12 th March, 2023.
The sun hung heavy in the sky as it crept around the clouds. My friend and I walked past the
suburban houses, crowded cafes and sneaky side alleys of Long Jetty, on our way to the newest
event on the local Central Coast calendars. As coasties, we had done this walk for many years now.
Be it for a quick brekky with friends or vintage store shopping dates; we would find a place nearby
and make the trek to the main road that cuts through the spine of the suburb.
But this time it was a different experience. And honestly, I was very excited.
This was a huge opportunity for the Central Coast, and it symbolised a change for the coast that had
been in motion for a while now.
The Central Coast has gone through an upheaval of sorts in the last decade. Some good. Some
strange. But this festival is something that we, as coasties, have been anxiously anticipating for quite
some time. Our very own, grass-roots, Central Coast festival.
Long Jetty Festival.
We have had festivals before, but nothing on par with this. For scale, the whole front street of Long
Jetty was sectioned off, with most of the perpendicular streets closed to accommodate the immense
foot traffic and street stalls that the festival offered.
And the street stalls that they had arranged were EXTENSIVE.
Baby clothes, dog treats, candle work, local products, macrame: the full festival experience. Not to
mention the waterfront being absolutely covered in food trucks and stalls.
And, of course, there was a whole street closed and transformed to make a giant stage area for the
music that would be vibrating through the air that warm Sunday afternoon.
This is all to say that this was a new and exciting experience for a lot of us Central Coast locals. (Sans
the warm Sundays)
But this is not the Central Coast that I grew up with.
I grew up with a dingy miniature train at the end of my street that was only available for one day a
month. I grew up with an arbitrary pelican feeding ceremony, that was the closest we would get to a
circus, besides an actual circus that came so infrequently that I actually don’t remember what the
time stamps are. These little nooks and crannies that were sprinkled around the coast, made it this
kind of hybrid rural/coastal area. And that made it so special. It was kitschy without being old; it was
bespoke without being forceful. These tiny little memories gave the suburbs a seasoning that gave
the melting pot of your youth some substance.
Now, this isn’t going to be a piece that starts with me saying that I don’t recognise my home
anymore and ends with me looking like an old-timer sitting on a rocking chair, yelling at the youths
to “get off my lawn”. I am happy that these things are happening. The coast has been hidden for too
long and it’s time that we start showing off a bit.
(I will say that I am rather sick of telling people that I meet outside of the coast that I’m from North
Sydney or Newcastle because they don’t know about us. Like the map of the eastern coast goes from
Sydney directly to Newcastle, connected by a long road that has a guard of honour style line up of
cafes.)
Nostalgia often stunts progress, but this time it only allowed us to treasure the area and share it
with others. Change is cool and we should be celebrating this.
There are some interesting similarities between the Central Coast and one of the bands that was a
big draw for the Long Jetty Festival: The Rubens.
Stay with me for a second, because this will take some turns.
I had a chance to talk to Elliot Margin – keyboard, backing vocals and songwriter – from The Rubens
before their set started and we covered quite a bit. The early days, the more recent days, how the
band have been travelling over the last couple of years.
You (Elliot) seem to do most of the interviews for The Rubens:
‘Sam and I kinda share them. At first it would be Sam, cause you know he’s the front man, and we
realised “oh, that’s a lot of pressure for one guy to always be doing them.” And cos we both write, it
made sense if someone’s asking him a question about a song, it’d be like, “oh, Elliot wrote that
song.” We just back and forth it.’
I want to touch on the most recent record, 0202, I found the latest record a lot more melancholic
and a bit more deliberate, as opposed to the first ones which were a bit more bluesy, more
fun…was that more an intentional thing, more emotionally charged record for you?
‘I don’t think that it’s intentional, but it’s definitely a natural thing for us. Like, we don’t ever write
for the sake of writing a happy song or a sad song. It’s just like, what is the song going to be – that’s
what the song will be. At that stage, we’ve probably matured a little more. I’d say as well, cos we’re
working on the next record now, this one is even more melancholy looking back. Starting out we had
a feeling writing our second record: we had done our first record, then you tour a bunch and then
you start to think what kind of songs that you think would work live, and then kind of lean into that a
little more, then just writing the songs you want to write. We’ll just start to write more rocky heavier
songs, then eventually we realised that we don’t really need to write for the road, we just need to
write what we are feeling. It’s weird to say that we’re up to our fifth record now. Fifth.’
