The St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival is known for bringing together artists who’ve either laid down some hot collaborations (Chet Faker x Banks), brought the love-ins onstage (Connan Mockasin x Mac DeMarco) and have provided opportunities for international touring bands to get to know some fellow artists they’ve not yet had the chance to see. This year’s tour is following a similar suit, with a lot of the bands having connected in Singapore over the weekend, continuing on to Laneway Auckland and from this weekend, will be touring Australia together.
Backstage at Laneway Festival Singapore, New York legends Battles describe the vibe of Laneway and what they’re looking forward to about the upcoming Australian dates.
“It really comes down to whose more excited about hanging out with us, because we’re open to a lot of experiences, but the thing is not everyone wants to be with us because we come on a little too strong sometimes. We have some friends that will be on this tour, like Ross from Hudson Mohawke is going to be around and I think we are going to a really good time hanging out with him. And we’ve met Thundercat a couple of times so hopefully we can rekindle that friendship. Most importantly, it’s good to make new friends on a tour like this.”
On their latest album La Di Da Di, the band talks about navigating new areas of their career with the new record.
“The one thing you have to understand is that every single BATTLES album has been different. From the EP’s to Mirrored to Gloss Drop to our newest disc La Di Da Di, each one has been different. So in a sense it is the same, and in a sense it’s different.”
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2016 ST JEROME’S LANEWAY FESTIVAL AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
February 5th | Harts Mill, PORT ADELAIDE
February 6th | Brisbane Showgrounds, BRISBANE
February 7th | Sydney College of the Arts, SYDNEY
February 13th | Footscray Community Arts Centre, MELBOURNE
February 14th | Esplanade Reserve & West End, FREMANTLE
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