Ocean Grove: Ten Years of ‘Black Label’
Embarking on a national tour to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their seminal EP, Black Label, Ocean Grove vocalist Dale Tanner chats with The Note about the band’s early days, Sam Bassal’s impact and what to expect from their upcoming tour.
Words Tobias Handke
Image supplied
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Ocean Grove’s seminal EP, Black Label. A modern nu metal classic comprising eight (nine on the reissue) speaker-blowing hard rock tracks that hit like a sledgehammer, the EP thrust Ocean Grove into the spotlight back in 2015.
“That was a very fun time in Ocean Grove. We were, for the first time, realising what we were doing was starting to be received in a way that meant something more,” vocalist Dale Tanner explains over the phone from America while taking in a Chicago Cubs game. “It was such a magical time because we felt like there [were] no limits. You can really hear that in the music.”
Coming together as teenagers in 2010, Ocean Grove started life as a post-hardcore act, releasing their debut EP, Outsider, three years later. While it didn’t move the needle commercially, the release was well received by fans, giving the band the confidence to follow their musical aspirations. After several lineup changes, including founding member Matthew “Running Touch” Kopp stepping back from playing live, Ocean Grove got to work on their follow-up release, Black Label. The EP merged heavy rock riffs with nu metal melodies and screamo/clean vocals, and came at a pivotal moment in the band’s career with the addition of drummer and producer Sam Bassal.
“Black Label was the moment where Sam came into the picture,” Tanner says. “That's the first release he recorded, mixed and mastered. We've done every release with him ever since. So in a way, Black Label is a very, very important starting point for where we find ourselves now, with Sam still excelling and becoming one of the biggest producers in Australia, if not the world, in the heavy music scene.”
Black Label propelled Ocean Grove on the path to success, with the band releasing their debut album, The Rhapsody Tapes, two years later. Peaking at #5 on the ARIA Album Chart and selected as the Feature Album on triple j, the record received stellar reviews and established Ocean Grove’s credentials as one of the country’s standout heavy acts.
Fast forward to now, and Ocean Grove are four albums deep, with the five-piece’s most recent release, 2024’s Oddworld, another hit with critics and fans. Highlights include the polished ‘FLY AWAY’ and melodic ‘LAST DANCE’, both of which demonstrate the band’s growth as songwriters, something that was sparked by getting the OG Ocean Grove lineup back together.
“The way we began writing music in Ocean Grove was as friends hanging out after school at someone's place, mucking around and making each other laugh. The songwriting came secondary, and I think that carried a very pure, youthful energy,” Tanner says of the band’s early work. “There were a lot of years of touring where it kind of felt segmented or not as together as maybe [it] once was when we were just kids hanging out after school. That’s what was really special about recording Oddworld – we acknowledged that the best thing we could do was to bring the OG Oddworld collective together. Everyone [who] was there from the beginning, bringing them back into the fold.”
READ MORE: UnderOath: The Impact of Freedom
Going back to the beginning saw the welcome return of guitarist and keyboardist Kopp and vocalist Luke Holmes. “To have Luke and Matt, who have always been in the picture but a lot more so in the background, has been an interesting sort of situation to navigate,” Tanner muses. “We've done our best to maintain friendships and to keep it very amicable and make sure that we can still have everyone involved in the way that they wanted. It wasn't until this record (Oddworld) that we all came together and thought, ‘You know what, why don't we come together in this moment?’
This meeting of the minds involved the band hiring an Airbnb in the middle of nowhere for a week to hang out and get the creative juices flowing. The lads got down to writing new music for what would become Oddworld while also spending the week reconnecting on a personal level. “That’s the energy that went into this album,” Tanner explains. “We didn't necessarily write the whole thing, but a vast majority of ideas and inspiration came from that moment. I think the fact that we gave such an intentional energy and came together to sort of acknowledge and celebrate all that had been, it just felt like the perfect thing to do. It's a full circle moment between Black Label and Oddworld, and the tour is just the perfect way to celebrate that.”
As Tanner mentions, the Odd Label Tour commemorates both the tenth anniversary of Black Label and the release of last year’s Oddworld. The four-date jaunt begins with a sold-out show in Brisbane later this month, with Ocean Grove performing both Black Label and Oddworld in their entirety, making this an incredible opportunity for fans to hear these records played live. The tour also sees the return of Kopp and Holmes to the live stage, something that was a non-negotiable for Tanner.
“There was no two ways about it,” he says. “We just thought, ‘If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right’, and that means having all the members that were involved in the writing and the performance of those songs over these years.”
Excited by the prospect of performing with Kopp and Holmes again, Tanner promises the tour will be “unlike any Ocean Grove show that anyone's ever seen before,” but is loath to give too much away. He understands performing in more intimate venues means less theatrics, but with five members on stage (plus touring guitarist Jamie Marinos) and a stacked back catalogue, there’s sure to be more than enough action to keep fans glued to the stage. “I think it's going to be something I don't want anyone to miss,” Tanner reveals excitedly. We agree wholeheartedly.
Catch Ocean Grove at UniBar on Friday, May 30. For ticketing information, visit moshtix.com.au.