You’ve got the record coming out…are we going to hear any new songs today?
‘You will hear. We’ll play one today. It’s one of our favourite. Of all of our songs, it’s probably the
best formed behind the scenes I think. And it’s felt the best live, without us having to like,
sometimes some songs might sound great on the record, but it still takes us a while to figure out
how to do it live properly. But with this one, we all looked at each other and enjoyed it. We did
Summer Salt (festival) recently…and it was the first time that we played this new song in the setlist,
and just said, “looking forward to playing that one.” So it’s just, the same setlist that you’ve played
so many times, the fresh one you just get excited to play it.’
Speaking of Summer Salt and here as well (LJF), those are both two very different kinds of festival.
Do you prefer doing a bit more community based, do you like doing more the larger stadiums and
setlists?
‘They’re definitely different vibes. Like nothing compares really to the Splendour (in the Grass)
experience, because you look at that growing up like, “Splendour! That’s incredible,” there’s so
much weight to it. And then you know us growing up in Camden in Sydney, the Enmore would be
like the place that you would go and see bands play and you’re like, “one day I would love to play
that,” then you do it. And maybe the pressure isn’t quite present there, then you do something like
this or even like early years, touring pubs and things, the ones that you don’t expect anything from
are probably the ones that we enjoy the most. Because there is no added pressure or anything. Like,
just playing at Warrnambool (VIC) at a pub or something, like we just have an amazing time because
it’s just like uninhibited kind of thing. But you do take different experiences from each. Like when we
toured with P!nk, supporting her in arenas every night, we had to learn how to change the way we
perform. There are people right at the back, and when you (did smaller gigs) and could make out
some faces in the crowd, now you can’t see anyone.’
‘Like flexing a different muscle.’
Being a presence as opposed to actually performing?
‘Yeah, and we had to learn it pretty quick. Like we are not connecting here. No one is listening to us.’
I was saying before about how your music has evolved over time… Do you find that the evolution
of the music has suited the band as well?
‘Yeah. I mean like, it’s interesting as well. When we started out, we were very blues inspired. So for
Sam and Zach playing guitar turns it was very like, it was always about you know going deep into
tremolo and stuff and distortion. Like that was their focus and what interested them. And now that
we have progressed, Zach (lead guitar), he’s gotten to the point where he doesn’t even want his
guitar to sound like a guitar. Like he’s so into pedals and things that you might think it’s an organ or
something, but it’s just him doing stuff to his guitar. Cos he’s done the whole guitar thing but now
he’s just sick of it. One day he’ll probably want to go back to it sounding like a guitar. I reckon that’s
what most artists do. When you have been a band for that long – or been playing music for that long – you’ve done that many records, you do have to change it up. Otherwise, you know, longevity it’s
not going to interest you, or anyone else as well. If you’re excited, then hopefully the listener will be
excited as well.’
You guys have reached the upper echelon in terms of the Australian Indie music scene, was that
jarring for you initially having that support and excitement around you?
‘I think it’s the being naïve [sic], like we knew we were lucky, but we also just more excited by it than
anything. Knowing that people are going to come to gigs and people were going to hear our songs on
the radio was like: “fucking, what an honour. Let’s grab it, seize it and go for it.” It’s always been
something that we haven’t taken for granted. Probably something else is that we are a band, and we
are very tight. Like if I was a solo artist, or if someone else (in the band) was a solo artist, and then
we had to do this on our own. That would be hard, not to get a big head. Or not be overwhelmed by
it sort of thing. But the fact that we are a band, and we know each other so well, it makes it easier
for us to look at each other and say, “isn’t this hilarious?”.
These Sydney boys ascended from pubs and RSL’s, to Triple J, to sold out stadiums and headlining
festivals in the span of 10 years.
And how did they do this?
By changing. By accepting their place in the music scene and continually growing and exploring. The
Central Coast should take notes. Who knows what’s next for us here.
The newest single from The Rubens, Pets and Drugs, was released May 17, 2023. It marks a
significant cultural change for the band and, if you can believe what Elliot Margin said, there is
plenty more to come.
With a new The Rubens record due sometime at the beginning of next year and another Long Jetty
Festival slated for around the same time, these two ideas are connected for the foreseeable future.
You never forget your first.
All we can do is sit, wait, and watch the magic unfold with both of these highly anticipated projects.
By Sam Tancred
