BENDIGO band Abreact had one of the biggest nights of their music career on Saturday and are now setting their sights higher.
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The band arrived back in town at the halfway point of a national tour to promote their first album Entities.
Almost 150 people attended the launch at the Newmarket Hotel.
“It’s been eight or nine months since we played in Bendigo,” bass player Chris Hayden said.
“We’ve played a bit in Melbourne but mainly everywhere else like Sydney, Adelaide and smaller towns like Ballarat and Warrnambool.”
Hayden is hoping the rest of the year involves more touring and playing at music festivals Groovin the Moo (GTM) and Soundwave.
The GTM line up was announced last week but festival organisers must still select four local acts for each leg of the tour.
Bendigo bands Grand Perceptor and Bride Stripped Back have been part of GTM local flavour in recent years.
“We are putting our finger in the pot and trying for GTM and Soundwave,” he said.
“When we finish off this tour we are looking at booking with a couple of Melbourne bands for a regional Victoria tour.”
It took Abreact about 12 months to put their album together with funding the main reason for the delay.
“We didn’t work on it full time, it was all week nights after work,” Hayden said.
“The first time (it was on radio) none of us heard it, we read on the internet.”
But even with the album getting airtime on radio stations Triple J and Triple M, the group still don’t feel like full time musicians.
“It depends on the day. Right now I’m on my back (working) under a floor and I feel like a dirty worker but on the weekends it is all about the music,” Hayden said.
The group, which is named after a psychological term meaning to express yourself artistically, began as a high school band more than 15 years ago.
“Ten years ago we never expected this but the drive to keep going is what is making us go so well,” Hayden said.
Tickets for GTM Bendigo go on sale on Wednesday, February 6.
They can be purchased from the Bendigo Advertiser office (only 1400 available), logging on to www.gtm.net.au or www.moshtix.com.au or by calling 1300 438 849.