Bibby kicks off what is sure to be a fruitful spring at The Tote for Sunifest next month, before hitting the road for a mammoth Australian tour alongside Melody Pool. Remaining casual and straightforward as always, Bibby promises to unveil some new material amongst old favourites that tell of beaten up towns, cars and people.
The upcoming Sunifest brings to The Tote a lineup that boast the likes of local legends The Peep Tempel and New Zealand’s Fazerdaze alongside the enchanting Gabriella Cohen and Jaala. Promising to be a day of great music and good vibes, Bibby expresses his excitement to be a part of the festivities. “Sunifest is going to be really great, it’s such a good lineup and The Tote is such a good venue. It’s one of my old haunts from when I was living in Melbourne”, he says. “There’s a few things in Perth that are similar to Sunifest but we don’t really have the venues to put on those sorts of things. If we do they’re DIY semi-illegal affairs in people’s backyards. The Tote has the upstairs bandroom, the main stage and the front bar so you can have all this different stuff going at once.”
Retiring his old band The Bottles of Confidence, Bibby will be debuting his brand new band, carrying on the tradition of a rather amusing name. “I’m bringing my new band The Dog Act over with me for Sunifest”, says Bibby. “We’re a pretty rock ‘n’ roll band and fairly loud compared to The Bottles of Confidence.”
While Bibby is looking forward to road testing The Dog Act he’ll be stripping things back for the national tour with Melody Pool. “It’ll just be an acoustic guitar and myself,” he says. “Melody got in touch and asked if I was interested in doing it. I hadn’t really heard much of her stuff but she’s a really great singer and songwriter. There are lots of towns on the tour that I’ve never been to so I was pretty keen to do it. We’ve got an adventure lined up.”
With his debut album Bibby established himself as one of the most honest and uninhibited musicians to emerge in the country, painting vivid portraits of alcohol fuelled experiences, unemployment and friendship. “I enjoy being brutally honest and bearing my soul to people to see their reactions. When I first started doing it I was a bit nervous about it all and worried about what people would think but now I don’t really care. I’m comfortable in my skin and in my mind. If people don’t like it they can not listen”, says Bibby.
He has a clear love of touring and being out on the road, despite the grim reality of being a working musician. “Touring’s expensive and if the shows don’t go well then you end up losing money”, Bibby says. “It’s both the hardest and the easiest job in the world. I was never in it for the money; if I was, I would’ve stopped doing it years ago.”
Through the highs and lows Bibby remains ever jovial and possesses the kind of sincerity that’s hard to go unnoticed. While Melbourne is poorer without his frequent gigging, Bibby’s reappearance in the next few months is guaranteed to please his loyal following who are no doubt curious to see where he’s headed next. “After the tour with Melody I’ll be coming back to Perth and focusing on getting this second album finished and released. I’m hoping it’s not too far away.”
BY HOLLY PEREIRA
