Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever on being political: “It’s weird for five straight white dudes to be going, ‘We think this’”

"I don’t feel like we feel entitled to talk about these things"

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have discussed their mixed opinions about using their platform to push political causes.

Speaking in NME Australia‘s Big Read feature, the band discussed Black Lives Matter protests in their native Melbourne, and their decision to auction a signed test pressing of ‘Sideways To New Italy’, donating the proceeds to the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.

“We are all very politically engaged and politically aware, and it’s something we talk about a lot,” said the band’s Fran Keaney. “But I don’t feel like we feel entitled to talk about these things.

“We stand in support of a lot of bands and voices that are able to sort of push those things forward, but sometimes it’s a bit weird for five straight white dudes to be going, ‘We think this and we think that’.”

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Discussing whether the songs on their new album ‘Sideways To New Italy‘, recorded before the coronavirus pandemic and widespread global protests for racial equality, feel like they’re from a “different time”, Keaney said “I really think the songs feel more true now”.

He added: “It’s more applicable to other people, at least. A lot of the songs are dealing with this ‘home’ that doesn’t look like home, like a dislocation.”

Meanwhile, in a four-star review of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s new LP, NME described it as the sound of a band excited to be in the studio together; warmth and friendship seeps through every note.”

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