Those with their finger to the pulse of the Australian music scene will be all too familiar with good Northern Beaches boys Crocodylus. Since 2016, the trio have been sending forth fuzzy, blissed-out alt rock in regular, steady intervals.
Even in 2020, the year of understandably low productivity, Crocodylus haven’t missed a beat, sharing ‘Social Climber’ and ‘Camouflage’, the first peek behind the curtain of their forthcoming full-length record.
Indeed, it’s not just the low productivity trend that Crocodylus have bucked. In an era where being stressed and overwhelmed is toted as some sort of achievement, Crocodylus are as chilled as ever. As Blunt would learn speaking with drummer Mikel Salvador, despite everything going on in their camp, Crocodylus remain as cool as cucumbers.
We’ve heard a little bit about how Metallica won’t be able to get their Christmas Best Hits vinyl off in time, and how Coldplay won’t be able to tour stadiums all over the world. I’d like to bring it down to a more relatable level. How has it affected bands like Crocodylus?
It’s affected us just in a way where we literally can’t even do the things what we want to do.
Usually it’d be, you work the whole week, and then Friday night we get to play a show. That’s our shit, that’s what we like to do. Now that we can’t do it, it’s demoralising. All my musician friends we’re all going crazy.
There’s other upsides, like the other parts of the musician lifestyle can take over. Lots of writing stuff, lots of experimentation and tinkering. I know a lot of people are just doing things that they would never have thought to do, which is really cool.
But, it’s obviously been very upsetting. The other sides of the industry, road crew, and things like that…I’ve just been like, “Wow. This is the first time I’ve had to apply for a real job in 14 years.” And, that’s pretty crushing. People selling their gear. I’ve been looking it up. Especially, geo-tagging around Victoria, just seeing who’s selling stuff. It’s people having to sell all their nice stuff, because they just have to.
You’ve had a steady release schedule so far. Are you one of those bands that’s always writing? I imagine that would make it easier to adjust to what’s going on.
I wish we were always writing. We did this thing, where we went away and shacked up in a spot recently, and pumped out the most amount of songs we’ve ever pumped out. I think we did 16 songs, or something like that, in the space of a few days. And, we’re like, “All right. And now, we can just lie dormant for a bit.”
We’ve never written in that way. It was really interesting, exploring more, we did a lot of jamming, a lot of just some extended passages.; A lot of songs now pushing a six-minute, seven minute mark.
The music we’re pumping out right now, it’s a bit seedier, it’s a bit dirtier. It’s more raw. I think we’re all just pissed off.
Is that coming from the current situation, or is that just coming from being pissed-off people?
For me, I was just pissed off from the get go. So, they’ll be like, “Oh, we wrote this song. It’s about just chilling and having a good time. Do you have any songs, Mikael?” And, I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” And, I’m going up there, and it’s just a completely different vibe, which is really funny.
We’re all writing now, and we all have different takes and different moods. I think it’s going to be really interesting, what the final product of the album might be. It is really the Wild West right now, with Croc. I have really no idea what’s going on. But, it’s pretty fun.
One of my favorite albums growing up, I loved The Wall, and things like that; more conceptually-based works that are really cohesive, and have a meaning, and a story.
I thought it would be something like that. But, I think it’s going to be far more disjointed. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I can’t help but detect you sound remarkably relaxed about the debut album thing.
Part of the charm of Croc is to be, “We’re just these dudes,” it’s nothing too crazy. It has been really relaxing. We have to stew a little bit. We’re not going to be like Avalanches, and take a 10 year break, a year-long break…
We’ll still be putting out stuff. Probably every year, I think, is pretty nice for us to do. But, it’s tough to get it all together. When it’s going on, you have to make it work, and you just have to go with it.
Crocodylus 2021 Tour Dates
Friday, 20th November
Wollongong Uni Bar, Wollongong
Tickets: Moshtix
Saturday, 21st November
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Tickets: Moshtix
Thursday, 3rd December
The Northern, Byron Bay
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 5th December
The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
6pm show tickets: Oztix
9pm show tickets: Oztix
