Mothwing EPK
Hailing from Queensland's South East corner, Mothwing have been creating their intense rock repertoire since 2012. The band blends all-valve driven guitar and bass riffs with punchy drums and diverse vocals to deliver an epic soundscape. Mothwing's self titled first EP blew the dust from the rafters at festivals and original live music venues across the state. With more live shows and original recordings on the way, this tenacious four piece will satisfy your Aussie rock appetite.
Mothwing are
Brad Roberts: Guitars, vocals
Jake Frampton: Drums
Scott Barker: Bass, backing vocals
James Dixon: Guitars, vocals
26th October 2024 Bundaberg
Old Bundy Tavern
20 Quay St, Bundaberg Central QLD 4670
Hosted by East Coast Alternative, see ECA facebook page for details:
East Coast Altenaive Facebook
Sunday 18 February 2024 Agnes Waters
Agnes Blues, Roots & Rock Festival
Marquee Stage 12.00-1.00pm
The Agnes Blues, Roots & Rock Festival is held annually across one weekend in February in the stunning destination of Agnes Water and 1770 on the sensational Southern Great Barrier Reef.
Tickets and more info: www.agnesbluesandroots.com.au
Mothwing member since August 2015. First show 19th September, 2015.
Currently living in his home town of Maryborough, Queensland, Scott Barker is Mothwing's second bassist. Holding down the low notes since 2015, Scott was approached by the band when their original bass player left the group and they needed to fill the spot in order to fulfil their commitment to playing at the Mitchell Creek Rock and Blues Festival that year. He agreed.
This is his story.
The seeds for Scott's musical journey were planted from an early age, watching and listening to his grandmother practising and playing the electric organ in her family home in the 1980’s. She would play for church events and for the elderly in retirement villages as a way of giving back to her community. Between learning the basics on the organ and undertaking some beginners lessons on playing the piano, Scott developed some foundation understanding of musical theory, but it wasn’t enough to entice him to pick up and play any instruments through the 1990’s during his teenage years. He did, however, develop a love for all things grunge at that time, being influenced by the usual favourites - Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine, Faith No More, and Nine Inch Nails to name but a few. The Australian scene was kicking off too, and bands like Spiderbait, Regurgitator, The Mark of Cain, Custard and Jebediah were all played on high rotation in his Torana! It wasn’t until his early 20's / early 2000’s that he was encouraged to buy an acoustic guitar by his friend Terry, who also offered to teach him a thing or two. Scott distinctly remembers having an interest in playing bass guitar at that time, but this desire was met by Terry with the statement that “bass players drag their knuckles on the ground! Buy a guitar”, and with that, he did, and persisted to play it poorly until 2010!
It was during this time that Scott had been teaching out in Central Queensland, and had come to realise that a number of his colleagues were also interested in both similar music and playing guitar. Realising that they couldn’t have a band with four guitarists, Scott saw his opportunity to finally pick out a bass from the school instrument rack, and along with his friends, he proceeded to learn covers of their favourite songs. “The Policy” was born. Named as a dig at the bureaucracy surrounding his workplace and the way of redirecting questions or issues raised back to reading the policy, the band learnt four songs and played them for the students at a school music night as a surprise at the end of the night! This sparked a fire of enthusiasm from all members, and many shows were played throughout that year at a variety of social and community events.
Having only spent a year with The Policy before moving home to Maryborough in 2011, Scott had the itch to continue playing, learning and refining his craft, but struggled to find an outlet for his enthusiasm. He did join in on a jam project with friends Rob David and Hayden Byrne tentatively named Tinanaband (working title), learning heavy / stoner / grunge covers and creating their own songs befitting those genres. This project leant itself to allowing Scott to pick up a guitar once more, as well as building his chops on bass, and also saw his interest grow in bands such as Kyuss, The Melvins, Fu Manchu. Outside of this, Scott played a couple of fill-in shows for a friend in his band when he’d double booked, leading to eventually meeting up with the guys in a local cover band trio called The Shake. They weren’t looking for a bass player, but when Scott insisted that he could fill a void for them, they gave him a shot, playing his first shows with the band through the festive season / New Years of 2012. This union led to plenty of gigs in pubs, at weddings and private functions, corporate events, a Battle of the Bands, and local community celebrations such as playing at the Relish Food and Wine Festival and more community New Years events.
