New Music
Introducing
Sophisticated Dingo deliver another fuzzy, fast-paced anthem on ‘Feeding Time’
We pick the hottest new acts so you can tell your friends you heard them first. Meet Melbourne trash-pop duo Sophisticated Dingo on their latest single 'Feeding Time'.
If you’re looking for big, fuzzy, fast-paced anthems that’ll leave you grinning ear to ear, Melbourne self-proclaimed trash-pop duo Sophisticated Dingo are a band you need to know, and their latest slice of garage-punk goodness, ‘Feeding Time’ needs to be on your playlists pronto.
It has been a big big couple of years for Sophisticated Dingo since releasing their second EP How’s The Carry On!? back in 2020.
As a band who have built their reputation tearing through bandrooms and stages around the country, having live touring largely halted the week they released the EP’s first single could have derailed their whole campaign, but instead Sophisticated Dingo pivoted – swapping a jam-packed touring schedule for social media and live streaming, and continuing to connect with and grow their dedicated, grassroots community of fans.
Returning to the live stage in a huge way, Sophisticated Dingo’s 2021 touring schedule included two sold out headline shows, as well as four sold out Corner Hotel shows supporting Press Club and Beddy Rays. This year has been just a big, recently wrapping up their biggest run of shows to date, supporting Beddy Ray throughout February and earning a swag of new fans ready to embrace their next chapter.
That new chapter has launched with three ripping singles – ‘Day In The Life’, ‘Wasted’, and the track we’re here to chat about today ‘Feeding Time’.
As well as picking up support across radio – including triple j and Triple M – the new Sophisticated Dingo singles have also received love from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Rage, The Music, and AAA Backstage, seeing Sophisticated Dingo winning over fans new and old, far and wide.
‘Feeding Time’ finds Sophisticated Dingo at the absolute top of their game – turning the focus of their millennial anthems from navigating the insecurities and mundanity of everyday life to the challenges of staying consistent in an ever-evolving music industry.
And they’re doing it in a way that not only deserves your attention, but forces you to listen. In true Sophisticated Dingo fashion, it’s short, sharp and bursting with enough fun, energy, and unforgettable hooks to ensure you’re having a good time. And we can assure you, it’s only going to get bigger when you hear ‘Feeding Time’ live.
Feeding time is about the dilemma artists face in wanting to remain relevant through a consistent release of art, while ensuring their output is of a satisfactory quality. Often it can feel like a trade off between quality and quantity, however harnessing the power to find the balance that best suits the creator is empowering. It can be cathartic to take stock in a moment by accepting that where things lay is how they should lay, and then capture that moment in a piece of art. Sometimes a thought, a moment, or everything can make perfect sense in our minds yet not translate as seamlessly to others. However, the attempt to translate this moment can be the best art itself.
Lewis Matte – Sophisticated Dingo lead vocalist and guitarist on their latest single ‘Feeding Time’
To celebrate the release of their latest single ‘Feeding Time’, we sat down with Sophisticated Dingo lead vocalist and guitarist Lewis Matte to see what the band have been up to since the last time we chatted and to get to know them even better.
Check out ‘Feeding Time’ by Sophisticated Dingo
The Sophisticated Dingo Story
From the beginning
Lewis Matte, Sophisticated Dingo: “I started to learn guitar when my mum enrolled me in lessons back when I was around 10/11 years old. I know Jimmy had been involved with musical theatre since a young age and then picked up the drums around the same time I started guitar lessons.
“We both went to the same high school and in Year 11 started a band together where Jimmy was the lead singer and I played guitar. We continued to play with this band for a few years after leaving school, all the while Jimmy and I found our tastes in music were aligning with each other more and more.
“I remember one practice where our band was working on a song together that Jimmy and I really liked but no one else seemed to click with, to the point where the drummer said ‘I don’t want be in a stoner rock band’. Jimmy and I looked at each other and seemed to both say in unison, ‘Hell, I could be in a stoner rock band!’ Nothing came of our stoner rock band dreams (thankfully), but from there I started to send Jimmy song ideas I was coming up with. We would meet up to play together with me singing and him on the kit. After a while we loved it so much and were desperate to hit the stage so we begged our mates to give us a go supporting their bands at any and every show around Melbourne.
“To be honest we haven’t stopped doing that for the last few years. That’s Dingo I guess, forever just trying to land a good show.”
What you’ll hear
“We call the music we play ‘trash pop’. In recent times I have actually heard a lot of people tell me that they don’t think that makes sense but I stand by it. Jimmy and I love music that has a good hook that is instantly stuck in your head. We’re just trying to write songs that we won’t forget the hooks to (makes it easier to remember at shows!) and I guess when we throw our ideas in the blender they come out a little rough around the edges with some bang and crash about them. So to me they are pop songs that have been trashed up a bit. Be my guest and call it garage rock if you don’t like that!”
Influences & inspirations
“We were very receptive in our mid to late teens when a new crop of Australian garage rock was finding prominence with bands like DZ Deathrays, Bleeding Knees Club, The Pretty Littles and more taking centre stage in our listening around that time. A lot of American bands have also been quite pivotal in our listening to drive us to play more, with the sounds of acts like Wavves, FIDLAR, Best Coast, Bass Drum of Death on repeat for years.
