Featured Artist Interview: Ball Park Music
This week, Musicadium team member Trent Moody has interviewed Brisbane indie-pop sextet and recent addition to the Musicadium Family, Ball Park Music.
Check them out on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/musicfromtheballpark.
You’ve just released a new single Sea Strangers (I Don’t Really Know You), when’s the album coming out and what can we expect from it?
Sam Cromack: We’ve made plans to have a second EP released in late April/early May. I want people to have high expectations and I hope we deliver. We’re planning on five tracks and it will definitely be a more diverse release. We’ve sorted a few bouncy, poppy numbers - that’s come to be expected - but you can also look forward to some elaborate stuff, some wild stuff, some ambience and some melancholy.
Daniel Hanson: Our next release will be an EP that we plan to launch in mid-April, which will feature Sea Strangers, and 4 other tracks that we have been working on over the holiday period. The vibe of the record is mostly positive, with a few twists here and there that contribute to the bands developing sound. The songs will most likely all be hits, but that will be determined a little closer to the release date.
(This particular single was featured as the iTunes single of the week from the 19th January to the 26th.)
6 creative people in a band would be challenging at times, how do you deal with all that creativity when writing songs etc?
Sam Cromack: Sam just tells everyone what to do, and if they don’t obey they are made to prepare him a fresh, delicious meal followed by an hour-long foot massage.
Dean Hanson: We see six creative people in a band as an advantage. We all have quite contrasting taste in musical influence so when it comes to arranging our songs, everyone adds their own flavour to the tracks so to speak, obviously this comes together within reason so we don’t have heavy metal choruses in between folk versus. Often Sam will come up with the lyrics and basic structure to a song and we will build on that.
You have supported quite an impressive list of artists, who was your most memorable and why?
Sam Cromack: Touring with the Hungry Kids of Hungary was a blast, simply because we got to savour the good times over a series of shows. Their home gig at The Zoo was a particularly great gig. Also, I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of watching The Philly Jays: nice songs, nice beards, and instrument smashing.
Um, Jen’s house burnt down? Tell us some more about that.
Sam Cromack: Her younger sister Chloe left a tea-candle burning and the rest is history. I tried to drive through her street on the night it happened, but the roads were blocked and I was forced to take a different route. Sure enough, we received the disastrous phone call and learnt all the bad news. We lost about half our stash of EPs. But yeah, it’s no biggie.
Jennifer Boyce: My sister left a candle lit in her bedroom, which ended up burning the entire house down in about 15 minutes. It was only a few days after our first EP launch and all our CD’s were inside… they got nice and smoked/wet. So our number one advice is NO CANDLES IN THE HOUSE!! She also lost a couple of guitars and amps (as well as just most of her stuff in general). But lots of lovely people have chipped in to get some replacements. Oh and some more advice, have insurance!
Last but not least, what are the hopes and dreams for the future of Ball Park Music?
Sam Cromack: We want to play music, take all your monies and avoid real jobs for ever and ever, Amen.
Purchase Ball Park Music’s music on 
or follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BallParkMusic!
