Interview: Poison Oak

Recently, DutchMetalManiac’s Tim van Velthuysen interviewed Poison Oak’s James Balthes.

Hey, how are you?

Hey! Yeah.. pretty good!!! Living it up here in North Queensland.

Can you tell us something about the history of Poison Oak?

We basically came together around June 2019, with Russell, Ray and myself jamming on Saturday morning for fun. I had quite a few songs that I had written and we would mess around with them. Slowly we started taking it more seriously and the music started to develop into our own sound I guess. We got a drummer, Chris Reiterer, who joined us and we’ve been developing our sound ever since and putting out new songs when we can.

For people not knowing Poison Oak (yet), how would you describe your music yourself?

Aussie indie rock, with touches of punk and blues.

When someone doesn’t know Poison Oak yet and you can choose one of your songs to present yourself, which song would that be?

Hmm, probably Feeling Numb On Sundays or Sarah.

What makes Poison Oak unique?

I find this question quite tricky to answer, I personally don’t see ourselves as that unique. However, I guess there are certain tones and timbre within our music that makes us distinguishable… I wish I could tell you what that is.

Any future plans you can already tell us something about?

We just finished recording a bunch of new songs that we’re really happy with. We have come a long way since our last recordings, with these new songs, with our songwriting and how we approach putting our tunes together.

Any upcoming gigs for Poison Oak? Maybe coming to The Netherlands?

How do you think your life would be without music?

Plain… kinda like a dry cracker that has been left in the cupboard too long. 

What advice would you give to young and starting bands?

Enjoy it, enjoy the process, enjoy growing. If you don’t, then stop.

Thanks for your answers! Is there anything you want to say to DutchMetalManiac’s readers?

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