2018 saw The Swamp Stompers release their fourth EP, the outstanding five-track ‘Shadows on the Wall’ and they soon followed this up with a nationwide tour, including a visit over to us here in WA, where they played state-wide shows including Blues at Bridgetown and the Perth Blues Club at The Charles Hotel. The lively three-piece from Wollongong, have managed to blend funky blues-infused rock with a twist and have captivated audiences wherever they have played with their energetic & fun-filled performances. Add to this the song writing talents of guitarist & vocalist Corey Legge, who is quickly gaining a reputation as one of Australia’s bright young stars, with the likes of Lloyd Spiegel & Ash Grunwald amongst his many admirers and you can only see more wonderful music to come.
The Rockpit managed to speak to Corey, as he began the arduous task of packing his suitcase, as he prepared for the long journey across the country to play The Swamp Stompers first show at West Australia’s String Attached Festival, which starts on Friday 11th October in Margaret River, before embarking on a host of dates throughout the month of October. Read on, as we discuss all things Swamp Stompers, song writing & Jimmy Page’s imperfections.
Sean: Hey Corey, how are you doing?
Corey: Good thanks Sean. How are you?
Sean: Really well thanks and I appreciate you taking this slightly later than normal call for a chat.
Corey: No worries at all.
Sean: Firstly, the great news is that The Swamp Stompers are returning to WA for some hotly anticipated shows.
Corey: Yeah, we are really excited. It’s our fifth time there in as many years, so we are really looking forward to getting over that way. We can’t wait to play to some of the most enthusiastic crowds we have ever played to.
Sean: Dates spread out all over the place too while you’re here, starting off in the beautiful town of Margaret River, at the West Australian Strings Attached Festival on Friday 11th October before, heading up towards Perth. I’m going to be catching up with you on Tuesday 15th October at The Perth Blues Club at The Charles Hotel and I have to be honest, when I saw you guys there last year you blew me & everyone else in the room away with your set – it was fabulous.
Corey: Yeah, we were pretty stoked by the turn out at that gig. There was definitely on older demographic in the room but they certainly party harder than most of the people even my age and we all had a great time [laughs].
Sean: It certainly was enjoyable and I had a couple of mates who came with me to see the show and they snapped up all your EP’s – that’s the impression you left on them. You’ve played The Perth Blues Club a few times now I believe.
Corey: Yes, I think this will be our third time playing there.
Sean: We got to see you showcasing your EP ‘Shadows on the Wall’ which I have to say I still play now. It’s a great EP.
Corey: Thanks mate. We were pretty over the moon with how that EP was received. I know it got some great reviews here in Australia, including The Rockpit and also got some really great reviews over in Europe too, which has kind of led us to the European Tour which we have lined up for next year.
Sean: It’s so easy to see why your music will go down well in Europe. I was listening to the EP again today and it’s so good to hear so many different vibes on the one disc. I still love the track ‘Wave’ but also enjoy that vid clip that’s out there on social media of you playing the guitar solo from the opening track ‘Wishing I Had You’.
Corey: That’s actually the studio take, so literally what I played in that video is the solo on the record. It’s pretty cool that our producer caught that on camera.
Sean: There’s been a change in personnel since we last saw you guys. Your drummer Ollie has parted ways and I know for a while you were auditioning people for the drumming role, so have you found his replacement yet?
Corey: So, I have a guy called Andie Bilaniwskyj-Zarins on drums for this tour. He’s a young fella from Melbourne and he grew up in the Bega Valley where I grew up. I’ve known about him for quite a while and I’ve seen him play in quite a few different bands – he’s playing in a band called Zenith Moon at the moment and he’s just been on tour with me for my solo project tour. He’s a great young drummer and very well suited to The Swamp Stompers so we can’t wait to get him on the road over to WA. I think he’s going to bring a lot of energy & enthusiasm to the tour.
Sean: Energy is certainly something that is found in abundance at your shows – I spent the first two or three minutes of your opening number at The Charles last time, trying to find Luke (Ligtenberg – Bass, Didgeridoo & Vocals) who magically appeared standing three or four meters to my right near the bar, playing his bass [laughs] amongst us.
Corey: [laughs] He normally does a slightly different variation at different points of the set but I think that’s only the second time I’ve seen ever him in the crowd during the first song doing something like that [laughs]. He’s been known to get on people’s shoulders during the first song as well.
Sean: I was reading that you are endorsed by Cole Clark, alongside the incredible Lloyd Spiegel, who is an artist who speaks so highly of you guys.
