Albany alternative heavy rock band Ivory Dusk talk their first EP Tempered ahead of launch show at Six Degrees

An Albany-based rock band on a mission to change people’s minds about heavy rock music is releasing their first EP this week, which takes inspiration from the lead singer’s day job in mental health work. Alternative heavy rock band Ivory Dusk’s EP Tempered comes out on Friday and marks the band’s first extended release with their current lineup, consisting of lead singer Clay Moir, guitarist Cameron Spence, drummer Simon Blackburn and bassist Daniel Bainbridge. The band recorded their second single and EP with producer James Newhouse at Lamb Chop in Bunbury and described their recording experience, in a studio on a rural property, as relaxing compared to previous studio stints. “It was so incredible,” Spence said. “The first single that we that we did it was in a standalone studio out in the middle of some industrial district up in Perth. “We had to do this by that time, do this by then and do this by then. “But with James it was like, ‘oh, you know, we might push over the time, but that’s OK, we’ve got nowhere to be’, whereas with the first one, it was very much a rigid schedule.” The band writes songs collaboratively with Moir penning the lyrics and the other members helping flesh out the music. Moir said the songs on Tempered took inspiration from his day job as a mental health recovery support worker. “The overarching theme is kind of about control and manipulation,” he said. “It’s just a lot of different stories from different perspectives, some taken from personal experience. “I work in mental health personally and a lot is taken from stuff that I’ve experienced and witnessed and learnt about, but a lot of stuff is just about observing the world, and just seeing how brutal sometimes things can be.” Although the band play hard rock music with a sound that can edge into metal, they said they are careful to make their music accessible to all listeners, not just dedicated metalheads. “For us, our sound is kind of in a bit of a sweet spot where it’s like, Clay has this really great rock voice but then we have aspects that are like more melodic and then more heavy,” Spence said. “And it kind of crosses this barrier of, for someone that appreciates maybe like a softer rock, it might hit hard, some people like the heavy stuff, and there’s a bit of screaming, and so it all kind of crosses over. “I also think a lot of Clay’s lyrics and the way he sings them evokes an emotional response ... which I think probably resonates with a lot of people, more so than the music itself.” The formula must be working, with the band saying they often get feedback from people who catch their sets who are surprised to have enjoyed a genre of music they ordinarily might not seek out. “More often than not people say I don’t really like that genre of music generally, but I actually enjoyed your songs,” Moir said. “People are surprised often, they have an expectation if they think of ‘heavy’ that you’re going to get something in particular. “And then a lot of people come to the shows and they listen like ‘oh, there’s a nice little guitar section and kind of groovy bits going on, this is nothing at all like I expected, there’s different genres’.” The band will celebrate their release day with a show at Six Degrees on Friday night, with fellow locals Flood the Moon and Delroy as support acts. The launch gig is all part of Ivory Dusk’s passion for the local music scene, which they said is becoming increasingly supportive of Great Southern acts creating and playing their own original music. “(The Six Degrees gig) in itself kind of gives you a bit of a window into the whole Albany scene because it’s like, acoustic blues, synth-pop, heavy rock — it’s like three completely different acts all together, and people are there just for the support of original music,” Blackburn said.