The World of the Wombats
The Wombats have been stalwarts of the Brit-indie-rock scene for almost two decades, releasing chart-topping tracks that defy genres and generations. Drummer Dan Haggis chats about the beginnings of the band, the magic of making music and how a bunch of Liverpudlians ended up being named after a Down Under marsupial.
Words by Zara Richards | Images by Tom Oxley and Kane Hibberd
You’re back in Australia this October for Grapevine Gathering. It’s your second time playing at the festival. How come you’ve boomeranged?
The first time we played [Grapevine] was also the first time we played on a vineyard. We had such an amazing time. To get outside the cities, where we predominately play, was beautiful. We got asked again this year, and
we were like, ‘Wow, it’ll be the fifteenth time for us [playing] in Australia! Let’s do this!’ You’ve got to take these opportunities when you can and we don’t get many chances to play at wineries in such a beautiful country.
Let’s take it right back to the beginning, when the three of you met in 2003. Did you ever think that The Wombats would be defying the boundaries of the Noughties indie- rock explosion two decades later?
No! Music is a bit of a lottery. Musicians and artists can put the balls into the lottery machine, as it were, and then you just hope that yours gets spat out at the end. We’ve been lucky with a few of those lottery balls – people found them and feel something when they hear our music. That’s all we ever wanted to do when we started in 2003. So, the fact that we get to keep doing it now is surreal. Three lucky marsupials.
What kind of band were The Wombats back when you released your debut, A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation, in 2007?
We were in multiple projects when we first got together and were excited by all genres. It ended up being what it was for the first album. We fell into who The Wombats were at that stage and went 100 per cent. [Today], we’ve got so much more experience and so much more knowledge of how to make and create and record music.
The most excited you get in the studio is when you hit upon something that feels different and new and exciting. The last time we were in the studio, we started working on our sixth album and we were swapping instruments and moving around. It’s so freeing.
Tell us more about this sixth album.
When we’re in Australia, we’ve booked studio time in Perth and Sydney. We’ve wanted to write and record in Australia for years, ever since we first went. But once you get back [home] and you get over the jetlag, it’s like, ‘Ah, do we want to go back?’. But on this trip, we’ve got time. So, there’s going to be some Aussie-written Wombat songs on the next album with any luck.
Very true to your name...
Exactly! How could The Wombats not have some Aussie- written songs...
What pushes you to get back in the studio?
I think all three of us just love making and creating music. It’s really hard to define that feeling. There’s something about waking up in the morning and going into the studio and nothing exists yet. By the end of the day, you’ve gone through this journey and you don’t really know what’s happened. Then, that evening, you’ll listen to the song you’ve made – which didn’t exist before – and get all the feels. There’s this excitement like, ‘Holy shit, we made this’. There’s a magic to it.
There are some songs on the sixth album that I already keep going back to the demos and listening to again
and again. It becomes addictive. If we get that feeling, it usually means our fans will get that feeling, too. We’re all searching for those goosebumps moments in life, aren’t we? Whether that’s from a film or art or exercise or whatever. You want that rush of dopamine and chemicals that make you feel ‘wow!’. When you find that, you want to repeat it. I think that’s why we keep coming back.
Does arriving at a creatively freeing place unlock something new musically?
Totally. But to a large extent, we’ve always had that. When we started the second album, [The Wombats Proudly Present...This Modern Glitch], we moved from this indie- rock three-piece with a guitar, bass, drums and a few kids’ keyboards thrown in for good measure. The second we started making ‘Our Perfect Disease’ it was Depeche Mode-sounding with arpeggiated synths. It was quite a scene change for us, but that’s just what we felt like doing at the time. You get this excitement before a new album that’s like, ‘Where’s this one going to take us?’. It leads you on a little journey.
The whole point of music is you have so many happy accidents where you hit a key by mistake, or you’re having a laugh and messing around with something and someone goes, ‘Hang on, do that again’. There are so many little serendipitous moments in the studio that end up being forever engraved on the recording. They’re the moments you can’t plan for and don’t want to plan for. That’s the exciting bit where it’s like, ‘Whoa, where’d this come from? No idea. Keep it! Keep it!’
Like you said, it’s your fifteenth time playing Australia. You even had two shows in Adelaide last year. What keeps bringing you back?
The insane warm welcome we get every time. Even though it’s geographically far, it feels so close. Ever since we first came over in 2007, the crowds have been unbelievable. I remember the first time we played, we all just looked at each other like, ‘What is going on here?!’. The crowds were singing louder than we were. There’s this energy and symbiosis that feels electric. It’s never really changed.
Is there a gig in Australia that really stands out?
There was one I was [thinking] about when I was talking about that feeling. It was in Melbourne at the Margaret Court Arena. We were jet lagged, walking out on stage and everything was pitch black apart from a few phone lights. Then it all just kicked off. It was one big, long party. A sing-along from start to finish. There was also one Splendour in the Grass show during the third album, where I think our manager cried after we came off stage. He was like, ‘What just happened?’. We’ve had so many moments where you wouldn’t believe the vibe in the dressing room after the gig.
Your band is named after one of our native animals. How did it come about?
We needed a name for our first-ever show in Liverpool. We’d been a band for maybe six weeks and had our first six songs in the bag. We got a gig and the promoter said, ‘What’s your band name?’. And we were like, ‘Just put no name for now, it’ll only be friends and family and we haven’t got one.’ He said, ‘[You need to] put something on the poster...’, and I said, ‘Just put The Wombats, then’. He laughed and said, ‘That’ll do’. That was it. There we are again with those spontaneous, random moments that have far-reaching consequences. Who knows how our career would’ve been if we were called something like The Goat?
The Wombats are a band that keeps getting bigger. Do you see yourself jamming on stage together forever?
Yeah, hopefully. We all just love getting on stage and [having] that feeling we became addicted to as teenagers. Sharing music with a crowd, there’s nothing quite like it. I haven’t found anything in life that gives you the same feeling. We played with the Rolling Stones a few years ago and saw them, as 75-year-old musicians, still absolutely rocking out and putting on an amazing show. Afterwards, we were like, ‘Ah, I reckon we could be there at that age’. The Wombats, for us, have become a soundtrack of our own lives as well. There’s so much nostalgia wrapped up in all the songs. It’d be nice to keep doing it for as long as we possibly can until we physically can’t.
Maybe Murph could give Mick Jagger a run for his money?
Yeah, exactly! He needs to work on his dance moves though...
See The Wombats play at Grapevine Gathering at Serafino Wines this October 22 alongside Hayden James, Spacey Jane, King Stingray and more.