Corey: Lloyd has been a great mentor of mine since I was about seventeen. He was the first professional musician I had ever jammed on stage with in front of a crowd. He has been there from the very get-go of my professional career and he was obviously instrumental in pushing the cause for my Cloe Clark endorsement. He’s just a great guy – he’s always helped me out with accommodation on the road and given me little tips & tricks on touring and how to go about things in general. I think he is one of the true gentlemen in the Australian Blues scene – I’ve very stoked that he’s on board with The Swamp Stompers cause and that he enjoys our music.
Sean: To have someone of that calibre supporting you is an incredible testament to what you yourself are achieving, not only as a musician but as a human being. Also though, bands like yours as well as artists like Lloyd & Ash Grunwald keep opening this wonderful blues genre to the younger generation.
Corey: Yeah, I think the thing is the younger bands coming through are putting a new twist on it. I’ve noticed in Australia in the past ten to fifteen years there’s a real sort of funk element that bands are putting into their music to fuse it together with the blues and I think that’s really helped bring more of a dance-party vibe to it – mix that with the pub-rock culture from the 70’s and I think that little revival has really helped push the blues along. I’ve really notice the blues thrive in the festival settings as well.
Sean: It’s great, especially for WA that festivals like the ‘Strings Attached’ are being created and it’s so important that they are supported. Along with you guys, I know Ash Grunwald is appearing there also and also ‘Blues at Bridgetown’ once again has a stellar line-up. These magical places like Bridgetown & Margaret River are wonderful locations for these events.
Corey: You know, I think that is part of the draw card. I always say to my musician friends that they have to get to WA because, for one, it’s just such a beautiful part of the world and secondly there are so many great music fans over there – everyone really gets behind the bands when they do come over. We always have to pack extra merch & CDs because we know people will support us and buy our product.
Sean: Well we don’t want to talk only about WA dates so have you got more shows planned when you get back home?
Corey: Yes, we have the Lakeside Festival in Tuncurry on the 2nd of November and then we’ll have our biggest festival appearance to date which will be the Queenscliff Music Festival which runs from the 22nd until the 24th November.
Sean: Well, we always like to tell everyone to keep an eye out for gig dates by visiting social media pages or websites (https://www.theswampstompers.com). I was talking to Ash Grunwald recently and we had a bit of an ‘off the record’ chat about some of the younger artists in the blues & guitar scene and like Lloyd, he had nothing but glowing compliments about you. Ash is such an interesting guy to talk to.
Corey: Yeah, Ash is a lovely guy. I’ve had quite a bit to do with him this year – I’ve supported him twice and I played with him at the Melbourne Guitar Show back in August. It’s really amazing that an artist of his calibre is so friendly & open to talking about the music industry. He’s an amazing player and I’ve been very privileged to get up and play with him on stage and trade some guitar solos. That’s certainly been a highlight for my year so far.
Sean: I’ve really been enjoying his podcasts… His John Butler one was great.
Corey: They are such an interesting insight into the music industry too, especially when you get to hear someone like John talking about it. He also did a really good one with Kim Churchill, who is an amazing young singer-songwriter from the Bega Valley in New South Wales, where I grew up.
Sean: You mention there about Kim being a young singer-songwriter but you yourself are no ‘aging bluesman’ as yet [laughs]. But many of the songs you write have such a maturity about them. I know now isn’t the time for us to talk about your wonderful solo album that you released earlier this year but I’m using that as an example of what I mean when I say ‘maturity’ – to have the ability to write something like that but then also something so different with the funky up-tempo music that The Swamp Stompers create is an incredible talent.
Corey: Thanks very much Sean. Being on the road with The Swamp Stompers since 2012 has helped me to hone my craft as a song writer and I think I’ve just become battle-hardened from all that time on the road. Even before that I’ve been playing in pubs since I was about twelve years of age. I think because of all that my craft has improved year after year. The last Swamp Stompers EP & my solo record are an example of just how far I’ve come in the past few years.
Sean: Talking of writing, can we expect any new Swamp Stompers material in the near future?
Corey: We would have liked to have recorded something by now but it’s been made hard with the issues of finding a permanent drummer. So we have been writing behind the scenes… I’ve actually been writing pretty prolifically lately. I’ve written about ten new Swamp Stomper songs so there is certainly enough material for an album. We just need to find the right time & place to record it so I would tell people to expect an album in the next few years. We can’t wait to get in there and do it – we’ve been building to it now that we have released four EPs. We’ve certainly got enough experience in the studio now to put our best foot forward, get our best songs on tape and put out an album.
READ REVIEW OF “SHADOWS ON THE WALL”
Sean: Something to look forward too. So, I have a few regulars I like to ask if that’s ok with you starting with my restaurant question; you have a reservation at your favourite restaurant and can invite three guests from the music world, dead or alive. Who would you invite to join you?
