A Band You Should Know: Warbaby

The Gong is a melting pot of artistic talent, close enough to the big smoke for city opportunities but far enough away to let the sea breeze settle the frenzy. 

With some iconic music venues, a uni that doesn’t suck and just enough go getters to create a vibrant scene of artists, it’s no surprise Dylan Roger’s musical project Warbaby has emerged from this great town. Think dream-funk instrumentation that would soundtrack a roadtrip with your best mates just as well as it would a fancy date in a dimly lit corner. If you’re a fan of Khruangbin, you’re gonna like this a lot. Introducing Warbaby as a band you should know:

How's your day? 

Not bad. Just teaching class. I work at an audio school and I teach in a recording studio, which is fun. 

What do you teach?

Audio engineering.

Oh my god. That's cool.

It sounds fancy, but really, I’m just in a studio.

Nice. Well to kick off I actually have some Gong related questions for you just to test if you’re a legit before we get into the music stuff. 

(Hahaha) Fair enough, let’s go. 

What’s the best place to get a bahn mi? And let me tell you, I will judge you for this. 

Sam’s Crusty Bread. 

Pass. Actually, the only answer I would’ve accepted to be fair. Beaches or Ryans? 

Ryans. For one it’s cheaper. Beaches change their prices of a beer depending on how busy it is. 

That is so true actually, wow! 

Yeah sometimes you go in and it's $8 and then an hour later it’s $13. It’s wild. 

And your got to to a coffee spot? 

Mine is Black Market Coffee. 

Nice. Well you’re verified legit, so let’s get into the music part. Give us an intro of who you are. Who is Warbaby? 

Okay, I’m a guitarist, a musician and I grew up in Shellharbour. I have been playing in a bunch of different bands for a while and then created this solo project (Warbaby) as a sort of creative outlet. I guess being in a band didn’t really itch the right spots, if that makes sense, so this solo thing was a way to do that. I started recording things without any intention of releasing them, just for myself but then I ended up releasing my first EP. I had no clue what I was doing and honestly it sounds like absolute dog shit. It’s still on my Spotify. I think I’m going to leave it there just for the hell of it. That was before I learnt how to produce music properly. 

Okay and Warbaby is just you? 

Yeah so I write and produce all the music, then get Patrick Rogers on drums because I am not the best drummer. For the recorded side of things at least, but then I have a full band when I play live who all outplay me. 

Did you have a musical education or come from a musical family? 

Not at all. Towards the end of my high school days I just started picking up the guitar but I never had a guitar teacher or anything like that. I just learnt it from the bands that I was in and the people around me, YouTube tutorials and stuff. Then I ended up studying audio engineering and learnt how to record music which helped a lot. 

How has your audio engineering skills helped your music? 

When making songs from the production and recording side of things where a certain part just doesn’t work and if you don’t have the ear for production then often you’ll just try to make it work rather than just changing the musical part. I think that’s what’s helped me the most, just keeping my expectations in check. Before I learnt to record I had higher expectations of what recording would be able to fix but it doesn't actually work like that. You have to play well for it to record well. 

Yeah that makes sense. And is there a story behind the Warbaby name? 

It comes from a Funkadelic album which I just thought would be a cool name for my project. I think of warbaby as the name of a fictional cowboy character and this music is the soundtrack to the movie he would play in. 

That is cool. So how would you describe Warbaby’s sound then? 

Spaghetti Western. Something that would score a Tarantino movie. 

That is such a unique way to describe music, I love it. I actually have one more Gong question - how do you find it down there as an artist? 

There are some great venues here that are amazing if you’re starting out and wanting to get gig exposure. We’ve had some good waves of momentum. There was a stage when Beaches was going off every Friday you know? 

Yeah I do remember that. 

But then like everything with Covid, we just lost a lot of that. But it’s coming back. 

Yeah that’s good to hear. Tell me about your debut album Stereo Rodeo.

Yeah so I’ve been working on it for two years. It took a bit longer than I expected as I recorded it and mixed it all myself but I’m super excited to have it out in the world and in physical form. I’m getting 250 vinyl units done which is super exciting because I’ve personally loved vinyl. It’s always been a dream of mine to have my own music on that so it’s a cool thing to finally achieve. 

Yeah that’s massive. 

But I’m also just excited to have this one off my chest and out there.

I was going to ask, are you someone that likes to let things breathe for a bit and enjoy them or onto the next? 

Half the motivation to finish this one was that I could start another. I’ve wanted to start something new for ages but I just felt guilty for starting new music without having finished the old music. Especially as a producer, it’s a bit like eating dessert before dinner. 

Totally. Well now you can! And live shows? What do you have coming up? 

I’m supporting WITCH at City Recital Hall on the 18th of November.

Mental. 

Yeah they’re one of my favourite bands so that will be so special. And then there’s a bit of a hometown festival at Thirroul on the 28th of November. Another bunch of amazing bands playing like Floodlights. Be nice to play something big at home.