Rolling Blackouts strike back at global markets

Melbourne band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are hitting the overseas markets hard again, this time behind their debut album Hope Downs which drops this Friday (June 15) through Ivy League.

The five-piece recently received $25,000 from the third round of the coveted BIGSOUND Levi’s Music Prize, aimed at giving artists a financial leg-up to succeed on the international stage.

The four-month trek sees them play Australia, the USA, Canada, the UK and Europe, and will include sets at Lowlands (Netherlands), Pukkelpop (Belgium) and Green Man (UK).

The first part of the tour takes in 14 shows in the UK and Europe, winding up in Dublin on August 21.

17 dates follow through North America, from August 25 in San Diego to September 17 in Washington DC.

In between they also showcase in cities as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal and New York City.

After a ten day breather the tour kicks on through Australia:

September 27: Courier-Mail Spiegeltent, Brisbane

September 28: Factory Theatre, Sydney

September 29 – 30: Yours & Owls, Wollongong

October 5: Rosemount, Perth

October 6: Jive Bar, Adelaide

October 12: Workers Club, Geelong

October 13: Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Five days later, the band is back in UK and Europe, for 14 shows from October 19 in Manchester to November 13 in Cologne.

Aside from seven English cities, they also land in the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Germany.

The album title, taken from the name of a vast open cut mine in the middle of Australia, refers to the feeling of “standing at the edge of the void of the big unknown, and finding something to hold on to.”

Says Tom Russo, one of the three core songwriters alongside Fran Keaney and Joe White, explains, “We felt like we were in a moment where the sands were shifting and the world was getting a lot weirder.

“There was a general sense that things were coming apart at the seams and people around us were too.

“The songs on this album are like a collection of postcards about wider things that were going on, seen through the lens of these small characters.”