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New line-up for solo act

Flower Drums. Picture: Supplied

Perth musician Leigh Craft was meant to be taking a break from music when he stumbled across a new creative partner.

The 29-year-old explains that he was living in Melbourne finishing an arts degree at Monash University when he met Aden Senycia, who just happened to have a studio in his Ferntree Gully home.

The fast friends re-recorded some home demos Craft, who previously played in local outfit Streetlight, had made under his new solo moniker, Flower Drums.

He then moved home to develop the new sound with various musicians, including current Flower Drums drummer Sam Perejuan, until Senycia "coincidentally" moved back west.

Two EPs have been released under the Flower Drums name: one a solo recording, another made with different musicians.

Craft considers the current line-up featuring guitarist/ producer Senycia, Perejuan and bassist Rhian Todhunter, who was "poached" from the Brow, as the real Flower Drums.

The quartet spent the second half of last year working in Craft's makeshift Mt Lawley home studio on their debut album, which should be released via white-hot local label Pilerats.

Previously released songs such as Birthday Girl, In One Place and Swim Down are indicative of the Drums' chilled-out, dream-pop sound.

"We just want to create pop music but we don't want it to be invasive or too full-on," Craft says.

When we spoke, the band had literally just arrived home from a five-week tour of the US - a nice change of scenery after months holed up in the studio.

While their showcase at South by Southwest in Austin was cancelled at the last moment, Flower Drums played a "really good show in LA supporting an Icelandic pop band called Steed Lord" and a headline gig in Phoenix organised by a local label.

The foursome and two friends travelled between gigs in a family van. "We drove the whole way," Craft says. "We saw we were going to go through Phoenix on the way to Austin, so we thought we may as well do a show there. It worked out and was really cool."

The road trip took its toll on their gear, with samplers and other electronic equipment biting the dust. "Each show got more and more minimal until we were pretty much a guitar band by the end," Craft laughs.

After playing strange venues with gun-toting owners in the States, Flowers Drums should find their slot at RTRFM's In the Pines this Sunday an absolute walk in the park.

"We were really happy that we got put on this year, because I've been going to In the Pines for ages," Craft says.

"I've played it before with Streetlight and it was heaps of fun. We go all the time anyway. It's one of those things you want to play."