Why is Australia such a fertile breeding ground for modern psych bands?

To understand the evolution of psychedelic rock music in Australia, we need to look back at its early stages. In the 1960s, Australian musicians such as The Easybeats, The Bee Gees, The Masters Apprentices, and The Twilights (whose band members were British immigrants) were among the pioneers of rock music in Australia. These bands were heavily influenced by the British Invasion, and the slew of forward thinking, innovative albums from bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Cream, The Small Faces, and The Pretty Things, in the latter half of the decade.

Although British influences dominated the late 60’s music scene in Australia, a number of progressive Sydney-based groups such as Tamam Shud and Tully were releasing music that combined elements of Eastern mystical philosophy and avant-garde jazz, as well as looking to American psychedelic groups like The Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Love and Jefferson Airplane for inspiration.

But none of the above explains why psych-rock is so dominant in Australian music now. There’s an argument that the country’s vibrant music scene has enabled local artists to experiment with different sounds in a multitude of genres, resulting in a fusion of styles that’s been labelled “neo-psychedelic” by journalists, and the whole scene has just steamrollered from there. But the current catalyst surely dates back to 2010 and the release of Tame Impala‘s Innerspeaker album.

The brainchild of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, Tame Impala‘s Innerspeaker delivered a raw, expansive psych-rock sound that took the band beyond Australia and made them a global success. With their follow up albums, and their move into synth-based psych-pop, seeing even bigger sales and dozens of slots headlining huge international festivals like Glastonbury and Coachella, their influence spread far and wide, and they became Australia’s biggest music export since INXS and Kylie.

The success of Innerspeaker also coincided with a growth in popularity of psych-rock globally, with bands like Thee Oh Sees, Kikagaku Moyo, Temples, Goat and Hookworms, all forming and finding critical and commercial acclaim around the same time, and acts like MGMT, The Flaming Lips, The Brain Jonestown Massacre, and The Black Angels all continuing to release music and thrive. Sometimes it’s all about timing.

2010 also saw the formation of Australia’s most prolific band in years, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. In just thirteen years the Melbourne six-piece have released over twenty five albums, taking in everything from pastoral psych-pop, to manic, gloomy psych-thrash, and they’ve pretty much laid their hands on every psych-rock touchstone available in their short career. The band also launched the acclaimed psych-rock music festival, Gizzfest in 2015, and it’s become an annual event, helping other psych loving Aussie bands gain their own notoriety and success.

Other Aussie psych-rock acts that have found success since 2010, and continue to release great records include, Perth’s Pond (who formed just before Tame Impala and King Gizzard, and found themselves grouped in with those two bands a lot, especially from 2010-13), Orb (who started as a doom rock outfit), The Babe Rainbow, GUM, The Murlocs, and since 2014, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Mt. Mountain, Bananagun, Tropical Fuck Storm, and Sunfruits.

With the successes of all these bands ongoing, and other Australian music festivals incorporating lots of new and exciting psych inspired bands into their line-ups, expect the list above to grow and grow over the next few years.