Aussie brothers, Travalley have today dropped their seriously fun, raucous new single, Dear Babe. The track is accompanied by a fittingly bonkers video that sees the duo, Levi and Sam Mellington, munch through as many chillies as possible throughout the duration of the clip, and they’ll be celebrating the release with a livestream single launch on Saturday May 23 at 7pm on Instagram.
Upbeat and hooky as all getout, this driving indie rock track will be lapped up by fans of Lime Cordiale, The Jungle Giants, Hockey Dad and Skegss, and will have listeners toe-tapping, singing along with the insanely catchy backing vocals and coming back for more. Recorded in a Melbourne home studio, engineered by Fabian Hunter and mixed and mastered by Austin Asvanonda (The War on Drugs), Dear Babe is about lead singer Levi’s lack of ability to be able to flirt or express how he feels. “I always manage to say the wrong thing or give too much away too early which tends to end up in the “what if I said this” situation happening over and over again and then repeating the process with the same results,” Levi explains. “About a year ago, I finally stuck to my guns and held back from blurting out everything about myself to a girl, I was so impressed with myself that I decided to write a song about all my past experiences, and now here we are! We just hope people really enjoy the song and get a laugh out of the film clip.”
Filmed and edited by Gareth Harrison (DJ for Yacht Club DJs who also tours regularly with DZ Deathrays and Dune Rats), the concept for the Dear Babe video was inspired by the DZ Deathrays The mess Up film clip where the guys drank as much alcohol over the duration of the song. An extrapolation of this was then released by Dune Rats in Red Light Green Light where they smoked as much as they could. Pretty chuffed with their ingeniousness with this video concept that is sure to set tongues wagging, and rightfully so, Levi explains, “We decided to continue the trend that these two amazing bands created, and stupidly ate as many chillies as we could within the time of the film clip. Little did we know that we ate far more than expected and experienced all sorts of pains for days after the video was filmed!”
Having spent a lifetime together, and the greatest part of it playing music together, the visceral bond present in their playing and their vocal harmonies is obvious, and their onstage banter is infectious. And though the brothers have been combatting a heap of change during the Covid19 madness, they’re also able to see the positives. “We’ve had a lot more time to write new music and expand our sound, and we’ve had to come up with more creative ways to keep our fans engaged, but it’s also given us the opportunity to sit back and relax for the first time in a long time,” says Levi. “But like many other bands out there, we had to cancel our entire tour and a bunch of bookings too. The biggest thing we’ve missed is playing live to our amazing fans that travel to come see us play. Once this has passed and we are able to start playing music in front of people again, we can only imagine how amazing and hyped everyone will be to get out and have a great time.”
Dear Babe is released today.
DEAR BABE | LIVESTREAM INSTAGRAM SINGLE LAUNCH | SATURDAY MAY 23 | 7PM
CONNECT WITH TRAVALLEY
TRAVALLEY Q&A
What’s the inspiration behind Dear Babe?
“The song was inspired by my inability to get my message across to someone that I like. I'm sure everyone has experienced something like this over the years so it’s an ode to everyone who freezes up or becomes awkward in those tough times in life.”
Who are your greatest musical influences?
“Jungle Giants and Hockey Dad for sure. We have looked up to these 2 artists ever since we started making music really. They both make absolute bangers and their live shows are super high energy. We have taken bits and pieces from both artists. More so chord progressions from Jungle Giants as they suit our sound better. “
What do you bring to the live stage?
“ We bring a very high energy to each show and generally bring audience members up on stage to enjoy the time with us. We have found by being welcoming to the crowd and acknowledging them quite a lot, they generally become more involved with the show. Our best shows are always the ones where the crowd are dancing and singing. “
How was the recording process?
“The recording process was extremely quick. The entire process of writing, recording and releasing the track was incredibly quick to be completely honest. It was fun though. We recorded through a guy in Melb just before lockdown happened so we got in just at the right time. We were able to get the entire song recorded in about 4 hours. Because it is short and fairly simple there wasn’t anything exciting to happen.”
What was the inspiration behind the music video?
“We got inspiration from DZ Deathrays and Dune Rats. They did very similar videos to us except what they consumed was a little different, check them out if you are curious. For us, eating chillies was the next best thing and boy did we regret it the next day.”
How would you describe your writing process?
“The writing process I use is pretty bizarre but it works. I use a shitty 5 string guitar with a huge crack through the body of the guitar. IT sounds horrible.. However, if i can get it to sound good on that, it will sound good on anything. After I write the guitar section I will generally write the vocals and then bring it to a jam session.”
Give us an interesting personal fact!
“I can hold my breath for a really long time, we are talking like the entire length of Dear Babe.”