Sam Bassal spent months holed up in his Melton West bedroom producing his band’s debut album.
“It’s easier that I can do everything myself, and I’ve been fortunate enough that I’m OK and not too crap at producing,” the 20-year-old says.
OK doesn’t quite cut it. Because his band Ocean Grove’s first album – Rhapsody Tunes – took out fifth spot on the ARIA charts less than a fortnight ago.
And when the band’s label manager visited Rolling Stone headquarters, the editors marvelled at the “incredible- sounding” album, asking about its producers and where the studio was.
“Our manager said: ‘It was a 19-year-old producing in his little bedroom in Melton’,” Bassal, the band’s drummer, says with a laugh.
He describes Ocean Grove as “a lot of genres blended together”. The team of five’s style is very fluid, he says, and they’re not afraid to mix genres.
The band has a long list of places – interstate and international – to tour in 2017 and will be appearing at a number of festivals later in the year.
Anyone with an eagle eye should be able to spot some familiar locations (Rockbank train station, Melton streets and the Woodgrove shopping centre) in the band’s music videos.
