Australian duo Skegss today shared their new single High Beaming, a breezy and bouncy, yet tender tribute to the ones who keep us going when the world gets overwhelming. Of the song, vocalist/guitarist Ben Reed and drummer Jonny Lani explain: “this ones for someone that’s always somewhat positive in the worst times – It’s a strong survival trait.”
High Beaming is out now alongside a video featuring clips of the globe-trotting band’s recent travels, which included: a packed, rowdy LA in-store show at Mollusk Surf Shop; an afterparty performance at Indonesia’s Padang Padang Surf Competition; a stop at France’s Quicksilver Festival; and a London album launch show, partnered with Rough Trade and Signature Brew, that saw Reed behind the bar serving Knock Off Lager to a crowd of eager fans.
The track is the third single from Skegss’ forthcoming new album ‘Pacific Highway Music’, out October 18th, 2024 (Loma Vista Recordings), following Out Of My Head and Spaceman. Produced by Paul Butler (Devendra Banhart, Michael Kiwanuka, St. Paul & the Broken Bones), the album is now available for pre-order.
Skegss–who recently performed all three singles, Up In The Clouds (from 2018’s My Own Mess), and L.S.D. on The Best Show with Tom Scharpling–will return to the US next week for sold-out release shows in Los Angeles at El Cid on 7th & 8th October. The band also just announced a show in Pioneertown, CA, at Pappy + Harriet’s on 9th October. Following this, the band will be back in home ground playing two album release parties at Metro Theatre on the 18th October in Sydney, as well as a show at The Night Cat the following week in Melbourne on 23rd October.
‘Pacific Highway Music’ presents Skegss’ most masterful and fully realised work to date. The Byron Bay-bred band’s third full-length—and follow-up to their acclaimed sophomore album ‘Rehearsal’, which debuted at #1 on their homeland Australia ARIA Albums Chart, and led to their first-ever Coachella appearance and a sold-out U.S. tour—brings a newly heightened creative energy to every aspect of their explosive yet introspective form of rock. Centered on Reed’s frenetic and playful lyricism, ‘Pacific Highway Music’ ultimately finds Skegss exploring the more complicated elements of the human experience with sincerity, soul, and unabashed joie de vivre.
Recorded at two iconic L.A. studios (The Village and Topanga Canyon’s Fivestar Studios), ‘Pacific Highway Music’ partly owes its wildly unpredictable sound to the period of time Skegss spent cutting demos at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree with studio owner Dave Catching (a musician/engineer known for his work with Queens of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan, and more). “In the past I’d deprived myself of using things like synthesisers, not realising how much texture and atmosphere they can add to the music,” says Reed. “Working with Paul felt like letting our guard down and completely opening up in terms of what these songs could be.” ‘Pacific Highway Music’ sustains an unstoppable velocity as the band confronts what he refers to as “the rollercoaster of emotions that come with being human.”
Reed lists punk libertines like Iggy Pop and underground artists like Deepakalypse among his inspirations, and first immersed himself writing songs after taking guitar lessons from a neighbour at the age of 11. As he broadened his musical palette with the help of surf-movie soundtracks, he began self-recording in his bedroom and creating entire comic books to accompany the collections of original songs he burned onto CDs to hand out at school. In 2013, Reed moved from his hometown of Forster to Byron Bay, where he reconnected with his childhood friend Lani and co-founded Skegss with former bassist Toby Cregan the following year. Although the band started out playing skate parks and pubs, they quickly ascended through the scene and made their debut at Splendour in the Grass within a year, famously drawing a crowd of 20,000 for their opening-slot set. Skegss’ full-length debut ‘My Own Mess’ climbed the charts in Australia, earned an ARIA Award nomination for Best Rock Album, and gained widespread recognition in the U.S.—a major accomplishment that soon found the band selling out such famed venues as The Roxy in L.A. and NYC’s Bowery Ballroom.
In choosing a title for their new album, Skegss honour their roots by nodding to the Australian coastal road they’ve driven on countless of times (on tour and on frequent surf trips), while also reflecting the band’s deepened sense of purpose. “I’ve spent a lot of my life driving on the Pacific Highway, and most of the time it puts me in a bit of hypnotic state,” says Reed. “With this album I tried to be as honest as possible, but I also wanted to create the kind of songs that give you that same feeling—songs where you can shut your eyes, let your imagination take over, and drift off into another world that exists only in your mind.”
High Beaming IS OUT NOW
‘Pacific Highway Music’ will be released on Friday 18 October via Loma Vista Recordings
With thanks to Virgin Music Group