From the waves of the Peninsula surf coast, to the laid back country air.. Australian band, Hanz Molemen, join us to discuss all about the release of their second album, King Saturn.
The band, formed in 2018, consists of Mick Bourke (Lead vocals and guitar), Pete McGettigan (backup vocals and guitar), Matthew Rigby (Bass guitar) and Michael Shultz (backup vocals and drums) and has a name influenced by much loved television show, The Simpsons.
Starting out with playing covers, Hanz Molemen has developed the sound that you hear today, through their regular shows throughout the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas of Victoria, Australia.
Hanz Molemen have created a truly authentic album that takes you on a journey as you progress through each of the songs..
You will be faced with styles that range from Alt Surf Rock songs, right through to the subtlety of stripped back sounds.
As you dive deep into the lyrics of the songs, the diversity has allowed the band to explore a range of issues from the 2020 bushfires that tore across Mallacoota.. the effects of a potentially illegal travel company.. right through to a perspective on midlife crises.
If you are looking for some new Aussie inspired music for your playlists.. this is an absolute must listen!
You can listen to King Saturn below:
Would you like to start by sharing a little about who you are?
We are Hanz Molemen from the Mornington Peninsula.
We came together from our love of all thing’s country, coast, and music.
The name came about as we were sharing a joke about the Simpsons at the time and it is inspired by Hans Moleman (Simpsons character).
Mick Bourke (lead vocals, guitar) and Pete McGettigan (guitar) started out as an acoustic duo, playing covers at a few venues across the Mornington Peninsula.
At one of these gigs, Michael Shultz (back-up vocals, drums) liked what he heard and joined the band over a couple of beers.
Recently Matthew Rigby (bass) has joined the band to give our sound a bit more depth.
A few of our originals started creeping into our set list and before we knew it we had our self titled debut album ready to go.
Our 2nd album, King Saturn, was written during the lockdown of 2020/21.
What was it that first brought the band together?
Mick and Pete both work together as teachers and the shared love of music and bands brought them together to play.
Schultzy and Riggas have since joined to give the band a much bigger and stronger sound.
As mates who love music and bands across the Peninsula, it feels inevitable that the four of us would end up playing music together.
For those who are not familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound?
A lot of our songs have a very Australian sound (Paul Kelly, Crowded House, The Beautiful Girls, Tillerman Pete etc) and I guess we take inspiration from living on the Peninsula.
The words that first come to mind would be country coastal, which is probably a contradiction however that is the vibe I guess a lot of our songs end up giving.
We try to mix up the songs as much as possible so there is a new sound from each track and something different the listener can gravitate to.
A good song will always be a good song, no matter the style.
You have released your album, King Saturn.. what was the inspiration behind the tracks on the Album?
King Saturn came about during the lockdown of 2020 and into 2021.
We had just released our self titled debut album and we had a lot of motivation and energy from that.
Mick wrote a lot of the songs on the first album and for the second one we wanted it to be more of a collaborative process.
Because we were all at home in lockdown, we decided to try and send in a new song each week on our whats app chat.
From that process, it meant we were all contributing new ideas and sounds to the songs and they were all different.
A lot of them were pushed to the side, however we did find 10 songs that we thought we worth digging deeper into.
I guess the inspiration for all of us would be the events of our lives and things happening around us (eg Black Crow was inspired by the shocking events at Mallacoota and Northern Adventure by the Victorians heading up north during COVID).
The title itself, King Saturn, came from our back-up band name.
If Hanz Molemen fell apart, we all felt King Saturn would be the way to go. Lucky we haven’t fell apart yet.
What would you like listeners to take away from listening to your album?
The songs that made the album were the ones that stuck in our heads the next day or a week later, so I guess we hope that our songs are enjoyable and want to make you listen to the album again and again.
We have tried to be diverse with each song and give the listener a bit of a journey with the album.
We feel that all the songs work well together, that not one song sticks out more than the others.
There is a song on there for whatever mood of the day you may be in!
How does your creative process look?
For the first album, Mick wrote a lot the songs and was the main driving force for the band.
For King Saturn we have been a bit more collaborative, however Mick is still the song writing genius!
The process during lockdown was that we would send songs to each other in our group chat and if we all thought that there was something there, we saved it and worked away by ourselves, adding hooks, lyrics, riffs, percussion etc.
Now we can get together and play live again.
The process would be to play those songs in rehearsal and if we feel there is a solid song there, we will put in the time to hopefully make it work.
How has Covid affected your musical journey?
It has been difficult in the sense we missed playing live and being able to get together and just play, however it allowed time for song writing and King Saturn was born during that process so wasn’t all bad.
It was tricky getting all the songs recorded, all living apart and not being able to get together, however Mick set up a little studio at his place and we were able to go in when we could to put our musical bits down.
For this album we were also lucky to have Colin Leadbetter (Herecordsrecords) to mix and master the songs, so we are very grateful for that.
For other artists that may have watched your journey and are inspired to move ahead with getting their music out there.. what advice would you give them?
Music is fun.
Always remember why you play and never give up.
Ultimately, if everything lined up for you, where would you like to end up?
We would love to get our songs out there as much as possible, however that may look.
For the meantime we are happy to keep playing across the Mornington Peninsula and if people enjoy our music, keep coming along to watch and support live music.
What would it take for you to feel that you have been successful with your music?
We already feel successful with our music because it brings us joy and happiness.
Anything else that comes from our songs is just a bonus.
You can find more of Hanz Molemen at:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/hanz_molemen_band
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/hanz_molemen_band
Karen Harding is a Melbourne, Australia based singer/songwriter, founder of Sounds On The Couch, and founder and operator of boutique music PR service for emerging and independent artists, Rise Indie.