Biography
Formed in 2018, the Melbourne indie quartet Floodlights explores Australia’s vast landscapes, cultural heritage, and social inequities through earnest, unpolished songwriting. Their music leans toward raw, introspective folk-rock rather than country, despite occasional “Australiana” labels.
The group coalesced after witnessing a performance at The Tote Hotel, the long-running Melbourne venue that has presented alternative acts since 1980. Louis Parsons and Ashlee Kehoe handled guitar and vocals—Parsons on lead, Kehoe contributing harmonica—while Joe Draffen played bass and Archie Shannon, also of the experimental project Dragoons, handled drums along with engineering and production duties. Their initial sessions occurred in mid-2018 at Love Shack Studios in Melbourne’s Footscray district. Drawing from Parsons’ drive through the southern coastal region, the band released “Nullarbor” as a digital single in March 2019; that track joined “Small Town Pub” and “Backyard” on the self-released EP Backyard, issued in May and prefaced by a reflective spoken-word piece from Mirning Elder and Whaledreamer Bunna Lawrie on the restorative qualities of the Nullarbor Plain.
Following the EP’s arrival, Floodlights performed several local dates and completed an east-coast tour in October. November brought a signing with Spunk Records, whose roster already featured prominent Australian and international indie acts. That month the band tracked its debut album in two days at Head Gap studios, with the first results emerging the next spring. Spunk’s reissue of Backyard meanwhile attracted attention overseas, securing airplay on alternative stations in the U.K. and U.S. The politically charged “Matter of Time” surfaced in March 2020, followed by “Happiness” in May and “Thanks for Understanding” in June—the latter featuring traded male-female vocal lines between Parsons and Kehoe. All three songs appeared on the subsequent debut LP From a View, whose sound displayed greater focus than the band’s earliest work.
The group coalesced after witnessing a performance at The Tote Hotel, the long-running Melbourne venue that has presented alternative acts since 1980. Louis Parsons and Ashlee Kehoe handled guitar and vocals—Parsons on lead, Kehoe contributing harmonica—while Joe Draffen played bass and Archie Shannon, also of the experimental project Dragoons, handled drums along with engineering and production duties. Their initial sessions occurred in mid-2018 at Love Shack Studios in Melbourne’s Footscray district. Drawing from Parsons’ drive through the southern coastal region, the band released “Nullarbor” as a digital single in March 2019; that track joined “Small Town Pub” and “Backyard” on the self-released EP Backyard, issued in May and prefaced by a reflective spoken-word piece from Mirning Elder and Whaledreamer Bunna Lawrie on the restorative qualities of the Nullarbor Plain.
Following the EP’s arrival, Floodlights performed several local dates and completed an east-coast tour in October. November brought a signing with Spunk Records, whose roster already featured prominent Australian and international indie acts. That month the band tracked its debut album in two days at Head Gap studios, with the first results emerging the next spring. Spunk’s reissue of Backyard meanwhile attracted attention overseas, securing airplay on alternative stations in the U.K. and U.S. The politically charged “Matter of Time” surfaced in March 2020, followed by “Happiness” in May and “Thanks for Understanding” in June—the latter featuring traded male-female vocal lines between Parsons and Kehoe. All three songs appeared on the subsequent debut LP From a View, whose sound displayed greater focus than the band’s earliest work.
Albums
Singles
