Planes, Trains & Reverb: The Oogars evolving sound and new EP

May 31st, 2020

Words by Max

Buried within the sounds of surf rock are the melodies of the East. While the pastel-colored Jaguar guitars and smokey dance halls of the genre have a distinctly Americana look, at its roots, you will find the echoes of classical Indian, and Arabic folk music. Surf rock is the collision point of the West’s pop rhythm and song structures, and the East’s psychedelic riffs, and scales.

Darlings of the coast, but frequent travellers of faraway places, The Oogars navigate these worldly yet familiar sounds of surf music with ease. Since forming in 2018, The Oogars have gigged relentlessly. From a tour of Spain to supporting the Allah-Las, the female quartet has amassed a wealth of experience on-stage in a short time. This drive to play, play, and play has seen The Oogars quickly evolve both their sound and musicianship since their first single ‘Scream’.

“It’s hard because that first song we put out, it was just like a fun song we did after all meeting for the first time and having not really played instruments together,” Dani explained with a laugh. “I’d say we don’t really resonate with it, and the lyrics as much anymore. I think our stuff has evolved lyrically and also through experiencing different cultures in terms of our riffs, songwriting, and drumming.”

This evolution towards embracing more of the Eastern parts of surf music was catalysed through playing shows in Spain alongside Danish surf band Pacific Swell. “Obviously in Europe they’re exposed to more types of music, and different cultures,” outlined Tanisha. “The Pacific Swell boys showed us Altin Gun and through that, I became obsessed with that music and those Eastern scales for a while.”

This inspiration has seen The Oogars develop killer lead parts, matching dreamy vocals with swelteringly psychedelic riffs and solos. More pentatonic-y indie guitar work has given way to reverb-steeped bends and half-steps that will cause you to close your eyes, lightly bite your bottom lip, and sway affirmingly. With two female singers ala Nice Biscuit, The Oogars are very much capable of putting crowds in a gentle trance. These spaced-out harmonies are often either broken by hard transitions or intensified through slowing-down the bpm — as is classic of a dynamic and talented surf/psych band.

With this evolving style, The Oogars fit comfortably on line-ups with many bands up and down the coast pulling from similar pools of influence. “The Dear Doonan boys are a super lovely, great band,” said Gemma. “We also had some of our best shows playing with Nice Biscuit… Full Flower Moon Band is sick, Pink Matter, that’s more funk/soul, but they’re really, really good as well.”

The community element to playing gigs is crucial, especially during tough times like the present. “The Uplifting Bell Ends from Sydney, sent us this link to a video about a band called Ace of Cups which was the best mini-doco we’ve ever seen,” added Tanisha. “It’s just like five chicks in that 70s revolutionary era starting a band and it literally felt like us. It shows them when they’re fully old and they’re still doing awesome psych stuff, just ripping in… It was so good, really inspiring!”

While delayed by COVID, The Oogars have managed to record their first EP this year which will feature four new songs. “We had all these shows lined-up which was going to help us fund our recording, so with all that gone we had to tackle tracking some stuff at a different angle,” said Tan. “But we did it! All the mixes came back this week and they all sound really good, so we’re excited to put it out into the world.”