Loose Content return home for Byron show

NORTHERN Rivers-born indie punk outfit Loose Content will return to Byron Bay this weekend to launch their new EP Forth & Back at Howl & Moan Records, a homecoming show built on their raw energy.

Loose Content are a tight-knit trio of Mullumbimby friends, now based in Melbourne, comprising MiLLa on vocals and bass, Sam Sanders on guitar and Aquila Porter on drums and backing vocals.

Despite their youth, they have already supported acts including Grinspoon, The Preatures, The Cruel Sea, Magic Dirt and The Living End, and have played festivals such as Big Sound and King St Crawl.

“We formed in early high school,” Sanders said.

“MiLLa and I had been playing together for a while, and my dad was also teaching Aquila the drums.”

“He told us all to have a jam and we’ve been together since!”

Cutting their teeth in pubs and small venues came with its own challenges.

Sanders recalls having to convince strangers to pose as legal guardians so the underage band could perform.

“We’ve had some pretty questionable ‘legal guardians” before we were all 18,” Sanders said.

“These were people from the street who we begged to be our ‘guardians’ so the venue would let us in to play!”

“We’ve met so many interesting people over the years, and most have been lovely if not a bit strange.”

Inspired by bands like The Police, Radiohead, Midnight Oil and The Saints, the trio have developed a sound that blends alternative rock with power pop and a punk edge.

MiLLa’s lyrics, often delivered in a spoken word style, are paired with Sanders’ jarring guitar patterns.

Loose Content’s music doesn’t shy away from heavy themes, often sitting between a call to action and reflection on loss, uncertainty and fragile hope.

“The muse for a lot of our songs is often just the world we live in,” Sanders said.

“It feels quite hard to write about other things when the things going on in the world are so awful and extreme.”

“Between the wars, genocides, and ecocides it all gets very dark pretty quickly.”

That political edge draws from a long lineage of Australian pub rock.

“We take a lot of inspiration from bands like the Oils and the Saints,” Sanders said.

“We’ve always been attracted to the raw energy of the live performance and how that was always a priority of those kinds of bands.”

 

When asked what changes he would like to see in the world, Sanders said the list is endless.

“There’s so many changes we would like to see in the world, from climate action to abolishing wars, to the dismantling of capitalism… the list goes on,” he said.

Sanders pointed to Newsreader and Big Bright Burning Sun, which feature on the upcoming EP, as standout tracks tackling these themes.

The guitarist said the new EP reflects the band’s growth over the past few years.

“The EP is a bit of a mix of old and new songs,” he said.

“It is a reflection of the last couple years of our lives, finishing school and moving down to Melbourne and playing lots of shows around Australia.”

Sanders said the move away from their hometown in the Byron hinterland has pushed the band further into the indie punk space.

“Living in Melbourne we’ve been subject to so many great live bands who all have such varying sounds and performances,” he said.

“It’s probably made us more open as a band when writing and trying to take musical and lyrical ideas more to the extreme.”

“We all definitely miss home, but it does feel that Melbourne is the right place for us considering where we are in our career.”

When they perform at Byron’s Howl & Moan Records this weekend, Loose Content will reconnect with the place that shaped them.

Loose Content will perform their new EP Forth & Back at Howl & Moan Records on April 18 at 7pm.

For tickets, visit Oztix.