Buick Six

Earning their stripes as a punishing garage rock outfit with a deal-it-out-now ask-questions-later approach, Buick Six have spent their formative years experimenting and honing their ability to make musical sense by doing the hard yards as a trio. After releasing 2008’s The Buick Six EP and 2009 follow up Common Arms produced by Robbie Carlyon of Numbers Radio, the Brisbane/Gold Coast boys became regulars on the south east Queensland live scene supporting the likes of You Am I, Tame Impala, British India and The Fumes.

Armed with several van-loads of new material, Buick Six worked with producer Dan James (Drawn from Bees) over several months this year. They stocked up on analog delay pedals and Dan pointed out that drummer Nick Morrison could actually sing in perfect harmony with frontman John Ryan, a detail that went unnoticed until discovering C# was the key – with these two factors introduced, everything just clicked.

New EP Costa Mesa Sun, named after the site of the Californian adventures of John and his bassist brother Griffin, possesses a central theme of looking back. It contains layer upon layer of any and everything – double-tracked drums, guitars pitch-shifted to soundtrack creeping Jurassic Park dinosaurs and a love of delay effects so epic that most chords are heard several times over. Buick Six are always looking back, even when creating something new, which results in one hell of a rock oxymoron and a psychedelically tinged head-trip for creator and listener alike. And with the addition of rhythm guitarist Rhian Kay, the trio are now a fully realised four-piece on stage, rather than merely a studio pipedream of soaring guitars, intelligent melody and sweaty reverb drenched goodness.