“We’re very untrendy people,” says Roy Kellaway, the guitarist and in-house producer for King Stingray.
This might seem like false modesty. After all, in the last half-decade, King Stingray have gone from a group of unknown 20-somethings from the remote community of Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land to an award-winning and internationally recognised rock band.
They’ve released two albums, won ARIAs, AIRs, NIMAs and APRAs. They’ve had multiple songs in the Hottest 100, and taken home the coveted Australian Music Prize and Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition. In November, they’ll co-headline the opening day of the Queenscliff Music Festival.
Queenscliff Music Festival
- Where: Queenscliff, Victoria
- When: 28-30 November
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
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But while there’s no denying King Stingray have been on a hot streak, the band’s success is not built on their ability to align with prevailing trends.
“We love inclusivity,” says Kellaway. “We want to bring people in on the party.”
King Stingray’s second album, For the Dreams, came out last November. Matching the success of its predecessor was always going to be a tough ask. But Kellaway and his bandmates – vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Dimathaya Burarrwanga, drummer Lewis Stiles, bassist Campbell Messer, and yiḏaki player and vocalist Ngalakan Wanambi – didn’t try to manufacture a repeat.
“From the day of releasing album number one, we were working on album number two,” he says. “We were just really excited and stoked about things because we were touring and making a bit of noise off the back of our first record. So we just kept that energy rolling.”
King Stingray’s self-titled debut came out in 2022. Kellaway and the band’s original lead vocalist, Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu, had been making music together since they were teenagers, and the album condensed their musical journey up to that point.
“We pulled in songs that we wrote in high school and some old songs that we’d already been playing as a band for years,” says Kellaway. “We recorded it in a total of three studio days.”
By contrast, For the Dreams was written and recorded in the midst of the band’s hectic touring schedule, which saw them sell out theatres around the country, perform at Golden Plains, Beyond the Valley, BASSINTHEGRASS and the NRL Grand Final, and play their first shows in the US and Europe.
“Touring and trying to get shit done on the run while having fun was the motto,” says Kellaway. “I was booking out studios in all these cities we would be playing in just in case we had time to go in and work on stuff.”
Several songs on For the Dreams, such as Southerly and Best Bits, reflect the group’s aim to make music that draws attention to the joys of living.
“There’s a lot of serious things in the world, lots of stresses, and we always try to just celebrate and look at all the positive things about music and that’s what we try and sing about,” says Kellaway.
This goal shines through. In a four-star review for The Guardian, Andrew Stafford wrote, “the sound is universally bright, up-tempo and uplifting. And there are no bad vibes, anywhere.”
Full Queenscliff Music Festival lineup:
- The Badloves
- Bones & Jones
- The Cat Empire
- Cool Out Sun
- Cosmic Psychos
- Dom Turner & The Rural Blues Project
- Didirri + Rowena Wise
- Donavon Frankenreiter
- Ella Hooper
- Fenn Wilson & The Weather
- King Stingray
- Lewis Love
- Little Birdy
- Madeline Cope
- Mama Kin Spender
- Minor Gold
- The Mojo Corner
- Opelousas
- Pierce Brothers
- The Preatures
- Riley Catherall
- Romanie
- Ruby Mae
- Sex On Toast
- Skyscraper Stan & The Commission Flats
- The Smith & Western Jury
- Squid Nebula
- SUNEDEN
- Tex Perkins & Matt Walker
- Thelma Plum
- Velvet Trip
- The Waifs
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King Stingray have been on the road since the album came out, completing a US tour supporting King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard last November and an Australian headline tour in May. During the former, King Stingray joined the headliners for a cover of Yothu Yondi’s Treaty.
“That was a bit of a dream come true,” says Kellaway. “And the version of it was really cool with all the guitars, it had a bit of a Talking Heads vibe about it.”
The significance of the collaboration was profound: not only did it introduce King Gizzard’s US following to the Yolŋu classic, but it was a nod to King Stingray’s deep ties to Yothu Yindi. Kellaway is the son of Yothu Yindi’s founding bass player Stuart Kellaway, while Yirrŋa is the nephew of Yothu Yindi’s late leader, Dr M Yunupiŋu.
Both Kellaway and Yunupiŋu are members of the current incarnation of Yothu Yindi, and King Stingray have learned a lot from the example of their elders.
“I remember my dad saying to me, ‘Look, the most important thing is that we’re having a good time and that we have fun.’ And you can see that – the camaraderie and the love and the bond that they all have.
“That has definitely inspired us to do what we do, which is just playing music as friends and having fun on the road, enjoying what it is.”
Queenscliff Music Festival hits Queenscliff November 28 – November 30. More info can be found here.
Beat is a proud media partner of Queenscliff Music Festival.
