Shelton Hull
Words by Shelton Hull
“Life in Australia is always kind of wild, especially when you live in the bush,” said Roy Kellaway, the leader of King Stingray, who was about as far from the bush as possible when his band opened for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Nov. 20. “We’ve been to the states a couple of times, but never to Florida, so we’re pumped.” So was the audience, who had been buzzing about this concert since it was announced just a few weeks before.
“This is definitely a massive level-up for us,” he said. “Doing these big rooms is definitely a first in the states. We’ve done this in Australia but never in the U.S.” It was very much a debut tour in that sense. There’s so much prep that goes into this, and we’re finally here!” Kellaway called in from his hotel in Los Angeles, where he and his mates had just arrived to begin their biggest tour to date, a national run in support of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, which was arguably the biggest of several Aussie bands to make a splash stateside. Having never been a professional musician myself, it was impossible to imagine the feeling they must have had as they began the biggest adventure of their lives.
“It’s such an opportunity, especially for the Yolgnu boys, who sing in English and their native tongue. It’s an opportunity to showcase the Aboriginal culture that they’re all so proud of, and show a little bit of what life is like for us, at the top end of Australia,” he added.
Kellaway was a second-generation rocker, the son of Stuart Kellaway, who made his name in the ’80s with bands like Swamp Jockeys and later Yothu Yindi, a group that had many of the same musical and demographic attributes as King Stingray. “They were big in the ’80s and ’90s, and we were keeping that legacy strong in our own Aboriginal surf-rock sort of way.” Kellaway and lead singer Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu originally met as children because they both had parents in Yothu Yindi. (The band also includes Dimathaya “Dima” Burarrwanga on guitar, didgeridoo and vocals, Yimila Gurruwiwi on didgeridoo and vocals, Campbell Messer on bass, banjo and vocals, and Lewis Stiles on vocals and drums.)
Their first single, “Hey Wanahaka,” was released in October 2020 on Bargain Bin Records, their original label, which is owned by The Chats, another Aussie band that has caught fire in the U.S. They signed to Cooking Vinyl Records in August 2021 and released their self-titled debut album a year later. Their second album, “For the Dreams,” was just released Nov. 8. Their work is probably the most direct representation of aboriginal culture that you’ll find in mainstream media, especially in America, and that position carries a certain emotional weight that they all feel to their core.
“I think what’s really special is that we’re motivated by so much, you know?” said Kellaway. “A lot of people are probably quite unfamiliar with the life that we live and where we come from. It’s a very unique part of the world, so isolated and remote. Our singer, Dima, lives on a beach with his family, miles and miles away from any village or city. And he’s got a pet crocodile who lives wild in the ocean there. It’s so uniquely an Australian story, even within Australia.” Florida and Australia have always had a weird, unspoken bond, so this tracks.
It helps a lot that King Stingray’s biggest tour yet is being undertaken with their fellow Aussies, as both have risen to prominence along basically parallel tracks. “We love everything about them, you know?” said Kellaway. “They have that real DIY philosophy of being prolific, and we’re very much inspired by what they do. They come from Melbourne and watching them grow and succeed has been really nice to see. We’ve had their support ever since we first hit the scene. It’s definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment to be touring with them.”
“It doesn’t matter what language you’re singing in,” Kellaway added. “Their language is only spoken by a few thousand people around the world, but it still resonates.”
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