs,” he said.
“We’re all country boys, so we were really feeling the sting of it. My parents were in New South Wales and a lot of the other boys’ parents were in country Victoria.
“Not being able to see our family (or) connect with anyone socially, we sort of just put it to music, which was nice in a way, but obviously for everyone it was a hard time to live through.”
Once the lockdowns eased, individual members began to move to the Surf Coast, making the transition an organic one rather than a conscious decision as a band.
With them, they brought the music they’d written through their lockdowns living together, which they recorded last year at Big Fridge Records in Wallington to create Counterfeit Paradise.
After a solid year of gigs in 2023 and a set at the Loch Hart Festival in January this year, the band is set to announce a run of shows in April through Victoria and New South Wales.
Pangrazio said, as always, they would try to bring the party to each gig.
“We take a lot of inspiration from bands like King Gizz(ard and the Lizard Wizard), like most psych bands do these days,” he said.
“We’ve got some really dancey songs, we’ve got a lot of songs that are influenced by disco, but we put an Aussie rock spin to it, so it’s still got quite an upbeat tempo. We try to get the crowd moving and try to be as engaging as possible through our music.”
