Having only been around for a matter of months - a very vulnerable time in a turtle’s life, with only 1% of baby turtles (hatchlings) surviving to sexual maturity - the release of Turtle Wave’s ambitious debut single ‘Siamese’ indicates to us that Turtle Wave are more than ready to tackle life beyond incubation. Coming out swinging with rollicking drums, blistering flute lines and a ton of momentum, before it's snatched away from us just as quickly as it was introduced, Turtle Wave keep us guessing and rollercoastering for the song’s just-shy-of-five-minutes running time - much like those turbulent few months of a young hatchling's existence.

We got in touch with the Turtle Wave to get inside those first months, the new single and what lies ahead.

TJ: Turtle Wave are super new on the scene. For those who haven’t come across you yet, tell us a little about yourselves.

TW: We make jazzy psych surf rock music. We've got seven members from a whole bunch of different backgrounds and influences, such as folk, punk, shoegaze, metal, hip hop and jazz, so you blend that all together and Turtle Wave is what you get on the other side. We formed earlier this year, and after having one jam we immediately decided we'd be a band and got to work writing a whole bunch of songs.

There’s heaps going on in your big first single ‘Siamese’. Wanna talk us through the track?

'Siamese' is definitely one of the more maximalist songs in our set. We set out to have a high energy song to begin with and when we started working on other layers it slowly evolved and became more and more dense, particularly when our lead guitarist Lachie added an absolute shreddy riff to it. We were playing it a show not too long ago and Jordi, our drummer, spontaneously started playing a hip hop beat in the middle section and you hear that in the final track too. Lyrically, it delves into having to choose between two different paths but leaning towards one, which is what the elephant represents in the artwork.

The launch at the Penny Black tomorrow night looks very exciting too. Looking forward to it?

Pumped! It's going to be a real real big night. We have a few new things in store for those that have already seen us, and we're keen to do our crazy thing for a fresh new audience too. We're also stoked that some of our favourite bands in Melbourne right now are playing with us (Franjapan, Dayzed & Froot Luips). Fingers crossed for no broken strings and that rhythm guitarist Nathan doesn't get so into it he falls off the stage (although our singer Dylan has been known to jump off the stage and get amongst the crowd on multiple occasions).

Can we expect to see a larger Turtle Wave release in the near future?

Sure can! Once 'Siamese' is out, we'll be getting to work on a second single, and from there most likely an EP. We have the privilege of our lead guitarist Lachie having a studio at his house, so that'll probably be a regular hangout space over summer.

What does the rest of this year and start of the next one have in store?

More and more shows! We all really really love playing live, so we want to hit the Melbourne scene pretty hard and get our name out there over summer and beyond. More recording, more writing new songs, more experimentation and pushing the boundaries and more agonising over which old songs to cut from the set should be on the agenda too.