“We started to play shows around October 2010,” he recalls. “We played Queenscliff Music Festival weekend at the Piping Hot Chicken Shop outside Ocean Grove, just as a three-piece playing mostly covers. I was in a band throughout highschool called Sambrose Automobile. Our drummer was in another band, I used to catch the bus to school with him. Then one day I went to his house to jam, after I had been jamming with the guitarist, Karl Shortal, just at my place.”
While The Murlocs still sees Ambrose prone to bust out the ol’ harmonica, the band also provides an outlet for his distinctive blues howl. Despite how it sounds, his vocal style doesn’t put too much of a strain on the trachea. “I try more and more to sing from my gut. I do tend to rasp from my throat and lose my voice after a show now and again. But I haven’t had too many problems yet, I try to concentrate on not overdoing it. I’ve never really sung like I have in the past year or so, I’ve always been in the background playing in the background,” he reasons. “It’s been good letting loose in the last 12 months.”
As for his harmonica chops, Ambrose via osmosis from his old man, in a roundabout way. “To be honest, I’m not much of a master. I don’t know a single song on the harmonica, I’m just self-taught,” he declares. “I started taking guitar lessons in school, but every man and his dog were playing guitar. My dad was more of a master on the harmonica. Whenever he was home he gave me a tip or two. I eventually started listening to all his blues records, putting them on before bed.”
Ambrose’s dad, of course, is Dingoes singer Broderick Smith. But Ambrose hadn’t felt the pressure to follow Brod into a career in music. “Nah, I never really wanted to follow in his footsteps, and he didn’t want that either. I just always had interests outside of school, like skateboarding and music and art. Then I just fell in love with the blues stuff and went on my on sort of path. In some way or another, in the back of my mind, I wanted to prove myself for some weird reason. I guess dad wasn’t too encouraging, like he wanted me to become a doctor or a lawyer or some bullshit. But I kept doing it to piss him off. But I guess these days he’s somewhat proud. He’s been able to get himself on the new Gizzard record, so it benefits him now,” Ambrose offers. “He doesn’t mind it.”
Extracurricular to his musical pursuits, Ambrose has established himself as a noted skateboarding talent. Even with the success of The Murlocs and King Gizzard, he still finds time to balance the time onstage and on the board. “At the moment I’ve been jobless because I fractured my left arm skating about six weeks ago. So since then I’ve had to gaffer tape the harmonica mic to my hand, and become strictly a harmonica player – the whole Drones tour when Gizzard supported, and a few Murlocs shows like that, But since I haven’t had a job I’ve just been skating, pretending like I’m 16 again.”
New single Rattle The Chain follows on from last year’s Tee Pee EP, and provides the first taste of the band’s upcoming debut album. As to when we can expect the album, Ambrose assures us it won’t be too far off. “Lately we’ve been rehearsing as much as we’ve been playing gigs. We’ve had a bit of a lineup change since the last EP, that’s why it’s taken a little bit longer to get it all out. When you have new members you have to practice the set over and over again. But now we’re up to speed and hopefully in the next month or two we can record the album,” he forecasts. “I’m keen to get cracking, and we’re about three quarters of the way there.”
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
