Ahead of their performance as the opening act of the inaugural Heaps Good festival this Friday, we spoke to Mum Thinks Blue singer, Austin Dobbin.

The Adelaide five-piece was announced in November as winners of the Triple J Unearthed competition to join this stellar line-up of international and Australian acts, headlined by Arctic Monkeys and including G-Flip, King Stingray, CHVURCHES and Spacey Jane.

Playing the 11:45am slot on the main stage, this is a great opportunity for the funk-rock outfit and a fanstastic way to start 2023, with big some plans to follow.

“We are so stoked to kick off 2023 with a festival!” Austin says. “We hope we can keep the ball rolling and build some momentum in the Australian scene. We definitely want to play more interstate shows and expand our audience. We’re really proud of the music we make and are super keen to share some more new tracks in 2023.”

He goes to explain that Friday’s audience can expect a set filled with energy and excitement: “We all have so much fun up on stage and I think that’s evident watching us! We will make sure everyone is having a boogie and singing along. Our sets are usually pretty chaotic and we want to make sure everyone involved has an amazing time.

“We’re just working on doing what we can to polish our strongest set and making sure this is the tightest we have ever been.”

So what is like being a part of such a massive event?

“We’re just really excited to be a part of it. There are some acts playing who we have looked up to and have inspired us from when we first started out. It feels so surreal, so once we are actually out there about to play, I think it’s just going to be such a fairytale moment for us.”

Over their short life, Mum Thinks Blue have developed an upbeat signature sound, with the saxopone an integral component of this. So how do they feel about being part of the current sax resurgence?

“Saxophone is such a versatile instrument and we find it adds a lot to our sound melodically. Many of our inspirations are bands from the 80s with either a single sax or horn section (INXS, Haircut 100, Sade and many more). Also Lisa Simpson has totally helped with the resurgence of saxophone!”

So make sure you kick off your Heaps Good experience with that Mum Thinks Blue sound (saxophone and all) this Friday 6th Jan at the Wayville Showgrounds. Festival tickets and full details are available here.

Written by Matthew Trainor

Photos supplied