Two Weddings & A Festival: Want To Get Married By Alpine?

Shortly after it was announced via Facebook that Lou James – one of Alpine's two singers – was leaving the band, they released a new single, Dumb, before heading out on tour. "It was so much fun," remaining vocalist Phoebe Baker recalls. "I was nervous because it was the first time [performing] without Lou, but it ended up being fine and I felt like I had more freedom to kinda control the stage, and the energy of the room. I think 'cause you're not worried about balancing your performance with the other person, you kind of have more freedom to do what you want. So I miss Lou – I definitely miss Lou – but I also have been enjoying the band's evolution, I guess."

Baker walks multiple dogs at once in the video clip for Dumb. "Never work with dogs, so people say," Baker chuckles. "I love dogs but it was hard work, 'cause you've gotta look at the camera, sing the words, maintain composure at the same time as having eight dogs pulling you in opposite directions with all their might to get to their owners! At one point I was literally sliding in my shoes, 'cause the dogs were pulling me along."  

Baker's elegant, long, puff-sleeve dress in green leopard print fabric, which she wears in the clip, definitely deserves a mention as well. "That was a me-and-my-mum design; we came up with it together," she reveals. "I feel like there's a little bit of a trend, which I'm liking at the moment, of kind of ye olde dresses, but modern." 

We discuss how putting on stage clothes can often help fast-track an artist transform into their onstage persona and Baker admits, "It's even part of my recording persona. When we're recording, I feel like I can't be wearing trackies. I wanna be dressed up, which is a weird thing 'cause no one's watching... So when we're in the studio I sort of dress up a little bit every day... and [when] getting into the character and the emotion of the song, it definitely helps. I often think an outfit can give you some sense of strength, which is strange."

 "If music could be my full-time career that would be bloody lovely."

Alpine recently returned from a ten-day stint in LA. "We were just recording. It was really intense, but awesome," Baker tells. "We were in the studio every day just doing the album with Dann Hume. We did our last two albums with him as well, so we're like old friends." 

And as a producer, Baker reckons Hume has "only gotten better over the years". "I think he just won an ARIA!" (Correct: Hume recently picked up the Best Producer ARIA for Matt Corby's Rainbow Valley.)

Although "nothing is set in stone" in terms of a release date for Alpine's upcoming third album, Baker observes, "It's not too long 'til we have new music in the world, which is exciting and nerve-wracking." 

So will Alpine be road-testing some of these fresh tunes during their headline slot at Loch Hart Music Festival? "Yes, we will!" Baker enthuses. "We've got a couple of songs to show to the world and I just can't wait for it to happen. I'm ready to burst! Songwriting is my absolute passion... I just adore it and I wanna keep doing it."

With Baker and guitarist/keyboardists Christian O'Brien and Tim Royall all contributing ideas during songwriting sessions, Baker acknowledges, "This new album is much more collaborative, I guess... I think you can dance a bit more to this album, which is kinda fun; I'm looking forward to that." 

This year marks ten years since Alpine formed and Baker muses, "If music could be my full-time career that would be bloody lovely... I feel like the musician's life, often it's a juxtaposition or a big contrast. It's like you can be like travelling to LA one week, or performing at a festival to thousands of people, and the next day you're teaching or you're working a bar job [laughs]."

Baker "just recently got officiated" to become a marriage celebrant and already has some bookings in the lead-up to Loch Hart Music Festival: "I've got two weddings that weekend... I'm marrying someone on Thursday and then on Friday, and then we play on Saturday! It's gonna be an epic week."