Caught in the Floodlights
Floodlights might just be one of the most exciting bands in Australia right now. Ahead of their Beer & BBQ set next month, the Melbourne rockers open up about the endless inspiration this country provides and the risks they took to reach the big-time.
Words by Zara Richards | Image by Maclay Heriot
If you were to outline all the achievements Floodlights ticked off last year, you’d have the blueprint for one of the brightest emerging bands in Australia. Sophomore album released? Check. Shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize? Check. Signed to Virgin Music UK? Check. Sold out shows in Europe? Check.
Throw in a stand-out set at Meredith Music Festival last December and the Melbourne-based rockers have cemented themselves as the act to watch. “It’s grown a lot,” vocalist Louis Parsons admits over the phone one Wednesday evening. “All our different experiences and the places we’ve been together as a band I feel have shot us on a trajectory I never would’ve anticipated. It’s changed our writing, it’s changed our outlook on music. It’s been a big journey.”
Music is how Floodlights make sense of the world. The individual lives of Ashlee Kehoe, Joe Draffen, Archie Shannon, Sarah Hellyer and Louis thread together to form a conversation bigger than themselves – a conversation concerned with our turbulent national identity and personal hardships, the undeniable beauty of this country and First Nations people sovereignty over it.
“I have a big love for people-watching,” says Louis, who shares songwriting duties and
vocals with Ash. “I find the psyche of different characters interesting – why people do things and why they hide secrets, who Australia wishes they were, but what they really are. Australia has a long, deep history and there’s a lot of shame surrounded by that. It’s a beautiful country but there are so many shortfalls.”
Floodlights arrived on the scene in 2018 with a sound that was well-worn yet undeniably distinctive. Runaway single ‘Nullarbor’ dropped in 2019, followed by the 12-minute, self-recorded EP, Backyard. By the time the outfit released their debut album From A View in 2020, they’d signed to New South Wales label, Spunk Records.
Louis calls From A View the band’s ‘beginning’. “We were feeling each other out and trying to refine our sound into what we wanted,” he explains. “We were maybe less critical of what we put down, so we would never really dig deeper.”
That changed the second time around. A three-year gap between albums saw Floodlights crack open their craft and create 10 tracks as expansive as the country that influenced them. Painting Of My Time is raw, intimate and unafraid, buoyed by big choruses and the thick, warm sounds of Ash’s harmonica. “We really started to think about expressing ourselves,” says Louis. “I feel like the more confident you are with that kind of thing, the more you can immerse yourself in the experience of [performing] and connect with the people who are watching.”
A month before Painting Of My Time arrived in April 2023, the outfit raised enough cash to self-fund a trip to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, to perform parts of the record in front of industry hotshots. The goal was to score an international booker or label. “It was a real whirlwind,” Louis says. “You’d play two shows each day and walk these streets filled with lights, sound and people. Your brain was going a million miles an hour.”
The hard work paid off. Virgin Music UK signed Floodlights after one of their showcases and agreed to distribute Painting Of My Time overseas. London-based booking agents ATC Live also added the five-piece to their roster – perfect timing for a band that would tour Europe that August and September.
Performing to crowds overseas gave Floodlights another opportunity to dig deeper into their craft. Sets at Green Man Festival and End of the Road, plus a sold-out gig at Windmill Brixton in London, were career-defining. But the change in scenery also gave the outfit permission to push past the ‘Australiana’ label in the new material they were writing in England. “Everything felt different overseas. I feel like it had a trickle effect into what we wrote,” explains Louis.
These songs form the backbone of Floodlights’ third album, which they just finished recording. “Maybe I’m not even meant to mention that,” the singer caveats. “I really like the direction those experiences pushed us. I think the sound is our best yet.”
Back on home soil, Floodlights rounded out their breakthrough year with a set at Meredith Music Festival – the same place this outfit first thought of becoming a band five years earlier. “There were a lot of tears,” Louis recalls. “The energy was just electric. All our friends had bought a ticket. The hour or so we had on stage seemed to go by in five. It was like coming in and out of consciousness – I’d look up and see Ash crowd- surfing through a sea of people. It was surreal.”
Floodlights will play Beer & BBQ Fest this July 13. Following that, they’ll take a slight breather from band work to replenish their energy reserves ahead of the next record cycle. As the band stares down the barrel of what is to be their third album, we ask Louis how he views his relationship with success right now.
“I just like that connection with people, playing music and sharing something that originated as a little seed inside our heads and became a fully-fledged song. It’s a nice feeling to play that to people,” he says. “That’s my idea of success.
“You can get on a toxic train of thought. But if you had a billion streams or the best record label in the whole world, would it bring you happiness? Probably not.” Instead, we’d hedge a bet that the sunburnt soil of Meredith fills Floodlights cup a lot more.
See Floodlights play at Beer & BBQ Fest this July 13 alongside Bad// Dreems and C.O.F.F.I.N. Tickets on sale now via Moshtix.
