BRISBANE band The Boat People is headed our way.
The Boaties will play at the Cambridge Hotel on Saturday night as part of a four-date tour.
``We're still plugging the album. It came out late last year so we're still in the process of going around the country and telling everyone that it's great,'' frontman James O'Brien said. ``We've had some really great reviews. It's been really nice.'' Their debut album Yesyesyesyesyes was released mid-last year and picked up a stack of four-star reviews.
It was followed by a national tour and shows with Alex Lloyd and Drag. Playing support slots is an art that O'Brien reckons the four-piece has mastered.
``We've been playing a lot of supports for bands in the past year or so with international bands like David Byrne from Talking Heads and English band Idlewild.
``So we've become very, very good at playing that role and knowing that we're playing before someone's favourite band so we want to entertain them and do our best but we also don't want to annoy them.'' ``It's very different from playing to your own crowd.'' Stylistically The Boat People have been compared to bands such as Wilco, Gomez, The Flaming Lips and XTC. Such comparisons and its distinct brand of indie pop have boosted the band's confidence. and now it hopes to tackle the overseas market.``We're focusing on some international stuff because we really want to get overseas as soon as we can.``We've been told by quite a few people, including bands from overseas that we've played with, that the UK would be very good for what we're doing.``Then there's America as well and even though it tends to be a little more conservative, there are so many people that even quite niche bands can do quite well.``Both of those regions would be worth perusing. We've got nothing to lose. It's very hard to break those big territories particularly from overseas but I'd rather try that than sit around doing nothing. You've just got to go for it.``To some point, it's out of your control so you have to just try the best you can and enjoy the process of what you're doing and the rest just has to be accepted.''
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