Howling Onshore line up live EP

Deep and soulful Margaret River band Howling Onshore are preparing a new live EP and aim to release the five-track recording by the end of summer.

The veteran band will perform tonight at the Margaret River Hotel Corner Bar with a classic blues four-piece set-up.

Vocalist, harmonica and saxophonist Lindsay Baker said the band had rollicked through changes but maintained their passion for free-thinking blues.

“I think a musician’s growth is closely entwined in your personal growth in other forms of life,” he said.

“When I have returned from years without performing or writing I seem to look at making music with a new perspective and more depth of character.

“Sometimes I’ve used sadness as a tool — connecting to that emotion — but I tend to think that the best music is played when the brain gets out of the way and I’m playing straight from the heart.”

The experimental band will soon expand to a seven-piece jazz ensemble with a female vocalist for upcoming shows throughout the South West.

Baker said some of his favourite original songs to play were She Gets High, Doors and Peaches.

“My songs have messages,” he said.

“Peaches for example is about the metaphor of gorging yourself on society and all the pleasures it can bring, but then turning around and giving back.”

He said the lyrics on Doors represented the opportunities desired in life become difficult but were always worthwhile.

“The songs are often a tongue-in-cheek comment on ways we live our lives — the social issues move and change as we grow,” he said.

Baker said he was always practising to improve his singing and was heavily influenced in his youth by ’70s soul band Chain, plus his brothers’ extensive record collection.

“At the age of 15 I bought a harmonica, that was the instrument I could really relate to, and then I picked up the saxophone later in life and taught myself that as well,” he said.

“My mother played piano and played in bands — and I remember them rehearsing in the lounge room.

“It wasn’t that I went out of my way to become a musician but it was probably just a natural progression.”

Howling Onshore will perform tonight at the Margaret River Hotel.

Entry is free.