I’ve disturbed Quang. He’s got a month or so off before Little Red begin touring and he’s been taking it easy. When I ask him how he’s been passing time he tells me, “I’ve been taking a lot of baths recently, drinking lots of tea, relaxing.”

And it’s a well-earned break with the boys having just released their debut album, the tasty cut of 60s do-wop which is Listen to Little Red. But their musical origins are resolutely different. Little Red are five Melbourne gents – Quang (bass/vocals), Adrian Beltrame (guitar/vocals), Dominic Bryne (guitar/vocals), Tom Hartney (guitar/vocals) and Taka Honda (drums). They knew each other socially but played in two different bands; one sounded like Radiohead and the other like Nick Cave. Needless to say the resulting sound when combined harkens to neither.

“After the teenage angst…you just wanna get happy and do sweet melodic stuff, so we started listening to The Beach Boys and getting heavily obsessed with them,” recalls Quang. They took this obsession to heart, and even the title of their album refers to an act of retro vandalism The Beach Boys once undertook. “Whenever they’d find wet concrete, they’d write listen to The Beach Boys, eventually that changed to Listen to Little Red.”

Little Red’s jaunty sound is reminiscent of the best of the 60s, from The Kinks to Van Morrison, but they incorporate rough harmonies and sinister riffs to separate themselves from the pack. They’ve been pigeonholed as a revival band since they appeared on the Australian music scene, but Quang is quick to defend their sound.

“It’s kind of easy to say that we’re a 60s revival band... We’re just trying to capture that youthful exuberance and that kind of freedom in that music.”

“It’s kind of easy to say that we’re a 60s revival band, if you look deeper…we kind of take the 60s vibe out of the stuff we listen to rather than just the music,” he explains. “We’re just trying to capture that youthful exuberance and that kind of freedom in that music.”

Capturing this took the band six to seven months of recording across two sessions, after the first session failed to produce the songs they wanted for their debut. But the boys aren’t always about perfectionism and moments of inspiration can come at unexpected times. “Sometimes magic happens when we’re out on the town and we make up a song on the spot, record it on our mobile phone and the next morning we see if it’s any good. Sometimes it is,” Quang recounts, possibly looking back to some drunken nights out.

Little Red have certainly earned their stripes after touring with bands including Operator Please and The Panics, along with slots on Laneway Festival and V Festival, for which they won the Garage to V competition. The extraordinary opportunity saw the lads play on a lineup including The Smashing Pumpkins and Queens of the Stone Age and Quang has nothing but praise for Branson and co. “It was amazing, in terms of how they treat you backstage…we were treated extremely well, almost too well!”

As for rubbing shoulders with musical heroes, Quang missed out on partying with legendary red-head Josh Homme. “Tom and Taka hung around with Josh Homme, I regretted going to bed. Josh Homme just kicks on, he’s indestructible it seems, when he just wants to party.”

However, now Little Red have the chance to wow crowds on their own terms, starting with their national tour in August. They’re itching to get on the road and are hoping their audiences will be in the mood for a song and dance. “I don’t know how people actually feel when they see our band…but I just love it when we do our breakdowns in songs and claps and the whole crowd is clapping along, it’s a really good feeling, just people getting into it and dancing.”

And if you think they’ll only be playing tracks off their album, you’re wrong. The boys are busy writing new songs which they will most definitely be incorporating into their sets. They may even pull a Beatles as Quang says, “we want to release a new album every year because we’re three songwriters, we can’t really have any problems with writer’s block.”

With such ambitious plans in the works, what is the future for this promising Aussie band? “Probably just to keep on writing better and better songs… we’re doing pop music at the moment but I don’t know where we’ll head eventually,” Quang muses.

“It’s kind of easy to say that we’re a 60s revival band, if you look deeper…we kind of take the 60s vibe out of the stuff we listen to rather than just the music,” he explains. “We’re just trying to capture that youthful exuberance and that kind of freedom in that music.”

“We want to make a classic record, something that will stand the test of time. If that happens, I’ll die very happy.”

With the fresh sounds of surf pop to guide their way, Little Red will definitely leave an impression with any audience they come across.


Little Red tour the country with The Holidays and Andy Bull via the following dates. Tickets are on sale NOW.


AUGUST

Thu 14 Karova Lounge (Ballarat)

Fri 15 Corner Hotel (Melb)

Sat 16 Peninsula Lounge (Moorooduc)

Wed 20 Oxford Tavern (Wollongong)

Thu 21 Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)

Fri 22 Annandale Hotel (Syd)

Thu 28 Barwon Club (Geelong)

Fri 29 Jive Bar (Adelaide)

Sat 30 Amplifier Bar (Perth)

Sun 31 Swan Basement (Fremantle)


SEPTEMBER

Thu 04 Flynn's Beach Surf Club (Port Macquarie)

Fri 05 Sound Lounge (Currumbin)

Sat 06 The Globe (Brisbane)

Mon 08 Swindlers Bar (Mt Hotham)

Thu 11 The Pub (Bendigo)

Fri 12 Corner Hotel (Melb)

Sat 13 Republic Bar (Hobart)

Photo by Darren Mok.