“Watching” explores surveillance, digital identities and our relationship with technology. What was the moment or idea that first inspired the song, and how did it develop from there?
The global dependence on the virtual world has fascinated me for a long time. We’re so deep into it that it’s almost impossible to separate it from reality. The cycle of watching and being watched is so ubiquitous that we forget what we’re actually risking, and one day the song’s anti-chorus phrase just came to me with all the virtual realities and devices that are being sold to us.
The song uses an anti-chorus rather than following a conventional song structure. What made you take that approach, and did it change how you wrote the rest of the track?
The anti-chorus began as the centre of the song, and everything took its place around it. When I first put pen to paper, all the themes of surveillance and virtual futurism flowed out from that, and the riffs and harmonic structure of the verses and the drama and intensity felt really natural.
You recorded “Watching” live without click tracks or samples. What does capturing a performance this way allow you to express as a band?
Those ideas are pretty foreign to me. The human element is what makes music real. While those devices have their place, there’s nothing that can quite replace the sound of good musicians playing a song together. And it ensures that when you see a show, you get to hear the choruses you know, but you’re also hearing something you’ve never heard before!
Your music draws on psychedelic rock and classic rock traditions. How do you take inspiration from those sounds without feeling confined by the eras they came from?
The sounds of that time period are what defines music to me, but good songwriting transcends eras and I’ve absorbed something from every bit of music I’ve ever heard. It all coalesces into a package when I write a song, the melodies, lyrics, sounds, so nothing that comes out of Large Mirage ever sounds quite like anything else.
Working with Michael Badger brought a producer with a distinctive track record in Australian rock into the process. What did he challenge you to do differently, and what did you discover about your sound during the sessions?
Michael understands that my writing is a bit unorthodox. He heard the anti-chorus in Watching and even though it may have been tempting to go down the conventional paths that everybody’s used to, he was complicit in ensuring I stayed my course and upheld the intensity and drama of the song.
“Watching” is part of your forthcoming EP Wildfire. How does the track connect with the other material, and what does the EP reveal about where LARGE MIRAGE are heading musically?
The first single Wildfire was about all that is natural and Watching is about what is unnatural yet very real. There’s a third release arriving before the EP comes out, and I don’t want to give the game away, but it’s a series of works that venture into the prog space and take us beyond the natural and unnatural.
You’ve played alongside acts such as AC/DC and TISM. What have those experiences taught you about commanding a stage, and has anything from those shows changed the way you perform?
It felt surprisingly comfortable! Because we’re using real instruments, the connection is different. We could really harness the audience’s energy and bring it into our performance!
It’s impossible to know what it takes to perform at your best in front of crowds like those until you’re standing up there, but when it all comes together it’s a magical feeling.
We’re fortunate to have played so many of our own gigs before playing on those big stages, so we’ve been able to hone our live presence over a long time. Those two shows were special because we clicked so well with the audiences!
The themes of “Watching” touch on online approval and the feeling of being constantly observed. As musicians, how do you navigate the tension between using social media to reach people and protecting the creative freedom that brought you together in the first place?
Connection with musicians is unquantifiable and it’s based on a creative space that you enter together. We’ve followed that human element through every part of the process and therefore built our following organically over a long period of time.
There was no social media strategy, just playing shows and releasing music, and through that we’ve cultivated a following that are more music fans who came about through word of mouth rather than content.
Your live shows are a major part of LARGE MIRAGE’s identity. How does the music change when you take it from the recording studio to the stage, and are there moments in the songs that only really come alive in a live setting?
That is usual, but LARGE MIRAGE do it the other way around. We usually play the song live for at least 6 months before recording it.
By then the live energy is built into the song and we take it into the studio. This method has solved any social media influence affecting the written works.
We’re not running our music by our fans online in advance. We’re building the energy from the fans and audiences at shows into each track before recording and testing.
We then release Radio Edits to stream, and audiences are the only ones, until this upcoming EP release, who have ever heard the work in its completed form.
Looking beyond Wildfire and the Watching tour, what are you most interested in exploring next, whether musically, creatively or in the way LARGE MIRAGE connect with audiences?
Live has always been one of the best ways we’ve connected with audiences, and we have some amazing shows coming up which will level up our performances, not to mention a live double album!
There is so much material already building up in the background which takes us into different musical spaces, but I can’t say too much!
LARGE MIRAGE – WATCHING SINGLE TOUR 2026 – DATES ON SALE NOW
Tickets available from www.largemirage.com
Sun 25 Oct – Sun 1 Nov 26 – ROCK THE BOAT CRUISE, Sydney > Noumea
Sat 07 Nov 26 – Crafted Festival, Foreshore Park Newcastle NSW
Fri 13 Nov 26 – SINGLE LAUNCH Botany View Hotel, Newtown NSW
Fri 20 Nov 26 – The Marlin, Ulladulla NSW
Sat 21 Nov 26 – Abyss Bar, Belconnen ACT
Fri 27 Nov 26 – Surfboat Brewery, Warriewood NSW
Sat 5 Dec 26 – The Beach Hotel Byron Bay NSW | Supporting Skeggs
Sun 6 Dec 26- Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Burleigh Heads QLD
Sat 12 Dec 26 – Cactus Room, Thornbury VIC
Fri 30 Apr 27 – BONFEST, KIRRIEMUIR, SCOTLAND
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Hang in there, extra dates in the regions will be announced!!
