“Kel is one of our best friends and we all actually play in a cover band together called Smashbox 30,” a chuffed Mill O’Sullivan reveals.
“It started out with Jenny McKechnie from Cable Ties [wanting] us to play a bunch of stupid songs for her birthday. We all just jumped on the tools and magic happened.”
It makes me wonder how many other bands have decided on their new bassist via a Matchbox 20-themed covers project. It’s a unique situation, but then again, Porpoise Spit are anything but your common rock band.
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Mill has been part of Porpoise Spit since its inception in 2017. One exceptional album (2023’s Don’t Quit) and 200+ gigs later, and they’re one of the most reliable and well-respected projects roaming bandrooms today.
And to think their starpower is only growing with the recent addition of Kelly, vocalist of Ding Ding Ding (FKA Zig Zag), on bass guitar.
“[Kel and I are] like absolute best friends, so for us it’s mostly sheer absurdity and ridiculousness,” says Mill. “We get to kind of lock in together and have the best time. Big privilege.”
Back in April they dropped Land, a ballad about finding your way through the mundanity of day to day life, set to soaring choruses and hopeful, resilient lyrics. It’s one for old and new fans alike, and a peek behind the curtain for what people can expect from a sophomore record.
“I can finally say yes, we have an album coming out. It’s very exciting!” says Mill. “The collection of songs for Don’t Quit were written over a really long period of time. We kind of wanted to do the antithesis of that.”
The past couple years have been nonstop, with a jam-packed gigging schedule supporting their debut album. That’s on top of a Music Victoria Awards nomination, a trek over to New Zealand and slots on a whole heap of local festivals.
Yet somehow, in between all the madness, the band has been tinkering away on a new batch of songs, seeking to challenge themselves as songwriters. They’re still the crew that bashed out Karl Stefanovic At The Logies Drunk, but they’ve stepped up a notch.
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“I don’t think we’ll ever lose that rattiness or that boisterousness, but this feels like it suits our age,” Mill says. “We feel like we’ve matured into something, and in that, we’re being a little bit more bold and a little bit bigger.”
But with a change of approach comes its own challenges; as a band that’s played more shows than many ever will, audience feedback is crucial for Porpoise Spit. Here, they find themselves with all new material, most of which is only just beginning to enter their setlists.
“It’s not comfortable. We’ve never played any of these songs live and we’re very much a live band,” says Mill. “The experience has been vulnerable but exciting. That’s the point, right?
“We haven’t lost it entirely though, because we’ve got a new single coming out, which really speaks to the Porps of Old. Who knows, man. It’s a whole thing.”
The Boys is a huge, feel-good track about forgetting your troubles and having the best time ever with your mates – “a total ‘get in loser, we’re going shopping’ anthem,” says Mill. With an incredibly positive reception the handful of times they’ve played it live, it was a no-brainer that this would be a single.
“We’re a band of four non-binary people and we too are the boys. Anyone can be the boys if you try hard enough,” says Mill. “We really want everyone to get around it as if it’s their song for their friends, ‘this is me and my friends, this is the boys’… People can take ownership of it.”
With a self-organised gig coming up on 18 July at Thornbury Bowls Club, Porpoise Spit are hoping to gather the funds to take the album on the road. It’s sure to be a big one; eccentric raver Our Carlson’s calling bingo (“because Carlson does Carlson stuff”) and untamable rockers Licklash will be ripping it up. Expect boot scootin’, DIY merch and maybe even a sausage sizzle.
“Carlson is a great mate, and the Licklash crew are great mates as well,” Mill says. “We feel extremely lucky that our community supports us so much. It’s kind of the whole point for us, is doing it for the crew.”
Porpoise Spit are playing Thornbury Bowls Club on 18 July. Grab tickets here.
