Two years ago when I met him, I was 22 and living on the Sunshine Coast. Zac was 25 and based In Melbourne. By total chance, we crossed paths and met at Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay, nearly died in a car crash, and fell in love, all within 48 hours. We haven’t really been apart since (except for 12 months long distance flying back and forth between QLD and VIC every other weekend, 6 months of border restrictions, and 2 weeks hotel quarantine for Zac to finally move up to the Sunshine Coast).
We spend most of our time (outside of working full-time jobs) in this big red party bus that lives on my parent’s property. The bus was full of spiders and nasty when we got it but we have since converted it into a home recording studio complete with a laptop, a few guitars and some big speakers. Donned ‘Sisil’s Party Bus’, it is the third official member of the band LAURA MAC, along with Zac Connelly and myself. We write and record all of our demos in this bus where Zac works his magic on guitar and bass and adds in the background business with Logic Pro. I write the lyrics and sing most of it, but also contribute the occasional bass line as Zac donates incredible vocals and harmonies.
Zac has forever loved music and been a valued addition to the scene, having played in multiple bands over the years and currently a bassist and backup vocalist for Rival Fire (as well as founding LAURA MAC). This is a contrast in experience to me - a total rookie. I’ve always been around and obsessed with music, but have never had a lot of experience recording (ever) or playing anything except bass guitar. The demos and recordings of Zac’s previous and current work that he’s shown me over the years is constantly inspiring and I am in awe of his work. It wasn’t until 6 months ago (more than 2 years together!) that we actually started writing music as a duo. We take inspiration from different bands, eras, styles, people, sounds and sit in our big red party bus and do exactly that - party ;)
Having begun our musical journey together amidst the heat of Covid restrictions in 2021 when everything was continuously canceled for months, we didn’t even consider the reality of playing a live show. Although we couldn’t play live, we were lucky enough to go down to the Gold Coast and record our first single. It’s the second song we’ve written but the first to be released. Given Zac’s history playing music, he has made a few friends along the way and lined up our recording to be done with Luke Palmer (Dead Letter Circus) in his home studio where he also did the mix and master, along with Luke Williams (Dead Letter Circus) drumming for us at Lush Recording Studios in Brisbane, and Ian Peres (formerly of Wolfmother) at his home studio being a wizard on the keys for us. Considering that is the line-up for our musical debut, to say we are stoked beyond belief is an understatement.
Our journey together has been rad so far and the inspiration, motivation and fun of it is all constantly climbing. We met at a music festival and one day hope to be able to play at that very same festival.
Zac, Sisil’s Party Bus and I hope that you get a kick out of our new song ‘Garage Full of Dreams’ and keep in touch to hear what we have to come. Imagine No Doubt and Lily Allen had a baby, and the Presets and Sublime had a baby, and then that baby ended up with Nickelback - nahhh I’m just kidding, we have our own sound and will let you interpret it how you will. I hope you have as much fun listening to it as we did making it :)
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