National and international artists will start making their way to Bendigo this week to play at Groovin the Moo.
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The regional music festival got underway in Wayville (South Australia) on April 28 and made it’s way to Maitland and Townsville last weekend.
Bendigo hosts the festival this Saturday ahead of Canberra on Sunday and Bunbury on May 13.
The West Australian leg of the show will be a homecoming for Perth-based band Methyl Ethel.
With a warm-up tour in Europe, the band has been a popular performer in the afternoon setlist.
“(Europe) was a great way to prepare, although rural Australia and continental Europe do have their differences,” band founder Jake Webb said.
“None of us have been (to GTM before this year). I’m looking forward to getting some bargain groceries from the Bunbury farmers market (as a result).”
Methyl Ethel arrive on the music scene in 2013 and came to notice with debut album Oh Inhuman Spectacle.
Their new album – Everything Is Forgotten – along with new singles have received strong airplay and even picked up some awards.
But they trio doesn’t feel like accomplished musicians yet.
“In short, no (we don’t feel accomplished). We’re charlatans in disguise. It’s really quite exhausting keeping up the facade,” Webb joked.
“Both albums took about a year for me to complete, the delays of them coming out are due to label peeps organising all that goes along with putting an album together.”
Webb founded the band and enlisted bassist Thom Stewart and drummer Chris Wright to help play the songs live.
During his childhood he gradually learned to play a variety of instruments.
Experimenting with a lot of electronic sounds, Methyl Ethel has been described as having a “dream pop” kind of sound.
“That music tag is one of the better ones. I like reverb, modulation and delay. Apparently that’s what dreams sound like and I’m OK with that,” Webb said.
“I played piano a little as a baby boy. Got a guitar as a slightly older boy, drums followed and angsty songwriting was shortly after that.
“The band started after I released a couple of EPs on my own and was asked to play a show. It’s a pretty standard origin story, nothing like the (Tenacious D’s) Pick of Destiny. Now that’s a story.”
Groovin the Moo is on at Bendigo’s Prince of Wales Showgrounds on Saturday, May 6. Gates open at 10.30am.
Methyl Ethel will play on the Cattleyard Stage at 12.10pm.