A Q&A With Tamala Park Book Club

Four-piece rock Smörgåsbord, from Perth, Australia

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
‘Ginger’ tells a narrative about the protagonist’s relationship with a redhead. Our protagonist tries to get close to the ginger icon but things don’t always work out. It’s a tongue-in-cheek song meant to be a bit of fun.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
Probably the music video! We’ve only just started making our own music videos. We still engage professional videographers from time to time, but I think it’s important to know how to do it yourself. Getting the band and our partners to feature as characters in the video was fun, but scheduling was a little challenging. Plus making sure our costumes arrived in time!

Who produced the release – what did they bring to it?
Ryan Botha of Audax Studios is a producer we’ve been with since the beginning – you can hear his voice at the very end of the song. Not only is he a fantastic producer of the style of music we look to create, he’s a fun guy to be with and we enjoy bouncing ideas off of with him. We’ll make our own demos and we re-record everything with Ryan, who will often put forward his own suggestions for the song. We look forward to recording more music with Ryan in the future!

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
Our songs can be uplifting, depressing, energetic – we write a lot of music for many different reasons. Music offers so much emotion, and can alter a person’s mood with a listen. If we’re able to make someone’s day better with a song, then our music has done it’s job. We hope when people listen to any of our songs, it leaves them wanting more.

How does a track normally come together?
Can you tell us something about the process? Myself and Craig will often write together, collaboration is the most efficient way to create a song. Marcel writes a bit too. Once we have a song idea, we’ll take it to a rehearsal and flesh it out. Then the song becomes a recorded demo, and if we like it enough, we take it to Ryan for a proper recording.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
Big question haha. We all have different influences from different genres. Right now, a bit of influence on me is Stephen Sanchez. I saw him live a few months ago, him and his band put on a great show. Their vintage style is incredible. Similarly, one of my greatest influences is Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. He wrote a great deal of music and that is the standard of music I try to reach with every song I write, writing with purpose to create something unique.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
We’d love to tour Australia’s east coast (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) and we’re currently exploring that as an option. An international tour would be amazing to aspire to.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
We released ‘Homecoming’ in December 2023, it’s a good example of what we do. The mood changes over the song, it is fast, then slows down. There’s soaring vocal harmonies and a wicked guitar solo. It’s a great place to start to get to know our music.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
Keep going as much as we can. We’ve spent years on our craft and I believe we have something special to offer music fans, we hope to share our music with as many people as possible.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Thanks for making it this far with us, find us on social media and continue the journey with the rest of the team.

Follow Tamala Park Book Club on Facebook