Wandering Home

Being an Australian rock and roller with a single praised by the one and only Slash can't feel too bad, but it's just one of many reasons Dallas Frasca has to be excited right now. Headlining Rock N Load at The Espy in her one and only Melbourne show for 2013, Frasca and her band have their sights set firmly on the horizon. And not just in a metaphoric sense. “We've got three overseas trips planned this year,” Frasca says, hardly able to contain the glee in her voice, “and in Australia we're just playing a couple of festivals in 2013.”

Frasca, who has already voyaged overseas and established a solid fanbase, particularly in France, is ready to embark on her second long-haul jaunt of the year so far. “We spent a month in London, France and Switzerland at start of the year, when my album Sound Painter was released on a French label [Verycords]. London was amazing, we played eight shows in seven days, including a bar in Soho where Eric Clapton had played on the same stage. It was amazing – crowd surfing, screaming – fantastic. Then we hopped on a train and went over to France. I'm getting a lot of radio love there, from when I previously visited five years ago, and seem to have built up a big following.”

Frasca has been impressed by the French – and not merely because they are giving her album some airplay. “The music lovers at gigs there just appreciate the sound, the visuals, everything. They're waiting until the last note dies down before they go crazy. It's so different from Australia, where people are yelling, screaming, catching up with mates during the show.”

Four European tours might sound like quite enough travelling in a year for many bands – especially a band currently working on their follow-up album to the well received Sound Painter. But Frasca explains that she's hoping, as are her restless road-ready bandmates, to get on the road and stay there. “We've been touring Australia for seven years with this project, and it's a big wide world out there, man,” she exclaims. “We want to spread our music far and wide. Our big dream, our vision, is to travel, to meet people and make music. We want to meet people who are influenced by different cultures. When I'm at home after touring, between four walls, it's about then that I start to rock back and forward,” she laughs. “I need travel in my life – the stimulation and new things coming in all the time.”

Frasca's wanderlust isn't just an addiction to the glamour, or the grime, of the rock and roll lifestyle. “I'm the daughter of a truck driver,” Frasca offers. “I used to spend a lot of time in the truck when I was a kid. I used to get overwhelmed when the sun was going down and we were driving into a new town. I still feel like that when we go to a new town. Jeff [Curran] our guitarist is the same. He was brought up in an old jug band from Queensland, so as he was growing up he did a lot of travelling. The band played a lot of bush halls, then would bed down there for a night – he had a really amazing upbringing.”

This band of nomads thrive not only on the journey but on the performance. Frasca shares that she loves the band most when they're on stage. “I feel that playing live is our strength, it's a different world in the studio. I find it a lot easier to play live and smash it out. It wasn't until a couple of years into the band that I realised we needed to concentrate on writing some songs. Because, at the end of the day, it all comes back to the songs.”