Words by Erandhi Mendis // Photography by Maclay Heriot and Sam Brumby
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers, please note that the following feature contains quoted references to deceased persons.
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“Sorry – I just finished up a First Aid Course – am just out buying socks and jocks for the boys before we head off tomorrow.”
It’s the day before King Stingray heads to America and guitarist Roy Kellaway is playing the role of band parent. Under the drone of Brisbane’s city center traffic he jokes to me that sometimes he feels like the Mum of the group.
The familial thread between the Yolŋu surf-rock group is evident beyond jest – the band is built on decades of connection. Founding frontman, Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu and Kellaway have been playing and making music together since they were children – Yunupiŋu, the nephew of the late Dr M Yunupiŋu, frontman of Yothu Yindi and Kellaway, the son of Yothu Yindi’s bassist and founding member Stuart Kellaway.
“We’ve known and seen a lot of each other since we were, you know, little guys. So we’ve got that history together.”
After debuting to critical acclaim in 2022, the King Stingray boys have returned with their sophomore record For The Dreams. It’s often said that the second album is the hardest – industry pressure to evolve without changing, achieve without alienating and surpass any level of success achieved the first time around. Throw in trying to write while on a gruelling tour and you wonder how anybody does it.
Yet, For The Dreams is not an album that sounds like it was made under duress. It is a staggeringly optimistic offering that feels largely celebratory. While the band invites introspection in their lyrics, it is 41 minutes of almost catholic up-tempo music.
“That’s the ultimate test,” Kellaway laughs when I share that the album is great while driving. It’s true, the record sounds excellent with the windows down and is reminiscent of the best bits of 1980s Australian rock – fat guitar riffs and hooky, anthemic drum lines.
“It wasn’t exactly intentional, we love that tempo but it’s a bit organic with us… we’re quite playful individuals and working on this record in the studio was about capturing that joy and sort of element of play. It’s such a big part of us and we had a lot of fun – to play around with your friends and be in a room full of instruments, it’s like the ultimate playground for us.”
There is a brief pause from the mischievous and assertive 130bpm about five songs in – Scoreboard is a subtle highlight, lyricless it’s possibly the most delicate we’ve heard King Stingray; an almost gossamer reverbed electric guitar leads into Nostalgic, a singalong that heralds the emotional core of the record.
“We like to reminisce because there’s that long childhood friendship, you know. Travelling around as well you, you get to make even more memories on the road. We are nostalgic people as much as we like to live in the now. We like being busy and often you don’t get the opportunity to reflect on things but it’s so important to recharge your batteries when you’re coming off touring to sort of take it all in and decompress.”
This sense of slowed down gratitude themes much of the record. Songs like Day Off and What’s The Hurry are incredibly direct proposals to “stop chasing [your] tail,” and instead asking “how come everybody’s got to rush now?”
In that way, For The Dreams is commentary on one of our scarcest resources – time. The lyrics are hallmarked by candid and straightforward suggestions, but the ideas fleshed out on this album are rooted in perceptual psychology: that our experience of time expands and contracts based on how we move through the world.
It’s a lesson that feels entrenched in learnings from Indigenous culture – where time is cyclical rather than sequential, and having a deeper perception of nature increases your ability to use time. For the Yolŋu boys, guitarist Dima, vocalist Yirrŋa and yidaki player Yimila, Kellaway shares they often use their time off to return and live on country, “it’s a beautiful slice of paradise – the ultimate way to recharge for those boys.”
An appreciation of culture, family and community is omnipresent for King Stingray. While a thread of childlike play centres their project, it’s obvious there is immense respect. “The importance of culture and celebration is probably bigger than the words I could come up with right now. You know, the significance of that for especially the Yolŋu boys and for all of us – what we’re singing about is it is bigger than ourselves.”
“It’s a well known thing that music’s been bringing people together for 10s of thousands of years, and it doesn’t matter what language you’re speaking, it’s the language of music sometimes.”
Kellaway says this, of the integration of native language and manikay (traditional song) into their music – something that feels both natural and crucial for King Stingray.
“I can’t even express how proud we all feel – it’s so unbelievably important that we have that balance, it’s one of those key ideologies that Dr. M Yunupiŋu left behind with us, he often talks about balancing. We’re trying to keep that fire burning in a modern sort of contemporary lens.”
This consciousness of legacy and country has made King Stingray exactly the kind of band that people resonate with. While messages of slowing down feel somewhat in conflict with the life of rock and roll, For The Dreams merges pace in the same way the band seamlessly merge worlds and centuries of culture.
Kellaway, as a producer, plays a central role in that merger; shepherding the evolution of their sound while recording on tour, in Airbnbs, hotel stairwells and studios around Australia.
“They say you’ve got your whole life to make your first record, this one was more difficult to produce for me. Different tools and instruments in each city – trying to make that sonically cohesive. Getting it done though, was born from my Dad’s philosophy – he’s got this song GSD and it’s all about just getting shit done on the run…while having fun.”
If you listen to For The Dreams it’s not obvious how disjointed and ‘on the run’ their recording process was. The album feels tight and you can tell where they have used real instruments to bring life to the record. Kellaway shouts out their longtime mixing engineer Justin Stanley, crediting him with tying the sporadic audio files into a glittering final result.
Having the same team, broad lyrical messaging and much of the melodic foundation of their first record might make some suggest the new album is much of the same. In some ways, For The Dreams is already a ‘classic’ King Stingray sound, but both themes and melodies feel more refined the second time around. While it is not an extreme deviation from their first record, it’s obvious there is an evolution that comes from hitting a home run the first time. The album is littered with small hints of change: be it the subtle calls to Metronomy or LCD Soundsystem against a Cold Chisel upbringing, or broadening the use of the didgeridoo and clap sticks in more alternative rock moments. If anything, For The Dreams allows King Stingray to hit their stride with a sound that is entirely their own, one that begins to redefine what Australian rock is in the modern age far more than any offering prior – and now they get to take it overseas.
“Our music is undeniably an Australian sound and it’s celebrating a uniqueness that maybe not a lot of people have seen or heard or know about. So to bring something that special to a far away country is an awesome thing? It’s heartwarming and I know that our families are very proud of us to know that we’ve got this stage and this platform and we’re sharing, you know, an important message and story about culture and celebrating life.”
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Check out King Stingray live and stream For The Dreams below.
KING STINGRAY ALBUM TOUR
Supported by Beddy Rays and Bel Air Lip Bombs
FRIDAY 21 MARCH – HORDERN PAVILION, SYDNEY, NSW
SATURDAY 22 MARCH – FORTITUDE MUSIC HALL, BRISBANE, QLD
FRIDAY 28 MARCH – HINDLEY STREET MUSIC HALL, ADELAIDE, SA
SATURDAY 29 MARCH – FORUM, MELBOURNE, VIC
FRIDAY 4 APRIL – FREO ARTS CENTRE (SOUTH LAWN), FREMANTLE, WA
For more information visit: www.kingstingrayofficial.com
