Interview with The Dreadful Tides: ‘I’ll pick up different guitars and get different inspirations’

Melbourne-based rock band The Dreadful Tides have released their latest single ‘Rebel’, a blazing stomper of a track made for singing along to at full volume on the open road. Consisting of Holden Stirling (vocals), Justin Strudwick (guitar), Wes Hopkins (bass) and Leland Hallett (drums), the powerful quartet have produced a highly-driven sound, throwing you back to what hard rock was built on: ‘Funnily enough, I’m from a place called Shepparton about two hours north of Melbourne, there’s not a great deal of music stuff happening there,’ Strudwick said. ‘I reached out on social media, on Facebook, and Leland, our drummer, said “I’m interested in what you’re saying”. We all met through social media, we’d never spoken before.’ Of their name, he says: ‘We were in a rehearsal room jamming away, kinda throwing ideas around. Someone said “dreadful tides” and I thought how about we put a “the” in front?’

Their latest single ‘Rebel’ hooks you from the explosive, fuzzy, glam rock intro riff; it’s a song made for live shows, with Stirling’s big voice, serious energy and massively infectious, singalong chorus. Strudwick’s scorching guitar solo in it channels the best of the 70’s, it’s in your face, high octane and begging you to join in: ‘The way we do a lot of our writing, we’re a band who met through COVID, we’d write riffs and send them to each other,’ Strudwick said. ‘I had that riff hanging around from a home jam. It’s a song about wanting to get in your car and put your foot down and play the music loud, it’s a driving song!’

‘I blame my dad for my music taste, he had me hooked on to the good stuff from the moment I was on this earth!’

They do a sterling job of reimagining that classic 70’s sound, think Black Sabbath mixed with T. Rex stomp and a sprinkling of 90’s and early 2000’s rock and grunge influences. It’s a heady mix of heavy riffs from the classic Les Paul and Marshall combo, a deep drum sound that throws you back in your chair, bass lines that take you on a journey and Stirling’s powerful New Zealand vocals that reel you in.  Strudwick, for his part, has an impressive guitar collection: ‘My two main guitars are Les Paul Gibsons, from 1980 and 1988, they’re white and black, they get rotated a bit at gigs. When we play a venue, I slap stickers on the black one to show where we’ve played (laughs). My favourite pedal is a Boss SD1, it just adds some meat to the tone! I recently bought another Gibson two months ago – she’s a black Flying V that I have blacked out and added a Floyd rose. If I could have any guitar in the world, I’d love to grab Zakk Wylde’s Bullseye or a Randy Rhoads custom white Les Paul. One of my dream guitars was a Les Paul SG custom, I was lucky enough to grab an original ’62 two years ago, so one of my dream guitars is ticked off!’

I ask him how many guitars he has: ‘I think 20-22 guitars, 17-18 Gibsons, they’ve all got their own character,’ he said. ‘I have two Gibsons that look the same, they were made at the same time, but they sound and feel different. I’ll pick up different guitars and get different inspirations – I blame my dad for my music taste, he had me hooked on to the good stuff from the moment I was on this earth! From there, I begged and begged and finally was given my first guitar!’

Nailing that crossover between old verses and new and showing what power they had with their first single ‘Crazy’, with the help from a gloriously in your face stage show, they quickly became known in the Australian rock scene.

‘When we started the band, we all agreed on a few bands and Black Sabbath was one of them’

Their modern, hard rock cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘N.I.B’ was an inspired choice, kicking off with gentle humming and quiet vocals from Stirling before quickly exploding into a headbanging frenzy. ‘When we started the band, we all agreed on a few bands and Black Sabbath was one of them,’ Strudwick said. ‘I was in the shower one afternoon and started humming the melody to ‘N.I.B.’, I got out out of the shower and called the guys (laughs) and said “What do you think of this?” It was also a bit of a strategic move to gain exposure (laughs). Me, personally, if we do another cover, I’d probably say ‘Paranoid’, ‘War Pigs’, ‘A National Acrobat’ or even ‘The Wizard’ (all Black Sabbath songs). If I had to pick just one, I’d say ‘Paranoid’, it’s one of those songs that pumps me up. They wrote it in the studio as they needed a 2.5 minute filler for the vinyl and it ended up being one of their most popular songs!’ 