“Then I think there’s another batch of acts that we are drawn towards for the moments they create, that tug at your heart a little more while still forging a path dressed in plenty of warm saturated noise. Bands like Sheer Mag, Royal Headache, Radioactivity, and of very recent times Romero come to mind. This answer could go on for days to be honest haha, so let’s call it here. Go listen to anything and everything!”
On new single ‘Feeding Time’
“‘Feeding Time’ sat on my phone as a rough voice memo idea for about six months until about a month before Jimmy and I had decided we wanted (needed?) to record something new. Over a few weeks we threw together a bunch of different ideas for parts and structuring of the song over rehearsals and more stripped back efforts at Jimmy’s house.
“It was a more condensed and time pressured effort to prepare this song to record compared to past endeavours. It was stressful, but also quite freeing with both of us and our producer Sam Swain (RAT!hammock, Josh Cashman) committing to roll with whatever clicked, with all of us in the moment to finalise the song.
“The song is about the push and pull artists face between wanting to spend time mastering their work to their liking versus the need to release content in an attempt to grow and stay relevant in the public eye. Both have plenty of pros and cons but I think this process was a reminder that sometimes it is good to say ‘here is what we have, it represents us currently, let’s roll with it and pull it together.’
“I honestly think that is good for the art and the truest representation of what an artist is attempting to do without having the luxury of reworking and covering up any supposed cracks in the piece. I like the full circle element of joining the meaning and process to pull this song together that occurred in realising what I wanted to say through the song, then finally committing pen to paper and writing the majority of the lyrics the morning that we were recording the vocals.”
Moving into the next chapter – from How’s The Carry On!? to ‘Feeding Time’
“Our first two EPs included songs that we had been playing for a few years before recording them so the process of bringing them together was more focussed on playing the songs as we always had and learning how to make them sound best in a studio setting. The songs we released through 2021 (‘Day In The Life’ and ‘Wasted’) and now ‘Feeding Time’ in 2022 have all been moving parts before and up until we entered the studio, some only having been played a few times at practices and not yet on stage at a gig. They are honest reflections of where we are currently as people and as a band. I think that we will continue to try and do this in an effort to display who we are at any point in time as we take in the change surrounding us.”
Getting back on the live stage
“It has been fantastic to be on the stage a lot already so far this year. Heading out around the country with Beddy Rays was the best way to break us back into routine. We were purely excited in the lead up to the shows and only when we were ready to hop on stage at the first show in Sydney at Oxford Art Factory in February we (stupidly) decided to reflect and realised we had only played two shows since we had last played with that beautiful band back in May 2021 given COVID.
“That was a nice moment of panic to think ‘wow… are we seriously about to tour the country and play the biggest shows we ever have, all the while we don’t know if this is going to click like we used to expect it to because we have not set foot on a stage in so long!?’ Then a minute later we found ourselves on stage to one of the warmest receptions we have ever experienced from an audience. The perfect way to kick off five weeks of pure bliss on the road.
“It is great to be back on stage playing our new songs (and even our songs from 2020 EP How’s The Carry On!? that COVID prevented from being rinsed at many live shows). When people are yelling your lyrics back at you, it’s hard not to feel on top of the world. We love every single person that has ever made it into a room to see us play. You drive us to keep climbing the stairs to the stage every night.”
For the love of music
“[Music is] a release like no other. The 30 minutes to an hour or so spent on stage is an escape without any worry for anything else going on in Jimmy’s world or mine. I find that writing music is such a unique expression that can concentrate an infinite amount of external factors into one communicable expression through song.
“Sometimes it’s only after reading back lyrics that I have been working on that I come to realise what I have wanted to say. It’s like a light bulb going off in my head that leaves me thinking things like “ah, they definitely didn’t mean it when they said that…So that’s why I like the winter months…I should tell my parents I love them more…” I think writing a song can be like going to therapy, perhaps just a more obscure and uncertain way of finding out answers to questions you’re not directly asking yourself.”
Kicking goals
“It’s hard to go past our recent tour supporting Beddy Rays all around Australia. We had the opportunity to play the biggest shows we ever have and in front of such receptive crowds. Everyone who came to see the shows, whether they knew us or not, gave us so much in terms of their response to our music, it was impossible to wipe the smiles off our faces for those few weeks on the road. It just hurts that it had to end! Power to the Beddy Rays and everything they do. Amazing band, amazing people that are inspiring to watch get the job done every night while making sure they never lose sight of the fun of it.”
The year ahead
“We are heading back on the road to play more shows in May/June! We couldn’t resist booking some shows of our own after releasing ‘Feeding Time’ and can’t wait to party with everyone who wants to be part of it.”
Tour Dates (tickets are on sale now):
Friday 6 May – The Tote, Melbourne
Friday 20 May – O’Skulligans, Brisbane
Saturday 21 May – Vinnies Dive, Gold Coast
Friday 27 May – Geelong Hotel, Geelong
Friday 3 June – The Chippo Hotel, Sydney
Saturday 4 June – Dicey Riley’s, Wollongong
[su_divider top=”no” style=”dashed” divider_color=”#026cdf” link_color=”#1f262d” size=”1″ margin=”5″]
Follow Sophisticated Dingo
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Bandcamp
[su_divider top=”no” style=”dashed” divider_color=”#026cdf” link_color=”#1f262d” size=”1″ margin=”5″]
Keep up to date with everything Ticketmaster New Music right here.