Corey: I think my number one would definitely be Angus Young from AC/DC…
Sean: …who could very well have been playing the solo on ‘Wishing I Had You’ [laughs]
Corey: [laughs] Yeah, that solo is almost a homage to Angus. It’s played on a Gibson SG and I’ve just admired Angus since I was about eleven years old – I remember listening to him in primary school and his guitar solos just blew my mind… I can almost play the whole AC/DC back catalogue on guitar, note for note [laughs]. Two more guests… It’s a great question… I’ve always wanted to sit down and have a chat with Jeff Lang. I think he is an amazing Australian guitarist who is quite often given the ‘underrated’ tag, which is mind blowing to me because I’ve always put him in my top ten guitarists. He was actually the reason I started learning slide guitar because my guitar teacher at the time was mates with him – he gave me some encouraging words as a kid and I’ve followed him ever since.
I think I’ll have to go with three guitarists at my table… Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin would have to be the other one. He’s just got great taste with his riffs and he really knows how to build a song. I think a lot of his solos, to me, sound a little bit sloppy sometimes but I think that’s why they are so great. It’s obvious to me that he has put so much energy & feeling into his takes, that the little bum notes just add character. Over the years I’ve become less & less obsessed with being perfect and more about listening to guys like Jimmy who just went for it and capture so much magic in every take they put down on record. There a quite a lot of riffs that he did that were slightly out of time to my ear, whereas someone like Angus Young sounds like he is dead on every time. It’s interesting that Jimmy just had that loose feel that suited Led Zeppelin down to the ground.
Sean: Going back to Angus, I wonder if he has ever watched that video clip of your solo for ‘Wishing I Had You’?
Corey: Here’s a fun fact… I very nearly got to give Angus an album from my high school band. I’ve never met him personally but a band called Calling All Cars who supported AC/DC in Australia about ten years ago, were all guys that grew up in my area near Bega. My mum managed to send them a copy of my album at the time to give to AC/DC in the dressing room… so I don’t know if he ever got to hear it or not but we tried pretty hard.
Sean: You would think, certainly hope that they would be true to their roots and give new Australian music a blast when they got the chance.
Corey: Yeah, I think so too. I’ve noticed that a few of the bands I really rate in Australia were given support slots with them over the past few years. I’m sure they still keep a keen eye on things going on over here.
Sean: Kingswood supported them when they played here in Perth…
Corey: Kingswood is one of my favourite bands. I saw them on that tour and also saw them just recently in Jindabyne actually.
Sean: Talking music, what was the last album you listened to?
Corey: The last album I listened to would have been Chris Stapleton’s latest album, ‘From A Room: Volume 2’. Its very country but there’s some really cool strains of blues & rock in there – I’m just a massive fan of Chris Stapleton. I think he is capable of playing so many different genres well and has the voice of a generation in my opinion.
Sean: More music to add to my never ending list! Final question – If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Corey: I’d have to say ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zeppelin…
Sean: …bum notes and all?
Corey: Oh yeah! [laughs]
Sean: It’s odd that for such a monumental song in rock history, that’s the first time I’ve been given that as an answer to this question.
Corey: Really? It’s interesting because when I was a kid I can always remember my dad telling me he thought it was the greatest song ever written… I definitely didn’t disagree at that age but as I’ve gotten older I have revisited that song many times and its certainly still one of my favourite songs and quite possible one of the greatest rock songs ever written. It’s got so many different movements and it builds & builds to that epic climax at the end – four equally talented musicians putting everything into it.
Sean: Wonderful song choice to add to my playlist of answers. Corey I really appreciate you time and from all of us here at The Rockpit we just want to wish you safe travels over to WA & beyond and obviously we wish you all the success for your tour dates in Europe next year. I look forward to catching up with you at The Charles Hotel on the 15th October.
Corey: Thanks so much & great to chat to you Sean. We’ll see you there.
Sean: Thanks mate.
Tour Dates
Friday 11th October
‘Strings Attached’ West Australian Guitar Festival
Settler’s Tavern – MARGARET RIVER (WA) *^
Saturday 12th October
Rodney’s Bait & Tackle – MOSMAN PARK (WA)
Sunday 13th October
Indian Ocean Hotel – SCARBOROUGH (WA) *
w/ Dilip n the Davs
Tuesday 15th October
‘Perth Blues Club’
Charles Hotel – NORTH PERTH (WA) *
Thursday 17th October
Sonar Room – FREMANTLE (WA) *
Friday 18th October
Prince Of Wales Hotel – BUNBURY (WA)
Saturday 19th October
‘Albany Blues Club’ – ALBANY (WA)
Sunday 20th October
Clancy’s Fish Pub – DUNSBOROUGH (WA)
^ Corey Legge will also be doing a ‘Blues Licks’ guitar workshop at The River Hotel in Margaret River (WA) on Saturday 12th October from 10:30 to 11:30am
* Ticketed shows via oztix and eventbrite
