Music / Features
Premiere:
Tina Growls - Love Slaves
Tina Growls - Love Slaves
We’re stoked to be premiering the debut single from alt-rock trio Tina Growls today - ‘Love Slaves’ is a blast of brooding grunge-pop, that somehow manages to feel just as groovy as it does captivatingly dark.
Despite playing together for the better part of two years, and constantly appearing on lineups around town, it’s a bit of a surprise that local gloom-rockers Tina Growls have had no official music out. However, with the release of their debut single and the first taste of their upcoming EP today, the wait is finally over and it was well worth it.
Opening up with a spidery bassline, ‘Love Slaves’ quickly widens with an omnipresent guitar twisting around a chugging rhythm section, as Darcy Rock’s vocals take the limelight dripping with a mixture of vulnerability and venom. If the opening of the track felt ominous, the following guitar break plays like a horror movie soundtrack, and the following chorus does nothing to lighten the mood, with Darcy’s voice intensely drifting over the grimy instrumentation. The band groove along steadily, shifting into a bridge packed with crafty hooks, until we’re hit by one more striking chorus - this time with added layers that highlights Tina Growl’s unique ability to make things sound both haunting and sweet at the same time.
It’s a really impressive way to introduce the band to the world, so we caught up with Darcy to find out a bit more about Tina Growls.
Opening up with a spidery bassline, ‘Love Slaves’ quickly widens with an omnipresent guitar twisting around a chugging rhythm section, as Darcy Rock’s vocals take the limelight dripping with a mixture of vulnerability and venom. If the opening of the track felt ominous, the following guitar break plays like a horror movie soundtrack, and the following chorus does nothing to lighten the mood, with Darcy’s voice intensely drifting over the grimy instrumentation. The band groove along steadily, shifting into a bridge packed with crafty hooks, until we’re hit by one more striking chorus - this time with added layers that highlights Tina Growl’s unique ability to make things sound both haunting and sweet at the same time.
It’s a really impressive way to introduce the band to the world, so we caught up with Darcy to find out a bit more about Tina Growls.
TJ: Heyyo, for the unacquainted, tell us a bit about Tina Growls?
TG: Well we're kind of like a mood swing you have on your birthday. Melancholic, tense, charged, dissonant. But we're actually a 3 piece of ex-metal heads that play moody groovy rock in bars across Melbourne. There's minimal growling, but quite a bit of yelling. I'm working on it.
Your new single rips - what's the story behind 'Love Slaves'?
It has quite a history and has been reworked many times. Lew and I came up with the term 'Love Slaves' watching TV, but the song is about patterns in life that repeat. It’s about finding yourself in an emotional situation that you’ve experienced before and kind of reliving it. I say on stage it’s about abandonment issues because it is about like separation anxiety and letting things go.
Despite having been playing around for a good while, it's also (technically) your first release ever! How's the vibes amongst the band at the moment?
We're so chuffed it's actually done! We're a pretty tight knit band. Dylan and I are siblings and Lew and I are dating so we all hang out all the time and share our successes. It's been almost a year since we started recording haha I think we've learnt a lot along the way and we're really inspired now more than ever to write more.
Rumour is you've got your debut EP on the way - much you can give away on that?
It’s 3 tracks, all a bit different in style but we wanted to kind of showcase the extremities of what we do. Expect lots of chorus pedal goodness and keep Valium and glass of red wine on hand.
What's coming up next for Tina Growls?
Once our EP is released we hope to tour it a bit, not sure where yet but in the meantime we have stacks of gigs coming up, new songs, and (potentially) some demos to release over the summer. Expect a mood swing from hell.
TG: Well we're kind of like a mood swing you have on your birthday. Melancholic, tense, charged, dissonant. But we're actually a 3 piece of ex-metal heads that play moody groovy rock in bars across Melbourne. There's minimal growling, but quite a bit of yelling. I'm working on it.
Your new single rips - what's the story behind 'Love Slaves'?
It has quite a history and has been reworked many times. Lew and I came up with the term 'Love Slaves' watching TV, but the song is about patterns in life that repeat. It’s about finding yourself in an emotional situation that you’ve experienced before and kind of reliving it. I say on stage it’s about abandonment issues because it is about like separation anxiety and letting things go.
Despite having been playing around for a good while, it's also (technically) your first release ever! How's the vibes amongst the band at the moment?
We're so chuffed it's actually done! We're a pretty tight knit band. Dylan and I are siblings and Lew and I are dating so we all hang out all the time and share our successes. It's been almost a year since we started recording haha I think we've learnt a lot along the way and we're really inspired now more than ever to write more.
Rumour is you've got your debut EP on the way - much you can give away on that?
It’s 3 tracks, all a bit different in style but we wanted to kind of showcase the extremities of what we do. Expect lots of chorus pedal goodness and keep Valium and glass of red wine on hand.
What's coming up next for Tina Growls?
Once our EP is released we hope to tour it a bit, not sure where yet but in the meantime we have stacks of gigs coming up, new songs, and (potentially) some demos to release over the summer. Expect a mood swing from hell.
Check out 'Love Slaves' above, and follow Tina Growls on Facebook to keep an eye on that stack of gigs they have coming up.
