Meet Archie !!! // Bands to Add to Your Summer Playlist

Meet Archie – the Canberra indie-rock quartet on the road for their ‘So Far Away From Me’ tour. I had the pleasure of seeing their show at La La La’s last month with supporting acts Palto Guise and Koebi Faumui. So, let’s get to know Grant (vocals and guitar), Xandy (drums), Liv (bass) and Geromy (guitar) – the members of new favourite band Archie.

How did the band start? How do you all know each other?

Xandy: We started in out in university when we were studying music together. We just loved jamming together and decided to create a band.

Liv: And that’s where we met, although Xandy and Geromy knew each other already. Xandy, Grant and I were in the music degree, and then Jeremy was doing an IT degree at the same time. We started jamming in the practice rooms there. And we just kept going.

Xandy: Yeah, the rest is history.

So, were you a band very quickly after that? Or were you just jamming for a bit and then became a band?

Xandy: We always had the vision to play music together. We love performing. We wanted to be on stage and play music in front of other people. Bring music-

Grant: – original music

Xandy: yeah, original music into other people’s lives.

When did Grant and Zandy move to Wollongong?

Grant: We only moved here this year, about six months or so, but yeah, we’re Canberra boys. Liv’s originally from the Bay.

Liv: That’s right, Bateman’s Bay. So, there’s two in Wollongong (Grant and Xandy) and two in Canberra (Liv and Geromy).

How’s that been going, being split up?

Xandy: Long distance is always hard. But no, we’re making it work. It’s a very short drive, relatively. We’ve spent years playing music as a band together.

Who are some of your musical inspirations?

Grant: Parcels, for sure, Jungle Giants. A lot of Aussie music. Yeah, we’ve been lucky enough to play shows with Ballpark and San Cisco and The Rions, who are all big influences on our sound.

Xandy: The Rubens, too.

Grant: Apart from that, we just like to make music and not really worry about what it sounds like, whether it’s a certain genre or not. We like to make music in many different genres and let Archie, us as players, be the genre.

So your latest single, ‘So far away from me’ just came out. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Grant: Yeah, absolutely. We decided that we needed another indie rock, fun song for the set. We needed that energy, so we wrote one and came together pretty easily in the studio. It’s been really fun to play live, played it at two shows on the tour so far. It’s getting a good response. The song is about dealing with distance and how that changes the relationships you show people around. But yeah, it’s mostly just to add a bit of different energy into the mix.

What has been a favourite or a standout performance that you guys have done in your career?

Xandy: We really loved the last time we played here at La’s. It was of the first big, Wollongong shows. It was the first show that we had hosted. The turnout was great.

Grant: Highlight of the tour. Vibes were awesome. Yeah, really enjoyed that. The La’s stage is one of our favourites on the whole east coast.

What is the on the playlist on the road?

Grant: I really like the radio Xandy had on the today. Motown-esque,

Xandy: Yeah, bit of jungle and lots of horns, lots of just grooves. I feel like now it’s warming up and we’re getting into the “wind down the window when a good song comes up, coming down the escarpment.”

Grant: The new Dope Lemon.

Liv: I’ve been into Tiny Habits lately, and I’m gonna go see them tomorrow.

Why the name Archie?

Xandy: It came from my beautiful German short head pointer dog. When we were first starting the band, we used to jam at my parent’s place in Canberra, and we’d all be in my old bedroom with our instruments and Archie the dog. He was a beautiful boy. He used to come and just sit in for a little bit – a sort of fifth member would be hanging out with us. When we were deciding what we wanted to call band, it was really challenging.

Grant: It’s a really hard thing to name a band. We wrote a list, we interviewed people. Then we just defaulted to what felt like us, to capture that same sort of fun energy that you get when we’re on stage.

Bands to Add to Your Summer Playlist

La’s has been a cornerstone of the Wollongong live music for half a decade now. Always at the forefront of emerging and established talent. I love La’s, I even got to interview the owner for a local magazine a little while ago that you can read here.

But there was a special magic in the air the night I saw Palto Guise, Koebi Faumui and Archie perform.

If you’re looking for bands to add to your playlist this summer, look no further:

Palto Guise – a local Gong band who fully embrace a Coastal sensibility with a swirl of psychedelia in their sound. Their latest track Head High from May this year (and all of their discography) deserve a place on your heavy-rotation tracks these coming months.

Smooth, cool and funky is a perfect summation of Koebi Faumui. A special shout out from the gig goes to Faumui and Archie’s collab – talk about musical harmony. If you’re looking for something new for your hot day’s drive… consider Faumui’s 2023 EP Something New.

And Archie, of course, it is safe to say that they are band that if you haven’t started listening to yet, you need to. As a band, they are high energy and their musical talent and their friendship bleed into their stellar performance. ‘So Far Away Me’, their latest single is an obvious killer track but a favourite for me is their song purpose ‘Purpose’ from their 2023 Ep Tell the people you love that you love them.