The United States of Alpine

From an Unearthed band to a headline act in three years – looking back, the rise of Melbourne six-piece Alpine has been a fast and furious one. But if you were to ask any member of the band, they would tell you that they are still yet to reach the peak of their music career.

Earlier this month Alpine released their debut single Gasoline in America amidst glowing reviews on music blogs and websites, and their debut record A is for Alpine is due to drop in the US in May. It seems the sextet could be yet another of the Australian artists making it big in America in 2013.

TMN spoke with one of the voices behind Alpine’s dreamy vocals, Lou James, who is enjoying some much-needed downtime after the band’s appearances across Australia as part of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival.

“I’ve always wanted to play at Laneway and it was just unreal,” James raves down the phone. “I kept walking past Natasha from Bat for Lashes and being like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God!’ We felt pretty privileged to be playing with all those guys and Alt-J, oh my gosh! I think every time we went on stage our jaws all kind of just dropped because we weren’t expecting the turn out that we got. “I remember when we were playing and seeing just so many smiling faces – everybody was just in the best mood.

Next month Alpine will be heading to the US for a short run of dates in LA, New York and Brooklyn before making the pilgrimage to Austin, Texas for the annual South By Southwest music festival. They’re just one of a strong crop of more than twenty Australian artists who will be making the journey across the pond this year, including established acts The Rubens, Flume, Something For Kate and 360 as well as emerging performers. “I think the Aussies are so going to take over the world,” James jokes.

“There’s a local Melbourne act who I’m absolutely in love with they’re called Hiatus Kaiyote and like, Erykah Badu has tweeted about them and they’re absolutely unreal so if I get to see them that’ll be sweet.

“I’m slowly trying to go through the A- Z list of who’s playing South By, but it would be cool just to rock up to a venue and just discover this awesome act that I’ve never heard of. That’s really the best part.”

Last year Alpine were that band who no-one in Austin had really heard of, but somehow, amongst the thousands of artists crammed onto stages in venues across town, they managed to grab the attention of US label Votiv. “They came to every single show and were just dancing around with us when we were on stage,” explains James.

“We were so lucky because I think a lot of bands go over there obviously trying to get some interest from overseas and we sort of thought, ‘Let’s go over and if it happens, it happens,’ and it did.” Alpine have kept the momentum going both at home and abroad. Since releasing their debut last year, word of their work has spread like wildfire. Pitchfork have dubbed their track Gasoline a “charismatic gem” while MTV called it “minty fresh,” and it is off the back of these accolades that the six-piece will offer up their debut LP to eager American audiences mid-way through this year.

“From the beginning we had fans from overseas first and then through Australia, which has been really interesting,” says James. “People from South America and Mexico, and especially now we’re releasing the album in the US, there seems to be all these people saying, ‘Come to Dallas, come to New York,’ and it’s really cool to be playing in New York and LA and at South By, so these people are like, ‘Oh awesome! We can finally watch you.’ It’s really promising for us.

“I’m touching wood right now but it just feels like were going in a really good direction. With us anything that’s happened has been sort of steady, but it’s been a really positive progression with each little step. At this stage we’re just sort of chugging along, doing what we do.”