MARCH 23, 2023
Melbourne rockers The Murlocs have announced their new album Calm Ya Farm will arrive Friday, 19th May. The follow-up to last year’s Rapscallion was recorded in the band’s home studios and, per a press release, sees the band move away from the psychedelic garage rock of their previous album and towards a sound influenced by county-rock classics like The Byrds‘ Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
That shift can be heard on the album’s first single, the rollicking ‘Initiative’. “It’s about recognising the need to start taking responsibility for your life instead of always living in the now and killing all your brain cells along the way,” frontman Ambrose Kenny-Smith explains. “Not everyone wants the big family and the big house with the white picket fence. Everything happens for a reason and sometimes you need to take things more seriously and make a few power moves in life to find out what comes next in the crystal ball.”
Calm Ya Farm marks the seventh album from the Murlocs, who share members with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (Kenny-Smith and Cook Craig), Beans (Matt Blach) and Orb (Callum Shortal).
“With this record we tried to steer away from all the distortion and dirt and grit, or at least let the grit come off a bit more clean-sounding,” Kenny-Smith says of the band’s turn to more rustic influences for the album. Its title, he added, is “something my partner always says to me when I’m feeling stressed-out or anxious.”
“It made sense with the whole country theme of the record, but it’s generally a good reminder for day-to-day life. Now whenever I look down, I can remember to just chill out and take everything a little easier.”
Next month, the Murlocs will head out on an Australian tour Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle, Scarborough, Sydney, the Gold Coast and Brisbane. Murlocs drummer Matt Blach will be pulling double duty on the tour, with Beans – who he fronts – joining on all dates. Tickets are on sale here.
The Murlocs 2023 Australian Tour
with Beans
- Saturday, 22nd April – Northcote Theatre, Melbourne
- Friday, 28th April – The Gov, Adelaide
- Saturday, 29th April – Freo.Social, Fremantle
- Sunday, 30th April – Indian Ocean Hotel, Scarborough
- Friday, 5th May – Metro Theatre, Sydney
- Thursday, 11th May – Miami Marketta, Gold Coast
- Friday, 12th May – The Triffid, Brisbane