Five Minutes With Mosquito Coast

Words by Maile Shanti.

Naomi Robinson and Conor Barton are two 17-year-old Perth born babes, who go by the name of Mosquito Coast, and last week saw them win triple j's annual Unearthed High competition. In their final year of high school, the pair have been jamming together since Year 9 after drummer Barton found flyers of Naomi's looking for someone to play with. Together they have created the winning song, Call My Name, a dreamy, watercolour tune that you will be swaying to for days, and probably years all going to plan.

You guys have been jamming for ages, I remember going to one of your house parties when you were 15 and you played - but this is the first time you have released music. What was it like writing over in Sydney? How did that all come together?

In the summer holidays our friend Carl (Carl Fox, Porsches) invited us to record at REC Studios in Sydney. We had written Call My Name, over in Perth but came up with the other track while in the studio. We were in there for three days and it was such a great environment, there wasn't any pressure. Naomi and I experimented with lots of different sounds and came out with Call My Name and Dig Your Own Hole. Our sound engineer Tom gave us a hand with the sweet bass lines. Carl produced the songs.

Were you shocked by the reaction you had after releasing Call My Name?

Because we recorded the songs so long ago, it was so weird having people actually listening to them. It was a really cool feeling having people taking an interest and reviewing them on the Unearthed website. We never expected much out of our basement jams.

Favourite era of music that you would say you draw inspiration from?

The 70s because there was so much good music coming out like Pink Floyd, Santana, The Who, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Cream and Heat Wave. It was also like the birth of electronic music and “boogie” music. We both love analog synths and they just dominated the 70s. Even today people are still looking back to the 70s for inspiration. But really every era is full of great music!

Dream festival to play?

Probably Primavera Sound or Coachella they are both such epic festivals.

What's the next step for you guys after winning Unearthed?

Both of us want to focus on finishing Year 12 and then fully focus on music. As one of the prizes of the Unearthed High competition, we get to go to Sydney to record at the ABC so that's coming up soon and we are really excited! Once school is finally over, we will be writing more and hopefully playing gigs.

What was it like for both of you finding out you had won?

It was pretty surreal we were not expecting it! We were already so psyched that we had made top five we didn’t mind if we didn’t win. We were surprisingly calm about it and a little shocked. Even today it still hasn’t sunk in yet! I think we are just so proud of how far each of us has come musically. 

MASSIVE CONGRATS to @Mosquito_Coast_, winners of #UnearthedHigh 2015! http://t.co/uVgT6pgRmJ pic.twitter.com/alTuH3rpI3

— triple j Unearthed (@triplejunearthd) August 20, 2015

Follow Mosquito Coast: FACEBOOK