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 KATE GOLDBY, bassist and vocalist for Melbourne power pop band THE WELLINGTONS, is as bubbly as can be when she chats with YUMI SED. This band is really just darn lovely.
They’re full of sunshiny goodness and power pop love – and don’t we all need a little more of that? Mind you, the latest album from Melbourne indie darlings The Wellingtons has been floating around for two years waiting for release in Australia despite record deals in Japan, Spain and America. “We’d almost given up on releasing the album in Australia, we released it and toured it in a few countries around the world but Australia was a problem area,” Goldby explains. “We couldn’t find anyone here who was willing to put in the time to do the release properly so we’d basically given up hope that it would ever come out here. So we thought we’d go to London and record a new album and while we were there we got an email from Dustdevil saying they wanted to release it.”
Despite being an independent band, The Wellingtons realised that in order to get your music heard, you do need some help. “We were almost thinking of just pressing a few up and selling them at shows, that’s how dire it was looking but that gets you nowhere,” she says. “All of the labels we work with are independent and there are no strict contractual agreements so we have a big say in promo and how money is spent basically. The reality is without a label that has an affiliation with a distributor no one will ever hear about the album unless they see you at a show. Unless you have a lot of money behind you.”
For such a young band, The Wellingtons put in the hard yards. The contacts they have made overseas, apart from a lucky break with Tower Records in Japan, has been the result of hours spent researching and emailing – grassroots stuff. “We really rely on talking to bands like us and finding out about labels that they have had good experiences with,” she explains. “It’s a whole lot of MySpacing and searching the internet for bands we love and who is putting out their records then we harass them. Our housemates often wonder why we’re sitting on our respective computers on a Saturday night when they are getting ready to go out but I think the fact that we have got to travel the world three or four times is enough reason to be putting in that work.”
With The Wellingtons finally getting a fitting album release tour, Goldby tells me they may be making two appearances in Queensland before getting back into the studio. “We have done most of it so it will be exciting to come back to it in six months and see where it is at. We recorded it in London. Our UK label Lowjinks have access to a studio and a producer that we could have for free if we could afford to get over there so we did. It was the first time we had recorded as a full time job as opposed to doing it in burst during the week or on weekends, so that was an exciting experience for us.”
THE WELLINGTONS will be at X&Y Bar on Thursday Dec 10, Music Kafe Friday Dec 11 and The Miami Tavern Saturday Dec 12. HEADING NORTH FOR THE WINTER is out now through Dustdevil Music.
    
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