Barn Owls and Penguins and Mountains, Oh My!

My review of Figurehead's launch for their new single 'Mountains'! Featuring interviews with the guys themselves, and their support acts, King Blue and Devon Street.

Pictured: Declan John, Ross Mace, Max Parish, Joe Caddy, Josh Fairweather, Jack Eccleston.

For fans of: Fontaines DC, Jeff Buckley, River Whyless, Manchester Orchestra.

It is a truly special thing to see a band that makes you feel. Art and music are universal, able to break barriers of language, time, space, and self. The truly gifted musician will understand this and embed it within their practice.

I love to feel music, not just listen to it. I want to understand the emotional journey that the speaker is bringing me on, close my eyes, and imagine myself in their shoes, living as them for those few, brief minutes.

Figurehead are able to illicit this feeling within me, comprised of frontman Joe Caddy, guitarists Declan John and Josh Fairweather, bassist Ross Mace, keyboardist Max Parish, and drummer Jack Eccleston.

I was sitting at a little high table, drinking a glass of the house white wine and eating a bowl of rosemary salted chips with aioli, sourced from a man drinking red wine behind the counter, who has been a chef for 23/24 years, and “fucking hates it”. A seemingly mundane experience, soundtracked by a soundcheck that was better than actual shows I’ve seen in my life.

Pictured: Joe Caddy

My first impression of the unique setup they had for the evening - stools in front of mics instead of the traditional standing & playing method, accompanied by 2 violinists, Ben Caddy and Alice Broadhead, inspired by MTV Unplugged sets - was a coming-of-age movie soundtrack. Reminiscent of 500 Days of Summer from Marc Webb, The Perks of Being A Wallflower from Stephen Chbosky, or maybe their own version of the Stone Roses inspired movie Spike Island.

I closed my eyes as I listened, and pictured Caddy as a musical summer camp counsellor, the rest of the band are his group he is assigned to look after over the summer, running through grassy mountains, carrying musical instruments, with their new single Mountains playing over their laughter at a particularly triumphant moment in the film in my mind.

Pictured: Ben Caddy, Alice Broadhead

The violinists that the band had invited to perform with them for this special show added so much texture to their music, playing a composition from Figurehead’s very own Josh Fairweather. A multitalented man, capable of playing the guitar, harmonising, baking cinnamon scrolls, teaching music, and writing it too! Very impressive, especially as he manages to stay warm and friendly despite his many talents.

During their later performance, I was suddenly overcome with a vision of a banjo playing with them too, transforming them into a Gregory Alan Isakov-esque folk ensemble temporarily. Perhaps next time?

Supporting Figurehead on Friday night were King Blue and Devon Street, both performing special, acoustic sets, deviating from their norms of louder rock.

Pictured: Tobias Blane, Skye Sam, Trent Knight

King Blue (vocalist Skye Sam, guitarists Kain Kardell and Trent Knight, bassist Tobias Blane, and drummer Adam Lindsay)’s set felt intimate and stripped back, allowing Sam’s “generational voice” (- Joe Caddy) to really shine. The band hadn’t done an acoustic show like this in “literal years,” but sounded beautiful regardless. Sam had forgot to write and print a set list, and had to read it off her phone, something she apologised for and laughed about, resulting in her having to whisper what’s next into her bandmate’s ears between songs. Knight lost his guitar to Sam during their song Television, picking up the shaker she’d abandoned after their first song, Backseat Driver, playing it with fervour as Sam struggled through the chords, something she admitted to me later was because she hadn’t been practicing King Blue songs, focusing on her other band, Blush, where she plays guitar and sings. Blane and Knight accused her of “not caring about King Blue anymore!” through laughter.

Pictured: London Milne, Asher Milne, Draven Clarke

Devon Street (singer & guitarist Asher Milne, guitarist London Milne, bassist Brody Smyth, and drummer Draven Clarke)’s set was incredible, and sounded very different to their studio recordings and other live performances due to the MTV Unplugged inspiration for the evening. Unfortunately, and I must admit this, I missed the beginning of their set while interviewing King Blue but caught the majority of it. My favourite songs were their latest single Charis (Dream), and Kites, an emotional song about the Milnes’ little sister’s kite. They expressed to me some fears around this style of show, but still performed beautifully.
“It's so exposing, like every single note. It sounds like it would be easier, but its not.” Clarke said. Milne’s vocals sounded amazing and clear, accompanied by Clarke’s drumming, inspired by Joey Jordison of Slipknot, which he described as difficult, as he had to focus on playing in a manner that was softer and more stripped back than he would at any of their other gigs. Smyth left before I was able to interview him, but the Milne brothers and Clarke were lovely to chat with, citing some of my favourite bands, Fontaines DC, Tame Impala, and Wunderhorse (especially in terms of stage presence), as their influences, probably explaining why I resonated with their music so much that evening.

Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for; Figurehead!

Opening their set with only Caddy, Fairweather, and John, they played an acoustic version of Lace, before the rest of the band, clad in slacks, dress shirts, and a watch - a band so committed to impeccable timing, they’ve made punctuality part of their uniform - graced the stage to thunderous applause.

Caddy has incredibly stage presence, dancing in his stool, kicking his leg up as he sings higher notes and moving his arms around like he’s swimming in the music, though this makes him a nightmare to photograph, causing my photographer a great deal of stress, as he “wouldn’t stop moving!” Finishing the first half of their set with a gorgeous cover of Duvet by BoA, everyone but Fairweather and Caddy leave the stage for an intermission of Across The Universe by The Beatles.

Caddy then invites the rest of the band onstage, as well as the violinists, to play the second half of their set. Standing abruptly, citing that he can’t sit still anymore, he spends the rest of the show dancing across the stage. At one point, Caddy’s long curly hair is hit by the light in a way that halo’s him, crowning him as “The saviour of Indie Rock”, according to photographer Isla Tomlinson.

Pictured: Joe Caddy

The conversational style songwriting and emotive delivery make the audience feel like we’re friends catching up on gossip, not just an audience watching a band. Passing the mic to audience members during Human, the audience is brought even closer to the band, who felt like a little family when I spoke to them before their set, even seeing John tuning Fairweather’s guitar while he played the intro to Mountains. You can tell that there is a lot of love in Figurehead, but really, why wouldn’t there be? Making music with people is such an intimate, vulnerable thing, bonding a group of people together.

Pictured: Joe Caddy, Josh Fairweather, Declan John, Ross Mace

Figurehead’s new single, Mountains, was inspired by a drunken walk home from a bar with a dead phone.
“Mountains represents life obstacles [which] become very apparent when you’re walking home, drunk, with not a whole lot. [They] symbolise the hurdles you have to get over in life, and in some ways, that sucks, but in other ways, it’s a blessing that you learnt from it.” Caddy said. Originally, the song was a lot heavier and louder, back when the band had a different lineup, but once their current lineup got to working together, it became apparent that that version of the song was no longer ‘them,’ looking to Fairweather to transform it into what it is now. Fairweather originally joined Figurehead for one show as a fill in but ended up becoming a permanent member.
“It’s, like, the coolest thing ever to be in a band that you used to just be a fan of. I still hear the song as if one of my favourite bands asked me to get on stage and play it.”

After one particularly eventful night out, John woke up on a trampoline in Cottesloe, soaked by sprinklers, late to a music video shoot, with a dead phone and an empty wallet. After running 2 kilometres, he arrived at a closed Daisies Cafe, begging to use their phone to call his mum to come pick him up. After going to the wrong cafe, she finally arrived, John charged his phone on the ride home and was greeted by many missed calls from the band. After finally making it to the shoot a full two hours late, and hungover, they got to work.
“Go watch the On Repeat music video, and you’ll see Dec hating his life.” Caddy said.

We then delved into a conversation about birds; which bird would you be you were one? Figurehead cited a penguin, albatross, cassowary, shoebill stork, peregrine falcon, willy wagtail, and barn owl as their avian soulmates, before Caddy launched into an impression of a seagull.

On the horizon for Figurehead, is a gig on September 12th at the Rechabite with Dear Sunday, which will be their biggest show yet. The band will also release another four singles to take them into 2026, where they’d love to make an EP or album.
“We’ve got the material, but the cost of an album is huge. So, I think in EP would be next year.” Parish said.
“But, if you like the vibe of Figurehead, you can always check out the album Learning To Tell The Truth!” Caddy said.

Figurehead also would love to be signed to a label soon, so:?
“If there’s any really amazing management out there, listening to this interview, we’re a sick band, and we’re reliable… enough!” Caddy said.

Figurehead are one of my favourite bands I’ve ever seen live. There’s something about the way they balance chaos and beauty: one moment Caddy is giving shoutouts to his local op shop, the next the strings are swelling into something cinematic and goosebump-inducing. The whole night was a reflection of what Mountains is about: hurdles and blessings tangled together, the messy and the magical happening side by side. And that is what made this launch so special.

Pictured: Declan Blane, Ross Mace, Max Parish, Jack Eccleston, Josh Fairweather, Joe Caddy

You can listen to Mountains, and the other amazing music we heard that night, here:

Big, fat, special, THANK YOUs to:
- My wonderful photographer and friend, Isla Tomlinson, (isla) for these images,
- Figurehead, Devon Street, and King Blue for making time to speak with me and have their photos taken, and,
- Mojos Bar for hosting such a lovely event!