Travellin' Band

Sydney folk/indie pop trio Set Sail's previous EP, The Riley Moore, released last year, chalked up sales of more than 14,000 copies, which in these days of downloads over hard copies is impressive indeed. With a new EP, “Hey!”, in their collective hands, they're embarking on a two-month tour of the nation, before taking themselves off to bunker down in a log cabin in Montana in October to write their debut album. The new EP certainly gives a good indication of what we might expect when the album arrives.

“I'm a big fan of big melodies, so anything with a strong chorus and a big hook,” drummer Joshua May admits. “That's really been placed in these songs. I think there's been a real growth in the band; just a maturity. We've all encountered relationships and partners, so that's really in there, especially for Who Are You. When I wrote that I was starting to see this girl and that whole aspect came into it. But also unity, in that sense, as well as camaraderie – we've all been going through this journey and we've all found that we really need to stick together, and “Hey!” is an example of that. It's more a journey as a group, where the lyrics have really come from.”

As well as the life journey Day mentions, Set Sail undertook a pretty impressive physical one before settling down to record the EP: a self-funded, busking world tour, which saw them travel to London, Paris, Berlin, Iceland, California, Dubai and Hong Kong, among other places – 40 cities across four continents all-up.

“We really wanted to move away a little bit from the traditional sense of touring, doing shows and people coming to see us,” he explains. “We thought it would be such a great idea to do these 'guerrilla' shows, as we've called them, in all these landmarks in Europe and America, where we actually went out to the people. The music was such a great medium for that. We played one actual venue, a little café in Iceland, but that came off the back of going to Reykjavik and just playing.

“When we started out playing together [two years ago], it was just that busking thing and we really learnt how music affects people. So when we do want to test out songs, it's a really good time to trial-and-error stuff. We just kept on noticing these certain things continuously happening when we'd do a song in a certain way. And so it's a really good way to shape a song to see if people are going to dance. When everyone starts dancing, you know you're onto something. It plays a really important role.”

Things almost came unstuck though when, on returning to Australia via New Zealand, American-born lead singer Brandon Hoogenboom found himself deported for breaching his visa conditions. It seems a Facebook petition that went viral with more than 8,500 signatures of support helped ensure he was able to return.

While these days when they're not busking, Set Sail tour as a five-piece with keyboards and bass player, their secret weapon – so to speak – is classically-trained violinist Josiah Willows, who has thankfully opted not to grow a chest-covering beard. He provided the track, Charleston, for the EP, a tune that mixes up references to the Twist, surf music and the '20s in one big summery confection.

“We used to live with a friend who used to do the Charleston – the dance – and Josiah was inspired because he could never do the Charleston, and still can't! So he thought he'd write about it at least. It's a bit of a Jellybean song, a bit quirky.”