Wanderers: Live & In Action
Experiencing Wanderers’ soul-soaked sound live is something everybody should experience once. Now, you can with the arrival of a special project from this award-winning outfit. Frontman Dusty Lee Stephensen explains the band’s new album, Live in Tarndanya.
Words by Zara Richards | Image by Michelle Grace Hunder
“People often say listening to Wanderers live is different to listening to our music on Spotify. And it’s true,” says Wanderers frontman Dusty Lee Stephensen. The Note is speaking with the vocal powerhouse just weeks before the jazz-soul-rock fusion launch their debut album – a live LP that comprises the best bits of their decade-long career that started in Adelaide.
“For us, we create songs in a studio, go all mad scientist, and then the tracks evolve again [when played] live,” he continues. “This live album is a good chance for us to put together music that spans our whole history but also demonstrates this.”
Recorded at Lion Arts Factory in December 2022 (the first gig The Note ever attended on assignment!), Live in Tarndanya namechecks Wanderers’ top tracks, including runaway hits ‘Off My Back’, ‘What I Do’ and ‘Loco’. Ahead of their launch gig at The Gov on July 12, Dusty lifts the lid on the stories, sounds and standpoints that led to the album’s electric 11 tracks.
Congrats on the release of Live in Tarndanya! What differs between the tracks performed on this album and their studio counterparts?
Something that’s very much part of a Wanderers show is ‘the danger’ – that moment in a song where it’s like, ‘How long is this section going to go for this time?’. Our shows thrive on the energy of seeing how far we can lean into [the music]. But we felt that this live record was a chance for those arrangements of songs and this era of the band to exist. It’s an evolution.
How did you build the setlist?
For a hometown show, people know more of our back catalogue so we can dive a little further back and do some deep cuts. [Adelaide gigs] are just more fun and the band was just on fire [in 2022]. We’d been playing in the States where it’s quite competitive, so we wanted to stand out and have a really tight show. I think that night at Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide got the best of what we are.
The synergy between the band was tight that night, too. Tell us about your on-stage chemistry.
It’s what the whole thing is built around! Regardless of how [Wanderers songs] are written, once they’re played by the band [live] they turn into something else.
I love the idea of going to a show and hearing not just what you like about a record but more. You hear the songs you love played [but there are] all these bits added in to make them better.
READ MORE: Caught in the Floodlights
You’re the brain behind a lot of Wanderers’ lyrics. What draws you to writing?
I think I’ve been trying to unwind myself over the years through my lyrics. If I listen to older Wanderers songs, I hear repetitive lines that I like, but there’s no conclusion – it’s stuck in a loop observing my own behaviours.
‘Nothing In This World’ is a good example of me getting out of that. I’m talking about addictions – when it’s not serving you anymore, [and] it’s slowing you down. That song was me going, ‘Hang on, I’ve done this before where I’ve talked about my situation objectively’. I needed one line like ‘I’m going to shake it up because I’ve lived this night before’ to provide some change and resolve.
I think every song I’ve written since then, even if it’s slightly reflective or pessimistic, I at least provide some way out. That’s what I’m trying to do now.
You included all five songs from your self-titled 2022 EP on the album. As a listener, that’s where it sounded like Wanderers sound their most confident. How did it feel for you?
It felt like Wanderers’ identity had formed. We were originally called Wasted Wanderers – [however], that had nothing to do with being wasted, even though we’ve got themes around drinking in our lyrics. It’s because we felt like we were wandering through genres and styles. We’re quite chameleon musicians. The tricky thing is going, ‘That’s our sound, that’s our mixing of ingredients’. The self-titled EP was when we went into [the studio] knowing our strengths [and going] that’s what we do, they’re the harmonies I write, they’re the grooves Matt can lay down like a mofo. When everyone is at their most relaxed, that’s when it’s the most Wanderers.
What was the Adelaide scene like when you started in 2014? How have you seen it change?
When I first started, there was a feeling that it’s a hard slog if you’re going to get out of Adelaide. For some bands, it would generate this assumption that it’s not going to happen to them. But I feel like now, I’m seeing younger bands go out all guns blazing. It’s changing what people are seeing come out of Adelaide. There are no parameters on what’s possible anymore, no self-imposed assumptions that an Adelaide band can’t make it. The culture is at the forefront of what’s [happening]. And that’s what’s different.
I certainly don’t feel like Adelaide is behind the ball on anything. We’re creating some of the most badass stuff.
Where’s next for Wanderers?
We’ve got a studio album to put out too! We’ve worked so hard [on new music] for so long but that’s just half the mountain. For a band who loves to play shows, the releasing part can be the most daunting and feel the least fun. We certainly want to get these songs out, but we might find a different way this time. One thing is for damn sure, there’ll be a live album and a studio album for everybody to enjoy before the year is out!
See Wanderers at The Gov on July 12. Grab your tickets here.
