Being Tasmanian has become more positive than negative, says The Sleepyheads frontman Pat Broxton.
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The Launceston four-piece recently won a coveted spot on the lineup of triple j’s One Night Stand, set to take place at St Helens in coming weeks.
Broxton said the news was unexpected.
“We kind of thought we might be in with a chance early on, but as the days went by we thought it would be going to someone else,” he said.
“[triple j] Unearthed have always gotten around us which is pretty cool, but we thought they might break out and choose someone else.”
Broxton said Tasmania had so many good bands that they stopped thinking about winning the spot.
“Then, we got woken up with the phone call one morning,” he said.
Broxton said it was “exciting and terrifying” that the concert would be broadcasted across the country on radio and television.
“It’s a big opportunity to play the show itself, but they announce it a month early and we’re on all the posters and everything – it’s full promotion of us for a month. It’s an extremely big opportunity in that way as well.”
Broxton said as well as being excited about their set, he was keen to see Alex the Astronaut and Middle Kids.
“I missed Alex the Astronaut when she played in Hobart last time so I’m really excited to see her play,” he said.
“Middle Kids have a lot of hype around them at the moment, their new album is pretty cool.
“I saw Peking Duk at Falls last year and they put on a great show.”
Broxton said the band began as a solo project in late 2014.
“Then I ended up wanting to make it into a band, and I found a couple of people. Bill [Shepherd] our drummer was our first member, and started while I was doing acoustic stuff, then we found our bass player [Cameron Locke], then guitar [Dan Barton], and we just built it from there,” he said.
Being based in Tasmania, Broxton said he thought it was a lot easier than it used to be to get noticed.
“Basically everyone finds their music online now,” he said.
“I think the whole Tassie thing used to be a negative, but now bands like Luca Brasi have really put Tassie on the map. It’s turned out to be a more positive thing. There’s a different mindset which is cool.”
Broxton said The Sleepyheads would be going on tour in October, and would be releasing a new song on August 17.
“It just happened to fall into place. We recorded a song in June and we didn’t really know what to do with it, so it we thought this was the perfect time,” he said.
triple j’s One Night Stand will take place September 1 at St Helens.
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