Founded in 2017, Pacific Avenue is the Australian alternative rock band taking the industry by storm. Consisting of Harry O’Brien on vocals and guitar, Ben Fryer on lead guitar, Jack Kay on bass and vocals, and Dom Littrich on drums, the quartet combines a multitude of influences spanning rock, indie, and pop into one cohesive, unique sound that is all their own.

Citing The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jet, and Silverchair as musical influences, Pacific Avenue combines classic and nostalgic soundscapes with fresh ideas and new sonics. Since their debut EP, “Strawberry Skies”, they have consistently been rising the charts and capturing hearts worldwide. From their own headline tour to supporting the likes of Louis Tomlinson and 5 Seconds Of Summer, they have the world in the palm of their hand — and they’re new debut album, Flowers, has solidified their magic.

Dom explains, “For me, this body of work portrays what Pacific Avenue is. I feel that this album has created our sound and made something that is so distinctly us. The theme of the album follows one of love and enchantment with the crazy world we live in, and the album portrays us attempting to navigate it and make sense of it all.”

Hot off the heels of releasing their debut album, we speak with Ben and Dom from Pacific Avenue about how the band came to be, what this project means to them, and their long term goals.

Stream Flowers…

Read the interview with Ben…

Who and what influences you as a group?
We all have a pretty broad range of influences, I’m right into 90s grunge and 70s-80s metal which kinda helps me think outside of the box when writing. I love taking those ideas and re-working them into classic and modern rock. The rest of the boys all have pretty different influences. Dom plays in a folk band with his dad, Jack is right into primal scream and parliament and Harry loves the Beatles and inhaler at the moment, I’m sure you’d find a Beatles reference in most of the album tracks which is a cool little Easter egg.

How did you form as a band?
Myself (Ben), Jack, and Dom played in a band together after meeting in high school. It wasn’t until Harry and I were up against one another in a busking competition that we exchanged numbers and met up to write some music. At that first jam with everyone together we wrote our first two singles!

What is your writing process as a group?
For the Flowers album we went into the studio without any demos. Harry had some chord and lyrical ideas down but we thought we’d try writing the majority of the songs in the studio for a change. I think by bouncing off one another in a jam situation it made the songs feel more alive and exciting.

How would you define the essence of your style?
I reckon our style would be a blend of old school rock, modern rock and pop music. For the album we didn’t really want to pigeon hole ourselves into one genre or style and more-so wanted to release a body of work that shows what we’re capable of.

How do you feel having released your debut album, Flowers?
It’s so exciting having released a debut album, it feels like it legitimizes us as a band and only makes us more excited to continue working hard and work towards what’s next.

Talk us through the making of the LP?
All up the LP was about 2 years in the making. We originally recorded “Easy Love” with a different producer (Jack Nigro), before recruiting Chris Collins to produce the rest of the album. In all, the making of the album spanned across 5 different studios — the majority of which was recorded at the music farm. Being out there, in the Byron hinterlands, away from the hustle and bustle to record was really lovely. We tried to track as much of the album live as possible to make it feel authentic and focussed more on “feel” than perfection. After we finished recording the bulk of the album, we had a listen back to the tracks with BMG and decided to add in a couple more “pop” songs. We then wrote and recorded “Spin Me Like Your Records”, “Leaving for London”, and “Modern Lovers”, which were the final additions to the album.

Read the interview with Dom…

What are you trying to portray with the body of work?
For me, this body of work portrays what Pacific Avenue is. I feel that this album has created our sound and made something that is so distinctly us. The theme of the album follows one of love and enchantment with the crazy world we live in, and the album portrays us attempting to navigate it and make sense of it all.

What singular track represents the band’s musical ethos most succinctly?
For myself, “Easy Love” represents our ethos both tonally and lyrically. For me, this track incorporates our individual musical influences in a way that makes it our own and feels unique to us. The message in the song is also one of inclusion, love and acceptance of anyone no matter who they are. For us, as a band, we want to live by this ethos and make people feel a part of our music whether they are listening live or at home.

You’re heading out on an accompanying tour with the album — how are you feeling about the prospect of that?
We are so insanely excited to get on the road for the Flowers album tour. The prospect of being able to play completely new material for the first time is extremely invigorating and it’s just been so much fun getting in the rehearsal studio to run the songs. We are so pumped to see how the new songs are received as we love them so much. We hope this feeling is reciprocated and everyone comes away from the shows feeling what we feel when we play those songs.

What goals and ambitions do you have as a band?
For myself, the sky’s the limit with Pacific Avenue. Since we formed in 2017, we have all shared the sentiment of going in all guns blazing and doing whatever it takes to make this a potentially successful career. For me, the goal with Pacific Avenue is to be up there with the world’s top acts and be a household name. A big goal for us is to crack the international market in the short term, and just be able to tour the world with our best mates, doing what we love.

What else is to come from you this year?
Shows, shows and more shows. Following the album tour we plan to do some regional shows and just play wherever anyone will have us! We are so insanely psyched to be able to perform the new album and we really want to get it out there in any way we can. Hopefully some more international shows on the horizon as well which is super exciting.