Mermaid Avenue\u00a0<\/strong>mixed their indie rock and alt. country with a healthy dose of 90\u2019s classicism and oz rock swagger on their debut record \u2018Temptation And Half the Truth\u2019. The album received critical acclaim, including the song \u2018Rise\u2019 being a finalist in Blues and Roots Radio\u2019s \u2018International Song of the Year 2019\u2019. With a new album due for release in 2021, the revamped Mermaid Avenue is keen to expand upon. With 5 great new songs tracked (and many more to come) the band is keen to get their music back out there. \u2028 Pre-pandemic, Mermaid Avenue had become a regular feature on the Brisbane scene \u2013 driven by the prolific songwriting of singer Peter Clarke combined with the musicianship of Mike Kearey and Chris Wong (guitars), Mark Egan (bass), Casey Lee (keys), and Anthony Judd (drums).\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Settle for Pain\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is the brand new release from the band and how perfect the timing is especially after over 18 months of the world literally being suffocated by the C-word and the establishments behind it.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Settle for Pain<\/strong>\u00a0often has a rousing, intensely emotional bent and the musical peaks that come along the way are perfectly built up to and integrate the various elements at her disposal in a seamless, highly musical way. The band obviously arrived early at a vision for this song \u2013 it has an ideal running time and manages to pack a world of musical experiences into its relatively brief duration without ever sounding rushed or cluttered.<\/p>\n

The vocals are adept for facing down any challenge that comes along. The entire sonic flow really makes great drama out of the song\u2019s lightly ironic twist and brings an appealing combination of grit and melodicism to play delivering the song\u2019s lyrics. Much like the arrangement,\u00a0 lyrics never waste a word or any of the listener\u2019s time and hit upon an accessible, conversational tone without ever dumbing down the adult subject matter of never settling for pain.<\/p>\n

The possible breadth of this song\u2019s appeal is immense. Listeners old and young alike will find some basis to relate to the lyrics or else understand the enormity of the experience.\u00a0 We decided to catch up with the band for an interview..<\/p>\n

What inspired you to get into music?<\/strong>
\nLike most people, we were inspired by the artists we have been exposed to as we were growing up. Collectively our main influences are bands like Tom Petty, Wilco, Drive-By Truckers, Powderfinger, REM, and The War on Drugs. Individually our tastes vary, which kind of creates the synergy in the songwriting. We\u2019ve all been in the music scene individually since we were young, but this band has become the place where our collective creative output seems to happen.<\/p>\n

How would you describe your music?<\/strong>
\nAlways a tough question. We can be quite eclectic as the songs often start in one style and end up in another. We tend to let each song evolve to where it needs to be, we don\u2019t aim for a style or a sound. If you go through our back catalog you\u2019ll see that we\u2019ve released a range of songs in a range of styles. The lyrical theme tends to be the same, as Pete really tends to focus on real stuff, \u2018relationships from all the angles\u2019.<\/p>\n

What would you say is your recording and songwriting style?<\/strong>
\nWriting style is pretty straightforward. Pete (singer) will come up with the basis of a song. He brings it to the band and it gets \u2018Avenued\u2019 as we play through it a few times, it evolves. Once it feels natural and right, it’s finished. Recording wise, we tend to record live in the studio to keep the vibe and overdub where necessary (Vox, BV\u2019s, solos). Solos are rarely prewritten, just improvised on the spot \u2013 and the best take wins.<\/p>\n

Where would you like to see your music career in 5 years time?<\/strong>
\nHopefully Album #7 or 8! It would be great to have engaged more with audiences globally. As an independent band we don\u2019t have the resources for big promotional pushes, but we are slowly growing our audience around the world.<\/p>\n

Where can music fans listen to your music?<\/strong>
\nAll the usual spots\u00a0🙂
\nFacebook:\u00a0http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mermaidavenueband\u00a0<\/a>
\nTwitter:\u00a0http:\/\/twitter.com\/avenue_mermaid<\/a>
\nInstagram:\u00a0http:\/\/instagram.com\/mermaid_avenue_band<\/a>
\nSoundcloud:\u00a0http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/mermaidavenueband<\/a>
\nBandcamp: http:\/\/mermaidavenue.bandcamp.com\/<\/a>
\nCDBaby:\u00a0http:\/\/www.cdbaby.com\/MermaidAvenue<\/a>
\niTunes :\u00a0https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/artist\/mermaid-avenue\/925443906<\/a>
\nSpotify: https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/7J4Q2hMjHjp9aPDwV2ctI9<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the song\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mermaid Avenue\u00a0mixed their indie rock and alt. country with a healthy dose of 90\u2019s classicism and oz rock swagger on their debut record \u2018Temptation And Half the Truth\u2019. The album received critical acclaim, including the song \u2018Rise\u2019 being a finalist in Blues and Roots Radio\u2019s \u2018International Song of the Year 2019\u2019. With a new album […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,1764],"tags":[2136,2039],"class_list":{"0":"post-6847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-music-lifestyle","9":"tag-dont-settle-for-pain","10":"tag-mermaid-avenue"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6849,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847\/revisions\/6849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenationalpost.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}