The Dreadful Tides have ‘four or five songs tucked away’, according to Strudwick and are mulling what to release next: ‘Some of the new material I personally think is a lot better than what we’ve got out,’ he said. ‘Our writing style has grown over this journey. At the beginning, we didn’t know each other but we connected over the music and became this family. Our producer, Ricki, he does wonders. Everyone’s going to have their favourite song but once Ricki’s worked on it, it might not be your favourite any more (laughs), it could end up really different!’

Of the new material, he particularly likes a track with the working title of ‘Widow/Black Widow’: ‘It’s a song that’ll draw you in,’ he said excitedly. ‘It has a great hook, it has some Sabbathy sounds. The female black spider will kill the male afterwards (after mating) and I thought it would be a cool kinda song about love – before you know it, it’s dust (laughs).’ When it comes to the songwriting, everyone gets involved: ‘Our songs often start from a riff. I’ll send some riffs to Leland and he’ll say; “Ok, I like riffs 1,4,7 and 9”, can you play them a bit longer (laughs)? We all share the lyric ideas. I might write 10 lines, Leland 15 and Holden some more. Sometimes, we scratch all the lyrics when we come to record, we see what the song needs.’

‘It’s southern county rock that hits you in the face’

‘Foul Play’ also sees Strudwick knocking out deep, chuggy riffs on his beloved Les Paul, accompanied by crashing drums from Hallett. It embraces both their love of heavier 70’s rock and post-grunge: ‘Zakk Wylde has a song ‘Losin’ Your Mind’, it starts off with a banjo, it’s southern county rock that hits you in the face,’ he said. ‘I just liked the idea of how it went from a quiet intro into a bang. I happened to play the riff at rehearsal, Leland started hitting the toms and it just sounded right. We did it as a heavy hitting song that showed how disciplined we were (laughs). We felt that if we added any more, we’d take away from what we wanted it to be. It’s one of my favourite tracks, I love the tones in it, we have it at the end or close to the end of our set. It’s about vengeance and someone going down the wrong path, that person is trying to lure another person down that same path, but they’re saying: “No, you can’t get me”.’

I say that I love the Australian music scene because of the sheer amount of talent and diversity and ask him why he thinks it’s so good: ‘I think it’s because we’re so spread out,’ he said. ‘There’s great music around the world but I feel that Australia is a bit behind, we’re screaming: “Come and look at us!” I think we’re looked past sometimes.’

‘AC/DC, I’d go to see them all hours of the day!’

Locally, he is a big fan of rock band Shotgun Mistress, who I interviewed a couple of years ago and whose lead singer, Glenn Fogwill, manages their PR. ‘They’re a brother band to us, we look to them for advice,’ Strudwick said. ‘I really like Dear Reckless (a local post-hardcore band), and Dangerous Curves (a local hard rock band), they’re great. Riot After Midnight (a local party band) are awesome. AC/DC, I’d go to see them all hours of the day! Fangz (a punk rock band), their singer broke the record this year for eating boiled eggs, I think it was like 200 eggs!’

Over the years, some powerhouse guitarists have inspired him: ‘I’m a massive Randy Rhoads fan (an American guitarist), my son’s middle name is Rhoads after him. Zakk Wylde and Angus Young are massive influences. I’ve had Zakk Wylde comment on some of my social media posts, I was over the moon! Randy Rhoads, I like his songwriting and composition, how he brings rock and metal into it.’

If he could go for a pint with anyone, he asks if he could have three people: ‘I’m gonna say Zakk Wylde, Angus Young and Randy Rhoads. I’d be too starstruck to talk (laughs). There’d be a very big conversation – Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde have both played with Ozzy Osborne. I’d like to ask Angus Young about AC/DC becoming one of the biggest bands ever, from playing pub rock gigs to playing pub rock gigs in the biggest stadiums around the world (laughs). If I could go back in time to any gig, I’d want to go to Monsters of Rock in Donington (a hard rock and heavy metal music festival held annually in Castle Donington, England, from 1980 to 1996). AC/DC headlined, Metallica played and 1.1 million people were there, can you imagine how amazing that was?!’

(Photo from left to right: Leland, Justin, Wes and Holden.)