Scott recalls making the decision around August of 2015 to call time on his tenure in The Shake, as he needed a break for the rigours of gigging on the pub circuit. About 3 days after he announced his retirement from The Shake to his band mates, James from Mothwing knocked on his door at home, introducing himself and his band’s material, stating that he needed a guy to learn all of their material in six weeks to be able to play the Mitchell Creek show. While reluctantly agreeing, he took on the challenge and played the show to one of the largest audiences he’d played to at that time. Still considering himself to be the new guy, Scott has enjoyed playing shows with Mothwing, both cover gigs and original music shows. The band made the decision sometime ago to back away from playing cover gigs in favour of writing and performing their own material - a decision very much supported by Scott after his previous gigging experiences. The band’s most recent show was performed at the Agnes Blues, Roots and Rock Festival. Scott says of this show, that “it was such an exciting thing for us to play, because many of the original shows that we play have an allocated time slot of about 45 minutes. We have double that in material, so an hour was a great opportunity for us to spread our set out and show our diversity in songwriting. It was great fun to play at that event”. He also speaks highly of the Bundaberg based East Coast Alternative organisation, who host events that Mothwing have played at and intend to continue to support.
Outside of his commitments with Mothwing, Scott has remained open to playing in other side projects when and where time permits. Sometime after leaving Central Queensland, Scott reconnected with a singer songwriter from the Highlands called Anna Farquhar, who was developing her original music repertoire and live performance in preparation for tackling larger shows with a band behind her! An offer to play for her saw an opportunity arise in 2019, playing a small festival in Biloela, Queensland, along with Rob David (of Tinanaband fame), and James Gordon on guitar. Covid times were soon upon them, but after a discussion with Mothwing, Scott offered the band’s services to Anna for larger festival performances. After a couple of false starts due to Covid, Mothwing were able to support Anna in 2022 at the Mundubbera Blueberry Festival (sharing the stage with Australian legend Russell Morris), at the Gympie Music Muster in 2023, and a week later on Anna’s home soil in Tieri, Central Queensland, for a community festival, sharing the stage with Aussie Icons Dragon and The Angels. Anna’s response when asked about Scott’s contribution to her shows - “Scott Barker. Legend. 10/10”, suggesting that she might be happy to keep him around for future shows!
Closer to home, Scott has performed as a session musician for The Flying AU79’s at the Fraser Coast’s Food and Groove Festivals in 2022, as well as playing a number of shows through 2022-23 with local, original outfit Sugartown / Holiday Romance. Both opportunities have seen Scott continuing to challenge himself to learn new and unfamiliar material, in order to perform to a high quality standard of musicianship.
Looking towards the future, Scott has a clear focus on continuing to work with Mothwing, and to record and produce as much material as he can with them. “Working with Mothwing is easy because our friendship comes first. We enjoy sharing stories over drinking a brew and eating smoked meats, and then we play music! Playing in this band with these men is a beautiful escape from all of our personal realities. Our only complexity is logistical / geographical, because I live 1.5 hours away from Jimmy and Jake, and Brad currently lives in Cairns, so when we can make our stars align, we make music”.
Bass/s:
Case:
Strings:
Fingers or Picks:
Both, but mainly fingers. Picks - Dunlop Tortex 0.60’s.
Amps:
Pedals:
Playlist:
The stoner genre has remained as my favourite, having discovered many interesting and obscure acts through alternative channels on the internet, such as current favourites Earthless, Elder, Naxatras, 1000mods, The Bronx, Mr Bungle, Truckfighters, Somali Yacht Club, All Them Witches, Greenleaf, as well as more commonly known bands such as Queens of the Stoneage, Foo Fighters, to the gentle sounds of Khruangbin and Glass Beams.